Keep Your Swing On Line with the Skewer Drill

Simple Drill for a Square Clubface and On-line Swing

Blair O’Neill and Martin Hall of NBC Golf show you a drill to keep a square clubface all the way through impact.

Do you ever have those frustrating sessions at the practice facility that result in splayed arms, eyes skyward asking your golf God “why?”

We see it everywhere, golfers trying to talk themselves through keeping the club square at impact and through their swing line. The truth is you can hit bucket after bucket and be as dumbfounded as anyone at the course, but the key to improving while on the practice tee is feedback. Now, we can’t all afford expensive lessons or shot tracking technology, but what we can control are simple physical feedback mechanisms and “hacks” (as they were).We searched for a simple drill to help you keep the clubface square at impact as well as keep your swing plane square, and The School of Golf had just what we were looking for— a simple drill that everyone can benefit from, even at home.

Martin Hall’s Skewer Drill can be preformed with skewers, alignment rods, chopsticks, tees— you name it. Simply take a skewer and lay it parallel with your target line, directly in front of the toe of the golf club. Once the initial one is set, take three additional skewers and place one right next to the golf ball, outside the original skewer, place the second four inches in front of the ball on the same line, and the third four inches behind. Remove the first “measuring” skewer and you have a perfect swing plane.

Now, the feedback here is critical! Take notes on where you strike the skewers (if at all). Striking the trail skewer indicates your swing is too far outside-to-inside, striking the lead skewer indicates a swing that is too inside-to-outside, and a perfect strike will leave all three sticks intact.

As Blair says, it can be an intimidating shot at first, but continue to work at this drill and you will be squaring the ball up with ease and consistency in no time at all!

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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