Stop Ignoring the #1 Fundamental in Golf

This video is about the most important fundamental in golf, distance away from the ball. I work with it with all my students. Watch this video and it'll help you. We're here with my buddy Tom who's a brand new golfer, never taken a lesson before, and he spent a little bit of time with Ed working on the fundamentals of particularly distance away and a couple other things to think about, and Tom's hitting it as good as just about anyone on this range after just one lesson. That's right. Pretty awesome. And for somebody that's not ever played on the golf course yet and just been to the range a handful of times in top golf, I thought you did outstanding. Thank you. Once you get set up correctly, distance away, and do some of the other drills I showed you as a homework assignment, it'll be great. Yeah, if you watch this and implement all the things that Ed teaches Tom, I think you'll really be amazed by how much better your swing gets. Hey Tom, how you doing? Doing well, how are you? I'm doing good. It's good to see you. You too. Tell me a little bit about you and how many times have you played? Have you played on a golf course yet? I've never played on a golf course, just gone to the driving range a few times. Gone to top golf? I've gone to top golf, gone to the local range with my buddy Pat. Other than that though, everything I know is basically from PE and grade school. Okay, how long ago was that? Too long ago. Yeah, well over 20 years ago. Okay, cool. What I'd like to do is just, we'll go through a little process that I go through, but I'd like for you just to warm up a little bit for me and take some practice swings, and I'd just like to check a few things while you're taking practice swings, pretending to hit a ball. Okay. And then after you've warmed up just a little bit, I'll let you hit a couple shots, and I'd like to see from where we start from there, okay? All right, sounds good. So go ahead and just stand, you can just stand to the side right here, and just go ahead and take a few little practice swings for me, and just let me watch. Kind of feels weird without anything to like hit. Hey man, that's okay, just aim at the grass. That's our target anyway. Most new players think the ball's the target, but our target's that white flag out there, so we're just trying to propel it out there. Okay. So that's a pretty good concept to learn right early on, that we're trying to make a swing and the ball just gets in the way. And you're naturally left-handed, right? You would throw a ball left-handed, and right left-handed, and eat left-handed. Exactly. Okay, but you've always swung right-handed on hockey and other stuff, right? Yep. Okay. Which is fine, as I told you off camera, there's a lot of tour players that are left-handed that play right-handed, so it's not unusual. Good. Let's go ahead and see if you can hit a few shots for us, okay? Okay. Pretty good there for the first one. Keep swinging. Nice shot. Poor beginner's luck. Oh, I can edit that one out, right? No, we're not editing out anything. Oh, just hit the grass. It's okay. Don't try too hard, you're doing fine. Man, I'm in my head. Don't get in your head, that's okay. All right, so let's talk about a couple things, okay? Frankly, you do a lot of things right for not hardly ever played before, okay? The way you're holding the club is really good, we're not going to change that for now, okay? Okay. You might tweak it as six months from now as you get to playing more, but for starters, it's just fine, okay? Okay. One of the most important things that I tell lots of players, even advanced players that I work with, is the most important fundamentals being the correct distance away from the ball, okay? Okay. And so you're too close, okay? That's why when you're swinging and missing at these last several, your club is actually swinging on this side of the ball over here instead of where the ball is at, but it's because as you're trying to generate speed, your arms go out farther away from you on the way down than you're starting, okay? Okay. But if you get set up the right distance away to start with, it'll really help you, okay? Okay. And for a really new player, let me walk in here, for a really new player, probably the simplest way to do it, and this is a seven iron you're hitting now, and this would be true with any club, okay? That if you sold a club right behind the ball, do you see if I lower the handle down, do you see how it hits me right above the knee? Yeah. That'd be the correct distance away to stand, okay? If you got too close, it would hit you up here higher, do you see that? And if I got too far, it would miss me, but that's a pretty good guideline for a new player to start, okay? Okay. So go ahead and set up here for me, and we'll put the club behind the ball, and then just lower that down until it touches you about an inch above the knee, just about there. Good. About there. Good. And now go ahead and lift the club head up and take your grip, and can you tell that's farther away? Yeah, I feel like I'm more... That's right, and so however much you have to bend over, then you'll be in correct posture as well, okay? That's how much you should bend over, okay? Okay. And that's how we get the club up and down on the ball. See, if I tilt forward with my shoulders, when my shoulders turn, my right shoulder will go under my chin, and then my right shoulder on the way through will go under my chin. Does that make sense? So left shoulder back, and then right shoulder through. If I get tall, and I'm not bent over very much, well then my shoulders turn level. That's pretty good at hitting something this high off the ground, but we've got to hit it on the ground, and so that makes it more difficult if we're not set up correctly. All right, so am I bending from the hips and keeping my back straight? Yes, sir. No, you don't want to hunch, so that's exactly right. You want to bend from your pelvis there, and your rear end will go out, and your head and your shoulders will go forward, okay? Okay. Yep, that's exactly right. So just measure there, take that there, and a pretty good judge then. See, I like to see like a hand's width of space here between the club and your thighs. Okay. That makes sense? Yep. And so you'll probably top some at first, but you were doing that anyway, so that'll be okay, but let's just try to hit some from there and see what happens. Why don't you scoot away and just take a couple practice swings for me again, and kind of keep an eye on a spot there. Could be one of them little leaves. Yep, stick a little leaf there. Yep, and all you're trying to do is brush the grass or brush that leaf on the way through. So good, that looks great. Awesome, and you just want to keep that posture with your back while you're swinging. You wouldn't want to stand up, so good. A little high, but that still wasn't bad. I feel like I'm kind of scooching up on it. Yep, that's right, and I recommend doing that measuring before each shot for a while. That might be six months that you're still measuring each time. After a few months, it ought to be pretty natural for how far away you're going to be, okay? Okay. Let's go ahead and scoot up to the ball then, and let's that, and let me walk in. So you you did such really good with our little leaf there. We'll just put another little leaf right here, and that's all I want you to do is hit the leaf and the ball will just get in the way. Almost, let's try it again. That was a good swing, just man you just needed to be a half inch lower and it'd been perfect. So, and go ahead and measure there again for me. Yep, we'll get a good lie there. Almost, keep swinging. Just have to hit a little more grass. That's a really good swing, so be patient. Good, and just keep your eye on that grass behind the ball and not the ball itself. Nice shot. Oh yeah, and that's good. That's 150 yard seven iron right out of the bat, so that's pretty good. The other thing that I recommend for you too is if you go to the driving range to hit balls, I like to take a couple just little hand towels like this. Okay, and if I put one out here on this side, and I put one in the middle, we just want to swing that club head between them. Okay, and that's where the ball's at, so let's just keep doing that. Just keep measuring your distance away, and you can see you hit that outside with the towel just a little bit there. Do you see that? Yep, that's okay, and that's the worst one to hit because when you hit that one, the ball hits this part of the club here, and that's called the hosel, and it ends up being what's called a shank, and so it won't get up in the air, and it'll go low to the right, okay, because it's deflected. I'm familiar with it going low into the right. All right, so that's why I like to put the towels down for a new player, and even in the backyard, you can take practice swings without a ball, just between the towels, learn to measure, learn to hit the grass. Yeah, the neighbors probably wouldn't be happy if I started getting balls. No, probably not. You can use wiffle balls, though. It's all right, just got to be a little lower. Yeah, I feel like I'm scooching up on it. All right, that's okay. We're getting there. I didn't see where that went. Good shot. Yeah, every time I like put it down, yeah, I'm coming up. I know. That's okay, and so that measurement's true. If we were hitting driver, you'd be even farther away from the ball than that, because the club's longer. Okay, so add away. A little to the right. A little bit, but it's, man, it's well hit in the airport. Yeah, that's all right. Keep swinging. You're doing great. Frankly, for no more than you've played and hit balls, it's pretty outstanding already what you're doing. So, ah, that's the one we don't want to hit. That's okay. Wait for me. Yep, trying to line myself up here. So, in golf, really, for a new player, there's only three things you have to worry about. You have to worry about how you set up, distance away from the ball, and how you hold the club, and I've already told you, you hold the club great, okay? Then, once you get set up correctly, it's just about swinging the club head on the correct path and learning to keep the club face square. Well, because you're holding the club correctly, your club face is pretty square all the way through your swing already. Okay. So, it's really just the path that, in my opinion, that you need to pay attention to, and that's why I like these towels, because the ideal path is going to be where that club head's going between the towels and brushing the grass, okay? Okay. And the reason why the grass is so important is because you can see your grass stains. Do you see how they're down here a little bit low on the bottom of the club down in here? Yeah. See, right here where my thumbnail is is where the ball should hit, and so do you see how much club is still underneath my thumbnail? That has to hit the grass. Okay. And what most new players try to do is they try to make the ball go up in the air with their swing, but you don't have to do that. This club has loft on it, so as long as I hit that middle of the face, it's going to go up in the air. Okay. And for guys that, whether it was street hockey or real hockey, on ice that you play, if you think about when you shoot a puck, for the most part, especially if you're passing and you try to keep it on the ice, would you hear that? That's pretty a good way to think about a golf club. If there was no loft on the face of this club, you should hit ground balls. Okay. And so you should swing to try to hit a ground ball, but let the loft of the club work and make the ball go up in the air, okay? Okay. So our swing as this club comes through the ball, see, this club should stay pretty low through impact here. Okay. And most people are trying to lift it, but it doesn't look to me like you're trying to lift it. So at least consciously, so almost just need to be a little lower. That was a pretty good swing. Try it again. It was. It's okay. You're doing great. Gosh, with most beginners like you that's only hit balls a few times, gosh, if we get half a dozen balls up in the air today, I'm thrilled. So you're doing great. Okay. That looks awesome right there. Ooh, keep swinging. Put a little divot on that one. It's okay. It's okay. Let's still hit that hosel part. And that's why your hands rattled. Could you tell when you hit it? Yep. That's okay. And again, we're just going to be between those towels. I know it's awesome. And with most really new players, I have to talk about making a swinging motion and letting the club swing, but man, you do that great already. So I want you to swing like that all the time in case you hit it. Okay. Just in case. Just in case. And I don't want you to get a lot of what happens to most new players is that they'll miss hit some and top them. And so then they get careful trying to make sure they hit it. But that's probably the worst thing you can do. I would rather you make a full big swinging motion swing and learn where the ball is. And you'll be a lot better off in the long run if you'll do that instead of being careful. Okay. So I don't want you to slow down. I don't want you to do any of that. I just want you to keep this same great swing that you have motion-wise. If I just kind of take the extra second to wind it up. That's fine. And we're going to swing right between the tails and hit the grass. Great swing in there, Tom. Let's see if that one went. Yeah. He's hitting that 150, 160 yards in the air. Yeah. I know. I've only gone to the driving range with the, uh, oh, driving, uh, with a driver. Yeah. Uh-huh. I find for most new players, uh, seven iron or eight irons, probably the best club to learn to, uh, to use first, and then you can experiment with the other ones. Okay. Driver for most new players is probably the most difficult club to learn to hit. Not always, but beautiful. See that one. That's where we're aiming is right over that white flag. Yep. I know you would. That was a great shot. Ooh. It's okay. That just hit that hosel part again. Okay. Right on the bottom. Yep. It's okay. You can see what towel we hit. These towels are really important when you're doing it on your own. I thought you were going to tell me they're real expensive. Yeah. No, no, but they're, but it's really important to have when you're by yourself because it gives you feedback of where you're actually slinging the club and that club is going through at 80 miles an hour. So it's kind of hard to figure out where it's actually going. So I like having something there. Now let's talk about, so in golf by the rules, you're allowed to carry 14 clubs in your bag. Okay. Okay. And the only purpose of each golf club is to hit a hit a ball a different distance. Okay. And so, um, and generally speaking at the clubhead speed, you've already got, you're going to have 10 or 12 or maybe 15 yards difference between each club. Okay. Okay. Um, the shorter the clubs are like a nine iron or a pitching wedge, you might have 15 yards difference. And then as they get longer, most people don't have as much difference between clubs might only be five yards by the time you get to three wood and five wood. Okay. Okay. Um, and so remember how I told you how we measure, right? Yeah. So if I set that driver up here and I measured, you can see how far away I'd be from the ball, right? Uh, but boy, if I had a sand wedge, do you see the difference? Yeah. And so we always want to end up being the same distance away from this end of the club. Okay. It's that end of the club that's different. Okay. And so that's why that measuring so important. Does that make sense? Yeah. And so that's where the hard part is for most new players is that, you know, my correct distance away from drivers here, my correct distance away for a sand wedge is here. Then my correct distance for a seven iron is there. And that's how come it's difficult for most new players to change clubs is because they're really not changing the distance between the club appropriately. Does that make sense? Yeah. So if you learn to measure there, like we talked about before that end of the club will be correct and you'll have a great deal more success. Okay. I understand. And so, but that's the main differences. Um, really as you, as you get into other different clubs and learning to hit them, um, your distance away changes and then the ball position also changes. So as my feet are about shoulder width apart, maybe just the inside of my feet or shoulder width apart with driver, that ball would be kind of by my left foot here. Does that make sense? Yeah. A sand wedge might be actually just a little bit closer to my right foot than my left. Okay. And then for right now you have seven iron right in the middle. Um, that looks to me to be a pretty good spot for years when you hit a good shot, it goes straight. So, um, that's what I would tell you. Seven, eight, nine iron pretty much in the middle. Okay. Um, and then as the clubs get longer than eight iron or so you might start going closer to your left foot. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. All right. Any questions on any of that stuff so far? No, it makes sense. Okay, good. Let's keep hitting seven iron there for me. Try and keep swinging. It was a pretty good swing. Just didn't hit, didn't hit the center of the club face. So keep swinging. That divot you're taking is the ball hitting it, not your club. Okay. Okay. So it's the top going, it's the top of the ball drives into the ground. That's right. Okay. Maybe that's my, maybe psychologically I'm thinking I'm, I'm doing that with the club. No, you're not. That's why I mentioned it. So that's okay. Great. Yeah. Got a little lower and I could feel that. Yeah. Good. That was great. Outstanding. If you ask me and be patient, this is a very normal progression. Okay. No more than you've played your, um, your great shots are already great. Okay. Make it consistent. That's right. And that's the hard part about golf is that you're only as good as your worst shot. Every other sport, you're as good as your best. And in golf, you're only as good as your worst. So that's all we've got to do is learn to get more consistent and learn to hit the club face. But there's not much room for error. That's a tiny little ball and a little spot with my thumbnail to hit it on. And the club's almost three feet long. Another 30 years of practice. I might have this down. Yeah. I think in another six months, you'll be pretty good. It's okay. See which towel you hit. Yep. So that hit the hosel. Okay. Try it. Oh, it's okay. You would've hit, you would've hit the towel closest to me if you were low enough. It's okay. And that's why I want you practicing with these towels. Cause once you learn to swing the club in between them, you'll be okay. All right. And technically I could tell you about different positions and the club needs to be here and your arms need to be here, but you're better off learning it on your own than at the stage that you are in learning rather than to make it mechanical. I really like how you swing the club and I think it's, you know, let your brain figure out how to swing between those towels and it will. Okay. Yeah. If you try and load me up with all these different like mechanical speed two in my head, I think I do too. That's been my experience. So good swing. That was a good swing. Still hit that towel a little bit. That was a good swing. That's the first thing I'd check too. If you're hitting that towel a lot, you probably got too close to it again. Does that make sense? Yeah. Good. That looks great, Tom. Yeah. You think my arm is like, don't even worry about that. Just swing between the towels. There we go. And then there it goes. Oh yeah. Right over the flag. That was awesome. And, and, and, and honestly, that's as good a shot as a scratch player hits with seven iron guy that shoots even poor, but he just hits that shot almost every time. Does that make sense? Yes. So I think your good shots are great. So I think, I think the difference between the good ones and the ones where I just like completely hit a towel or miss, it's keeping my eyes down versus like thinking it's going to hit. And then I pop my head up before it hits and then it all goes to ----. It's all right. It's easy to do in this game. Okay. Still hit the inside part of the club there a little, and that's why it goes to the right. Okay. All right. That was close though. Wish I had $10 for every one of these towels I've picked up in 35 years. I'd be on the beach. I actually, I wouldn't, I'd still be out here teaching. Maybe teaching on the beach. Maybe. I get pretty bored with the beach pretty quick. So homework assignment. Um, even while the barbecue grill is getting hot, if you have a golf ball or even a whiffle ball or, or just a leaf, like we did earlier, learn to put your club behind the ball and just touch it above your knee and get comfortable with this distance away. Okay. Okay. Even if you just did that for a couple minutes a week, you'd be surprised pretty soon how comfortable that'll feel. Okay. Okay. Um, I like taking practice swings with the towels down and I like to end up putting this one on the outside really close to the end of the club here. Okay. So there's hardly any room for error and just take practice swings and learn to swing between them. You don't need a ball. Okay. Um, I find it really helpful to show people how to practice at home when you don't have time to go to the golf course or the driving range. It's probably more productive to make swings at first than it is even to hit balls. Okay. Then the second one I haven't talked about yet, but do you see what these alignment sticks that I've made a target line that's going out to our white flag out there. Okay. Okay. And another homework assignment I'd like you to practice on is that, um, our stance for aim wise, I haven't talked about yet, but you're frankly, because you're pretty good at it already. Okay. Um, our feet and our hips and our shoulders should be parallel to this target line when we set up. Okay. Most beginners, their ball goes to the right a lot. And so they'll start aiming to the left to play for it, but that'll just make you go to the right even more. So the one thing as a new player, I would tell you is to really make sure that you set up square each time and, and especially at the driving range. And, uh, you'll learn to hit it a lot straighter and a lot better if you'll do it from the very beginning. Okay. Okay. And then there's one, two things that I want to show you. I'll get rid of a ball here to do it. Um, once you get set up this way, um, in our backswing, whenever the shaft is parallel to the ground, do you see how I'm parallel to the ground? I also should be parallel to the target line. So this would be correct. And that'd be incorrect. Does that make sense? Cause it's not parallel target line. And so that should happen, um, here. And then as I swing forward, do you see how I'm parallel to the ground and parallel target line again? Yeah. That's correct as well. Okay. And so for a really new player, this is like I said, another homework assignment. You can do this in the backyard. You just need a straight line. Could be the edge of your patio. Okay. And, um, or put two sticks down like this and, and just learn to get here and learn to get there. And you don't really have to swing very fast when you hit this other towel on the outside, uh, the clubs actually out here. And do you see how that would come across it that way? Yeah. So that's one of the reasons why you're hitting it is that you're not perfectly in the right position, but I don't like guys to think about that while they're swinging when they're as new as you are. Okay. But to make a half a swing without a ball, where you get to here and you get to here is pretty good. Okay. So try that for me. Go ahead and set up here and you'll see, this is a different backswing than you've been taking the entire time. Uh, but if you just come back real slow to my hand here. Yep. Go ahead and measure and just take a half a backswing back. Good. So are you parallel to the target line? Uh, yeah. Are you see these, that would be parallel to the target line. Okay. So parallel to the ground and the target line. Do you see that? Okay. Yeah. And said he's, if you're back in here, then as you approach the ball on the way down, you have to go this way. And then that's what hits that towel. That makes sense. Yep. Yep. So that's okay. So go ahead and set up again and I'm just going to put my hand right here. So just come back to the club head to my hand. Awesome. So parallel the ground, parallel target line. You see that? Yep. So go back down to where the ball would be. I'm just going to leave my hand right here. Just, yeah, there you go. And now go back to the ball. Good. Go back to the ball. Good. Little up higher. Good. Little up high. Good. Awesome. And can you see that in relation to the white stick? Yeah. That now you're parallel to the ground and the stick. And then just stay right there. So if I put my hand out here forward, just come forward to my hand. Awesome. So parallel the ground, parallel the target line there too. Do you see that? Yep. So go back. Awesome. Good. Now try to go on the backswing. Correct. And check it out. Yep. That was inside. Awesome. And now to my hand. Yep. Good. So do your backswing again. Good. And then come to my hand. There we go. Good. Just keep doing that. And the key part of golf is this half of the swing at the bottom. The best players have that club in that position on the downswing and the follow through. Okay. And that's why they're so consistent. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. So it just goes to there and then come to my hand. Awesome. Goes to there, comes to my hand. Awesome. And so that, you know, you could put two towels down and two sticks down in the backyard and just take these little practice swings like this. It'd be great. Okay. Even if you know you're going to go to Topgolf or you know you're going to go to the driving range that afternoon or evening before you leave home, like do this in the backyard for five minutes before you get in the car and it'll really enhance your practice once you get to the golf course or the Topgolf or whatever. Yeah. Okay. Make sense? Yeah. All right. Any questions on any of this stuff? Too many to ask. Oh, okay. Sure. If you've got any, you can ask. No. I mean, this, yeah, this all makes perfect sense. Cool. You just need to get out to the range and just keep practicing it, making it second nature. Yep. And you should be playing this game. You've got an aptitude for it. I mean, your great shots are truly fabulous. Shoot you at seven iron farther than I can hit it anymore at my age. So I'm going to make it consistent. Yeah, you will. And you will. It's just practice and, um, and just, and doing the right things. And you're already doing a lot of things, right? Like I said, you're about the first guy I've ever worked with. That's only hit balls five times in their whole life and never been on a golf course that holds a club almost perfectly. So, so you're doing a lot of things, right? We won't give anybody credit for that. So no. Okay. All right. So it's Patrick, right? So yeah, that's okay. Yeah. I was, uh, I remember doing this, like in grade school, they're like, lock your fingers. But I always thought this, like, so you didn't like launch the club. Um, so like the other day it's not just that though, where you have your hands on the clubs. Perfect. So that you could lock and they'd be all catty wampus, you know, but, uh, but the way you're holding it's great. So, and, um, like I said, you just need to, so if, if we're parallel to the ground and parallel, the target line in those positions, then the club will swing right between those towels every time. Okay. If you're the right distance from the ball. Yeah. But there's no doubt in my opinion, that the main thing with you from the very beginning was that you were just too close to the ball. And I think once you get comfortable with being that distance away with every club, you'll have a lot of success. So, okay. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thanks. It was great to work with you. You too. Yeah.