body move/late arms

Question
Hello Eddie
I have read a lot of your responses on the internet. They are always very interesting. My question/problem I would like to ask you is as follows. I tend to make a strong body shift from the top to start the downswing. When I do this, the arms are very inactive and get pulled down to the inside resulting in a big push or blocked shot. In your opinion do you think I need to swing the arms more actively from the top? Can you make any suggestions on how to calm the body and get the arms started from the top. (as you know this is harder than it seems). Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.  Ken

Answer
Hello Ken:

Believe it or not Ken, it's simple.  What you need to do is to better sync up the swinging of the arms, the rotation of the body (pivot)and the action of the legs.  As the lower body slides out from under the upper body, the club stays behind you (called getting stuck).  The club is coming in to the ball too far from the inside, thus big pushes, blocks, drop kicks, thins and hooks.  Sound familiar?  Anyway, a great drill I do with my students for this is to hit some balls with a PW or 9 iron.  At address, point your left toe behind the ball.  It will be angled in to the right.  That will not allow your legs to work out from underneathe you.  It sort of locks you into place.  After a few swings, you'll feel what it's like to swing the arms and the club together from the top to the impact area.  You'll feel your upper body more stacked up on top of your lower body at impact, and after a while, you'll start to see your divots straighten out and your contact improve.  At first, it feels like you cannot move at all to the left side(to a finish), but as you keep making some swings, it becomes easier.  Please start slowly so you don't hurt yourself.  Your left hip will feel locked.  Gradually, begin to turn your left toe back to the left.  I would suggest hitting a few hundred shots like I have suggested before weaning yourself off of the drill. The drill begins to put you all together, to better sync up the movements and better coordinate the parts of the swing to the rotation of the body.  Work your way up to a 5 iron.  Use tees to start.  You'll feel a much better, much smoother transition from the top and you'll use your arms much more than you have.  The key is to develop better timing.  The best I ever heard the word timing described was by Jim Flick.  He said "timing is when the body moves in harmony with the swinging motion of the club."  Your lower body moves out too much and there is no swing.  You need to get back to swinging your club and blending your body into that swing.  Good luck Ken, go to work, you'll get it.  '

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member