Speed Slot Golf
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When golfers refer to the secret of “finding the slot” it can be somewhat problematic because it’s so often misunderstood how you get there.
Luckily, in Jim McLean’s new book, The Slot Swing,he does a terrific job of explaining the golf swing slot and what that means exactly and more importantly, how to find the often elusive “slot”
This is the one statement that got me to buy the book below:
“In 99 percent of professional swings, the downswing shaft position is flatter than the backswing shaft position”
And consequently:
“One main reason recreational players suffer and frequently hit slices, pulls, and pull-slices in that they swing over the top. In a majority of the amateur swings I’ve seen and analyzed, the downswing shaft position is steeper than the backswing shaft position.”
For those of you who are not quite clear what exactly is “the slot” it is the dropping of the club from the backswing to the forward swing where the club “falls” into a slot – most typically felt by the the right elbow (if a right-handed golfer) dropping towards your right hip and instead of your right forearm being more parallel to the ground it leans toward being more vertical.
When your right arm does become more parallel to the ground, you typically get the feeling of your arms being detached from your body and the dreaded “over the top” move is inevitable. Man, I know that feeling all to well!
But when you DO feel the slot, you have a feeling of graceful power, fluidity and a totally feeling of integration with your entire body. Ironically, due to biomechanic efficiencies, your swing seems much easier and effortless. Remember, the slot position is the key fundamental downswing key to hitting successful shots. It’s the perfect place to deliver a solid, accurate strike with speed and with the proper angle of attack.
Oddly enough, I was fooling around with this fairly intensely at the end of the golf season. Even trying to exaggerate this as I felt I was really on to something and my irons were getting crisper and crispier (love that word crisp as it relates to golf!)
Anyway, what I did was really feel my golf club shaft being more vertical in my backswing, my left elbow (I’m a lefty) dis-attaching from by body and assuming and almost horizontal position (or parallel to the ground) the shaft assuming a almost perpendicular position to the ground, then dropping the elbow back down (as you do this your same forearm because more vertical) in the transition.
If you try this, it has a very Jim Furyk type of feel to it. Almost feels corkscrew-like and to me, quite a powerful, integrating move. Where I ran into trouble was a competitive round where I tried to rush the swing. A move like this takes time to build and time to unfold. So be aware of this when trying to integrate the feeling.
In the book Jim explains the “Three Shapes of the Slot Swing” which is really fascinating. I basically thought I knew these but then realized I really did not. The first being The “Standard” Slot Swing epitomized by Sergio Garcia. The “Single Plane” Slot Swing represented by Tiger and finally, The “Reverse” Slot Swing of whom Bruce Lietzke (or Sam Snead) best represents.
Jim suggests picking the one that feels most appropriate. However for MOST of his students he recommends The “Standard” Slot Swing. I suggest try them all out (just a few practice swings and you can easily find this out) and see what best works for your swing type.
Another thing that I really loved about the book were the illustrations by Phil Franke. There are 75 in all and do an amazing job of clarifying Jim’s concepts. I love that you can see the arrows going back and then the arrows going forward in the illustrations. In this case a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Additionally, Mr. McLean includes 6 drills to help re-enforce “The Slot” concepts. Some I have seen before but the last one (#6) is a doozy (I won’t give it away) but this one drill (I have never seen it before) just might get you into THE consistent slot and solve your problem once and for all!
One drill I found effective fooling around with my own swing was swinging a club with one hand. In my case (again, being a lefty) was my left arm. Swinging the club more vertically on the backswing and then flattening the shaft on the downswing. Making sure you are pouting the butt end of the club at the ball in the downswing. It’s exaggerates the concept a little but (to me anyway) really helped re-enforce the feeling.
Jim McLean has studies thousands of hours of video, has studied the pros by eye, has had conversations with the all time greats, given thousands of lessons so he knows a thing or two about the golf swing. The book (with all the illustrations) is a pretty fast read but I really believe “The Slot” is one of the keys to becoming a consistent and powerful ball striker.
To get the book go here: The Slot Swing: The Proven Way to Hit Consistent and Powerful Shots Like the Pros.
The Kallassy Swing Magic Driverwill help you re-inforce the slot position.
Find the “Pro Slot” with the Power Angle Pro.
Why You Need This: In this video, you'll learn how to start the downswing and get into the slot.
I'm sure you've heard the term 'get into the slot' but there's all sorts of questions about it.
What exactly does 'get into the slot' mean?
And how do you perform this swing move?
You'll discover the answers to those questions, and more, in this video.
Find out...
- What angle your club path should travel on,
- How not getting into the slot hurts your swing, and
- What you should feel in the swing to make sure you're getting into the slot.
Watch this video now to get your club into the slot and boost your consistency and power!
Golf Pros Featured:
Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard
Video Duration: 5:07
Watch This Video Now!
Normally, this video in our step-by-step, course-based training is only available to our All Access Members...
But I'll let you watch this ONE video today only... because I can already tell I'm going to like you !
Video Transcription:
All right, guys. Hit that one pretty well. How do we start the downswing and get into the slot? Everybody wants to get in the slot, that ensures that your club is going to be delivered squarely to the golf ball with a lot of power.
So the way we’re going to think of the slot is, when I’m coming in my downswing, and the big piece of this is getting the camera lined up correctly.
I want to line up the camera behind my body shooting through my toes and then out to my distance, out to the target in the distance.
If my camera’s set up to where it’s too far this way or it’s too far that way, it’s not going to be lined up to where I can really see if the club’s in the slot or not.
What I want to do, is I want to go ahead and have this club working down my forearm in the downswing. So this club shaft is coming through my forearm and the club head will be kind of traveling through my forearm.
I’m going in slow motion here, so I’m not sure I have this exactly right, but that should be basically traveling down through my forearm into the release through the ball. That ensures that I’m coming into the ball correctly.
Now if I’m steep, if my club shaft is over top of my forearm, that would be kind of an over the top type move, or some people get steep and they kind of back up out of it. If you’re losing your posture that’s very common, you’re getting steep and then having to move back out of the way.
If I was steep and I just kept on going down, I would just slam the club into the ground, so I’ve got to back up out of it to create space. That would be too steep. It would also be an over the top kind of slice, would be to steep this way.
If I’m too shallow or underneath, now my club’s getting stuck in under. I’m blocking out to the right, or I’m hitting some of those snap hooks that really start to turn over, where you just miss them a mile out that way. Either way, we’re going to have a little bit of trouble.
The first key is, what starts our downswing? What’s a good visual to start our downswing that we can actually take out to the range? Then second, what’s a good way to feel how I get in the slot.
So to start the downswing, the thing that I would recommend – let me grab this tee so I can set up another ball – I would recommend feeling like you have a 2,000 pound concrete ball or steel ball, and the center of your hips is the middle of that ball. It’s just kind of wrapped around your body.
As I start this downswing, I’m going to feel like I do that with my lower body. My legs, and my hips are going to get that ball starting to kind of rotate.
Imagine a 2,000-pound ball, I’m not going to be able to rotate that very fast, I’m just talking about building momentum.
The lower body, the big piece is the big muscles of your body create momentum in the swing, so that my arms and hands and club can add speed to that, that can add the snap at the end of the momentum.
Speed Slot Golf Clubs
So feel like in your downswing, I’m going to go ahead and get a little bit of a weight shift to the left, start that ball rotating, and then at that point I’m going to be in the slot and I can go ahead and release my hands and arms, get a lot of that snap and that speed.
So now how do we feel like we’re in the slot? Well I’ve got a great little drill for you. If I go ahead and set up my club like I’m going to swing it like a baseball bat, if I set it up in front of my right shoulder – I’ll try to get as lined up as well as I can with the camera.
This left arm’s going to be nice and straight, it’s going to look like that. My left wrist is going to be flat or even a little bit bowed, and then my club face, my club head, or let’s talk about the right arm first.
My right elbow’s going to be pointing up, my back of my elbow’s going to be pointing toward my hip. My palm is going to be up toward the sky like that.
Now from there, this club is going to be down below that a little bit. So if I’m swinging this baseball bat, it’s dropping below it slightly and then kicking up square.
So it’s slightly below that, now you notice if I go this way, and I get into that position slightly below with my club head, as I tilt forward, now that’s in the slot. I’m perfectly on line with my forearm.
So again, it’s about right shoulder height. My hands are jut below my shoulder, if I had to get really technical with it. This club is going to dip down about, let’s call it 10°.
My right arm is up, and then from there I’m going to hinge forward, and now I’m in this position where I have a bunch of lag and my club’s coming down in the slot.
The way I’m going to practice this, is I’m going to make four or five swings first working on momentum. Imagine that big ball around my hips that has a bunch of weight.
Once I get that momentum going, I can add to that with my hands and arms. So I’m just going to do a couple little practice swings feeling that, and swinging on through.
After I’ve done about five of those, now I’m going to do the one where I get in the slot here. Get that same position, I’m going to hinge forward with my hips.
You’ll notice as I start to videotape from down the line, that’s about where it needs to be as far as coming into the slot. In slow motion it may not be perfect there, but we get the idea.
Speed Slot Golf
Five or six of those swings, and then I’m going to be ready to put those two pieces together, and get a good momentum, start the downswing in the right way, and then be in the slot where I can go ahead and rip this golf ball.
Speed Slot Golf
There we go, guys. Work on starting the downswing the right way, getting in the slot. You’re going to play some great golf.