{"id":583221,"date":"2026-04-03T16:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583221\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:40:08","slug":"3-clever-drills-for-better-ball-striking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583221\/","title":{"rendered":"3 clever drills for better ball striking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first\">One of the biggest misconceptions in golf is about where the club makes contact with the ball and the ground. Tony Ruggiero, a <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/golf-magazine-top-100-teachers-america-26-27\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GOLF Top 100 Teacher<\/a>, explains that the low point of your swing\u2014or the bottom of your swing arc\u2014actually occurs just in front of the ball, on the target side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to make the low point happen on the target side of the ball, we want your body and the pressure to be moving towards the target,\u201d Ruggiero says, \u201cYou actually want to try to get your center of your body moving towards the target and at the ball or in front of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It sounds simple enough, but many amateurs still struggle to get their low point far enough forward. Fortunately, Ruggiero has a few clever drills that can help you practice moving your body and pressure towards the target.<\/p>\n<p>Without a ball, place a slider\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/dewsweepersgolf.com\/golf-pivot-pack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">which you can buy here<\/a>\u2014under your trail foot and get into your normal set up. Take the club back, and as you make your forward swing, Ruggiero says to think about sliding your trail foot back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[This move] makes all the pressure or weight have to go towards the lead leg,\u201d he says, \u201cand it makes you learn to stay in posture and rotate your trunk over to the [lead] leg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re doing it right, you should notice that the club brushes the ground just in front of where the ball would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Impact drill with resistance<\/p>\n<p>For the next drill, you\u2019ll need a light resistance band and something to anchor it to, or a partner to hold it. Loop it around the handle of your club, then step away just enough to take the slack out of the band. From there, move into your impact position and hold it. As you rehearse this position, you should begin to feel a slight amount of resistance from the band.<\/p>\n<p>Ruggiero explains that an optimal impact position should look like your chest rotating over the ball as your hips begin to open and clear out of the way.<\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019re in a proper impact position, continue turning through the shot. As you rotate, you should feel more resistance from the band\u2014almost like it\u2019s pulling you back. Ruggiero says that feeling will help train you to push off the ground and move through the ball, rather than hanging back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Early release drill<\/p>\n<p>This third and final drill, is inspired by players like Annika Sorenstam and David Duval. Best practiced with small, or slow swings, it\u2019s all about the release.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the old days, their [Sorenstam and Duval] eyes would release early down the range, and they\u2019d almost be looking out down the range before they hit the ball,\u201d Ruggiero says.<\/p>\n<p>To practice this drill, make small swings while emulating that early release, training your body to naturally let your eyes, nose, hands and club release all together\u2014pointing at the target.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest misconceptions in golf is about where the club makes contact with the ball and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}