3 MUST DO’s for a consistent downswing

It’s the final week of our Pure Your Irons blog series and we hope you guys have loved it as much as we have.

Today the focus is on the downswing, and we’re going through our top 3 must do’s for a strong, powerful downswing that will create the penetrating ball flight that we’ve been talking about over the last few weeks.

Firstly, let’s go through what we’re aiming for. Good ball strikers will shift their weight towards the lead side in the downswing. Let’s imagine a vertical line like the one seen below. A good ball striker will shift towards that line, swing down and strike the golf ball all while remaining on that line.

Because of this, the ball is going to be struck first thanks to the forward shaft lean, meaning the low point of the swing will be after the ball.

If you can get your body to this imaginary line, striking the ball and then the turf, you will guarantee yourself better consistency.

So here are three drills we recommend you do to help instil this motion and feeling within your own swing.

Kick the bucket drill

In this drill you’ll need to take your set up as normal, checking that the ball position is in the right place. We recommend a slightly longer iron for this, something like a 5/4 iron. So be sure to set-up with the ball slightly forward in your stance.

Then, place a ball bucket or something like a shoe box just outside the lead ankle. This helps to create a physical representation of the impact line we were speaking about above.

Your aim here is to hit the bucket with your lead leg as your weight shifts during the downswing. All of this should happen, and the bucket should fall over before you hit the ball. This makes you move towards the impact line a lot sooner, creating that forward shaft lean.

If you do this drill incorrectly, and instead hang your weight back during the downswing then you’ll know because you will not knock the bucket over. You want to avoid doing this, as keeping your weight back will cause you to duff the ball, creating a high and weak ball flight which we definitely want to avoid.

Tap tap drill

Once you have the hand of the bucket drill, we want you to add in what we call a ‘tap tap’ drill too. Once you move through impact and into your follow-through, tap the toes of your trail leg down into the floor as they get into their follow-through position.

Being able to do this drill confirms that your weight has shifted onto your lead side, and again encourages you to get that weight transfer through the downswing.

In this instance in order to change your ball flight we’re changing your finish position, and this proves to be a popular method amongst some of the top pros. Collin Morikawa has different finish positions depending on whether he’s hitting a draw or a fade. So the finish position is definitely not something to be overlooked when working on your swing.

Focus past the golf ball

When in your address position, focus on where you want the divot to be, instead of where the golf ball currently is. This will help you to accelerate through impact, increasing compression on the ball and creating a strong, penetrating ball flight. It sounds counter-intuitive to begin with, to not focus on what you’re trying to hit. But trust us, and give it a go, you’ll be surprised how much of a difference it can make to your ball striking.

We hope these drills, and the entire Pure Your Irons Blueprint will help you to create a better, more reliable ball flight that will enable you to shoot some low scores this season.

If you haven’t checked out the Blueprint yet then there’s no better time, as you can fill out the form below and access it completely free for 7 days.