How Your Dominant Hand Squares Your Clubface (Video)

Unless you're someone like Phil Mickelson who swings with his dominant hand as his lead hand -- that is, he's a righthander who swings lefthanded -- you probably have trouble squaring the clubface because you use your trail (dominant) hand and arm incorrectly. This drill from Chris Ryan will help you fix that problem.

You may need to watch this video several times before you understand what Chris is saying. The simplest explanation is that your trail elbow needs to be bent when you hit the ball BUT what you're actually doing right now is straightening it before you ever hit the ball. Another way to describe this move is that your trail elbow leads your trail hand into the impact zone.

Yeah, it sounds weird. But that's the way you throw a ball at hip level, what we sometimes call a 'sidearm' throw. And that's the motion that Chris is trying to teach you with this drill.

For most of you, this is going to take a little work to learn how it feels when you hit the ball. Let me add a couple of thoughts.

• This drill works very well when used with the L-to-L drill. (I know, I say that about almost every drill. But it's true because the L-to-L drill is a basic move in a powerful, accurate golf swing.) When you start hitting balls using this move, incorporate this 'leading elbow' move into the L-to-L drill. You'll be very happy with the results.
• And while Chris wants you to throw the ball at the ground during this drill, you may find it makes more sense for you to also try throwing the ball toward a target in front of you, the same way you'd try to hit the ball toward a target with a club. This has the added advantage of teaching you how to place your trail hand on the club's grip in order to know you've squared the clubface. And once you can do that, it's a simple matter to learn how to open or close the face a bit to hit a fade or draw.

No matter what your golf swing looks like now, you can always learn how to aim the clubface with that swing. And once you can do that, your score will start to drop because the ball will end up where you wanted to play from -- which, if you want it in the fairway, will be a lot better place to play from than the rough!