We have a question from Will Lewis. Will says, “Need help! On the down swing my left shoulder is dipping, I don't know if it is my left leg that is folding and moving forward. The ball is going left. Even tried to extend my hands more after striking the ball.”
He got an answer from “Bignol.” He said this: “Hi Will, Try the cactus drill. This will teach you your place in space. It will also give you the feeling of lifting your arms from the shoulders and also the light club at the top.”
Again, great answers from Bignol in terms of possible things that could help Will. I've got to look at this and also say that if Will is moving left in his swing, yes the forward leg could be folding down. I'm assuming that Will is right handed and the forward leg could be breaking down and causing a shoulder dip.
But, in many cases, it also could be that you're just moving your upper body when starting the down swing. You could be either sliding too far left with your whole body, not the lower body leading as the bump does, but the whole left side, from your feet to your shoulders, are all moving forward. If you're turning at the same time and if are swinging parallel at the top of the backswing or even longer or turning too much, pulling the club back up your upper body will be forced to move downward a little bit to give energy to your arms to pull that club from deep or parallel, to pull it up. That's takes you to an outside in swing.
If the ball is going left, that means with your outside in swing, you're coming down and you're releasing your club through impact and squaring it up to your body, which is left of the target, therefore you'll have the pull.
So I'm going to guess that we have a big case of turning too much and/or over swinging. Your upper body is moving left to help your arms and hands pull the club back up and around to get to the ball. I'd take a look at that.
One of the best things to help that and see it is to get outside, have the sun at your back and make some swings that you feel are exactly like your swinging when you hit the ball and watch your shadow on the ground and look at your head.
If you want to hit a little draw, the Surgism for that is, “the head can never, ever move forward in the swing until after impact. If you make a good lower body bump, the lower body moves forward — that lateral shift — the head stays still or actually goes a little bit backwards and then it starts to move left as you turn through and swing up to the T-Finish.
So if your head is moving immediately left, looking at the shadow swing will show you how much it's moving left. If that's the case, you'll be able to see if your club is parallel at the top or longer. You'll also be able to see how much you're turning your shoulders. The shadow swinging is really good. It's out there on the ground. You're head's sort of down, looking at the ball, and you're in your perfect set up position. You can see it all and you can see it instantly. It's even better than video, which you have to look at after you've swung.
See what your head's doing. If it's moving forward you know what you have to do. Work on your bump, stay behind the ball, and/or if you're over swinging and over turning you need to get those under control. The Peak Performance Golf Swing is a limited turn 3/4 back swing.
The Surge!