If you’re looking to improve the initial part of your swing, try this drill from Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood.
@jonathanyarwood / X
I recently made the trip to Alpine, NJ, to meet with Jonathan Yarwood. Yarwood has been one GOLF Top 100 Teachers since 2019 and has trained big winners like Nelly Korda and Michael Campbell, along with his work with junior golfers in the International Junior Golf Association. Suffice it to say, he is one of the brightest minds when it comes to golf instruction.
I always enjoy picking JY’s brain when I meet him. Not only does he have an impressive resume, but he also has an easy way to learn rhythm. He never overdoes it or gets too bogged down in technical jargon. His communication style is usually to the point and easy to understand. When it comes to golf, we operate on a similar wavelength.
For this reason, I always make him quickly watch my movement when we have dates. He can usually take a quick look at my swing, give me a pointer or two, and I end up leaving the ball hitting the ball better than when I arrived.
On my last trip to see Yarwood, he saw me take a few swings and told me how well I was hitting the ball. However, he did give me some advice about my nutrition, which he then turned into a short video, which you can watch below.
Easy to pick up workout
Starting your swing the right way is critical if you want to hit the ball hard. Everything you do while taking food it affects the rest of your swing.
When I was swinging the club, I had it on track, but my right arm was staying straight for too long, which prevented my track arm from folding properly and threw me out of position by the time the club returned halfway through.
To fix this, JY had me hold a bucket of ray balls in front of me at my address position. From here, the goal was to return until my arms were parallel to the ground without spilling any of the balls.
“If I go like that and my right arm is up and doesn’t bend, I spill balls out,” Yarwood says. “If I do that, and my right arm spreads and my arms rotate, now I can keep all the balls in the bucket.”
Not spilling balls forces me to properly rotate my arms early in the swing. From there, I can fold my right arm properly and keep the club in the right position until the top of the swing.
