How to Stay Down and Cover the Golf Ball

[@spencerjsteel]

IMO the worst word that has permeated golf over the last half-century is “slide”. Golfers are terrified of it, except any good ball striker slides 4-6” forward like Russ does. No forward slide and you can tilt and rotate forever and still cast the club on the downswing. Watch any great ball striker (Trevino and Niemann are excellent examples). They bump forward, tilt a huge amount while allowing their lead side to open up, and pretty much hit the ball with their right ear. The ball is on the ground; most golfers hit at it. Good players tilt and turn down to it, like a submarine-style pitcher. Watch videos of Russell from the front; his trail shoulder is much lower than his lead, and his chest and hips are open to his target so that the club travels to the ball efficiently and with very little face rotation. Gonna be tough for him to hit many shots off-line with that sequence. Great stuff here.

[@pohoresky]

My big takeaway (and thank you very much for the concise explanation) for both staying in posture and covering the ball is to combine correct amount of lateral movement with upper body rotation simultaneously for ball turf contact in the case of irons and for hitting up on a teed up ball with a driver. A critical combination of lower body lateral move with upper body rotation is the way to stay in posture (not changing forward tilt of spine from address) and cover the ball (ensuring sternum is past the ball for irons at impact and before the ball for a driver to hit up on. teed up ball..

[@craigknudsen7424]

Wonderfully helpful tilt and rotation to keep cover zone through the golf ball thanks thanx thanks 😊

[@BetaGolfer]

Just come across your channel and hit the range right after this video. I've tried golf tips on KZbin before and frankly gotten lost and confused more often than not. This video by comparison was fantastic! I really felt I could do what you were suggesting. Really simple, clear guidance. Love it!

[@johnk.atchley5079]

Very helpful, thank you. As someone who has struggled with this, even though I have been playing for over 60 years, it is only recently that I have come to better understand exactly what you and several others are teaching about shifting the weight of the lower body on to the left leg. At first it really does seem like one is overdoing it, but no. And as you have shown in other videos like your 1,2,3 move one, you need to begin the recentering and forward shift much earlier than the average person thinks. Pros can perhaps do it later and faster because they are so much more coordinated and skilled and practice endlessly. That is why you often don't notice that they do it unless you see a slow motion or stop action video. And after all the struggle to develop rotation, I am finally learning from pros like you that you cannot rotate correctly unless your weight is on your left or lead leg. With the weight on the left leg and off of the trail or right leg, rotation becomes much easier and natural. If the weight is not shifted and stays evenly on each leg, it's like nailing your trail shoe to the floor. You simply cannot rotate. You can spin the hips, but that is a move full of errors. One other thing, I sometimes wonder if the tendency we duffers have of standing up and straightening the arms in early extension is a reaction to the centrifugal force of swinging the club head. You unconsciously feel the weight increasing with the speed and momentum of the swing pulling the head away from you and therefore react by pulling back, which means standing up.

[@russellheritagegolf]

Not sure, I get great results with golfers by shifting left early and then turning the chest

[@johnatchley9754]

@@russellheritagegolf Thank you

[@shokat100]

Thanks so much for explaining this so well. can't to wait to implement this come summer.

[@thumper2k174]

I needed this video soooooo bad. Thank you Russell!

[@johnmcgeown6578]

Great presentation Russell Makes a lot of sense Thanks 👏👏

[@jlbradders]

Finish in the left heel........ I very much like this feel 👍

[@reyo8036]

I am trying that flared leg idea tomorrow.. very interesting.

[@msp1865]

Great, simple video. At some point, in an effort to stay behind the ball, I got into a reverse pivot with my weight on my right foot at impact. This gives me a couple simple principles to focus on in practice to get my weight forward at impact and rotate properly and then take that feeling on to the course. Thank you, Russell.

[@jeffers4354]

It's snowing russ :) i'm suprised the range is open.

[@danhnguyen-mm2ue]

The tip I've been looking for. Thanks a lot

[@AlNev1951]

Very helpful video.

[@shawndgee]

RH, You are a stud, that weather looks rough.

[@donkboys]

What is that white stuff? In England? Really does look beautiful!

[@MickHand]

I'm going to give it a try

[@wayne9845]

Is that SNOW? 🥶 Another great video!

[@pohoresky]

I think it is white paint pure as the driven snow. Snow- what is that? I live in Canada! That is just a dusting!

[@ianmackinlay8925]

Head & Shoulders?

[@richardhowland-bb9sy]

Over many years I developed a strong sliding to the left motion to stay down through the ball to accommodate my “JD Over-swing”. Working now on a more compact backswing while triggering the downswing with a strong move left and getting my right hip to turn towards the target. Using video review my progress the slide still creeps into my swing :( Any tips or drills ? Would you consider creating a KZbin lesson on this? Thx

[@AndrewDCDrummond]

Don’t think any thoughts of keeping the head still are useful, it’s more keeping it behind the ball - lowering is fine, raising is not - moving backwards a bit is also fine. That’s always been my error, drifting my head forward, as soon as I keep it from doing that the club shallows, etc.

[@johnnauman4562]

Posting up on the lead leg to early is killing me!!!

[@steveash656]

Crystal.

[@The3rdTower]

Neither Tiger Woods nor Nelly Korda stay down. Neither does Moe Norman. Golfers are athletes who own their swing. We all need to find the correct swing based on our uniqueness of body and mind. It is a journey.

[@robertcollins5401]

An awful lot of info in this demonstration to digest

[@ebttt]

You have lot of knowledge but you take so much time to get to the point is so hard to follow

[@PDadz64]

Never mind “covering the ball” and “staying down” the biggest issue for me , is how on earth is he going to find those golf balls in the snow ? 😂❄️🏌🏻‍♂️🔍