​I recently hosted a golf school for a fantastic group of Aronimink members, collaborating closely with their assistant, Tessa Teachman. Tessa, along with my fellow Dewsweepers Morgan Hale and Connor Luke, joined forces to help this group achieve some striking improvements in their contact in less than a day. The changes were not about drastic physical adjustments; they came from helping players experience new feels for what the club can do when you stop fighting it and let it work naturally. For many amateurs, the challenge isn’t a complete swing overhaul but finding the right part of the ground to produce solid contact, paired with a good pivot. That balance often solves a large portion of the struggle for a wide range of golfers.
At the school, and with my regular students, I’ve found that a player’s handicap matters far less than the design of the practice you’re doing when it comes to meaningful improvement. Give a player a simple, repeatable drill they can do at home, in the gym, or even in the parking lot before a round, and almost all of them will commit to doing it—and doing it well enough to make a real difference. I’m sharing five drills we used at the school; if you weave these into your routine this weekend, I promise you’ll notice more solid contact by Sunday afternoon. None of these drills require a bucket of balls or a trip to the course. You can run through all five in your living room or in the backyard. Expect to find the ball bottoming out of your swing more consistently, making cleaner contact, hitting it farther, and gaining greater control over its curvature.
Before you can master anything else, you need to be properly hinged at the waist so your hips can turn and load rather than slide. Set up in your posture and verify that the base of your spine sits under the top of your spine—neither tipped forward nor hanging back. Aim for roughly 50/50 weight distribution, evenly balanced between your feet. Achieve that feeling at address, and everything downstream becomes easier.
A common misstep for many players is transferring pressure side to side instead of rotating—sliding laterally on the backswing and again on the downswing. When the lower body slides around, it’s nearly impossible to locate the same low point twice. Stand on two small balance discs to introduce a touch of instability beneath you. Hold a club across your chest and perform slow backswings and downswings. That instability prevents you from lurching or sliding; your body has no choice but to stay centered as it turns.
If you stay rooted on your back foot and fail to rotate your upper body through the ball, you’ll never bring the low point of your swing out in front of the ball where it needs to be. Grab a light resistance band and stretch it so your arms are fully extended to your sides—as if you’re about to give someone a big hug. Get into your golf posture, then turn your shoulders fully through the backswing and through the follow-through to feel the proper sequencing and control. These drills aren’t about brute force or long practice sessions; they’re about teaching your body to recognize the correct relationship between balance, rotation, and the point of contact. By repeating them, you’ll start to see a smoother, more consistent swing that delivers solid contact, better distance, and more predictable ball flight.