Down Out Up Drill: The Modern Swing

I added the Down Out Up Drill to the Golf Practice Planner today because it’s the quintessential “modern golf” drill.

Name
Down Out Up Drill

Category
Long Game Practice Drills

Difficulty
5 out of 10

Time
15 minutes

Props
Any golf club. Golf ball. Golf Practice Planner.

Overview
The Down Out Up Drill will train you to play modern golf. No more open clubface on the backswing and downswing. You’ll enjoy the “strong” feeling of the down, out and up feel. You will improve your contact, ball striking, compression, direction control, and distance. You will hit it better, straighter and farther with this drill.

The most common shot in golf is the “dreaded slice”. The pesky open clubface is the demise of most players. The Down Out Up Drill is all about the lead wrist angle. It will help ensure a square clubface at impact.

Steps

Step 1: Watch
Watch the video below.

Step 2: Backswing Stage I – Down
At the first part of the backswing, you want to feel the back of the left wrist down (see image below). This is the part of the backswing from takeaway until the club is parallel to the ground. When you look down at your glove you’ll see the logo is facing down to the ground (slicers would have the logo pointing up to the sky). The goal is to get the back of your left wrist out of your vision (so you don’t see the logo).

The clubface may feel very closed to you, but it is actually perfectly “square” because the leading edge of the club is at the same angle as your spine (see image below), because your spine is tilted, not straight. The clubface points down at the ball. If the wrist points down, the face will automatically point down (a good thing!).

To begin with you may hit a lot of hooks, but stick with it until the body naturally understands what it needs to do to straighten the ball flight out. Don’t be scared by the initial hooked shots!

Step 3: Backswing Stage II – Out
At the second part of the backswing, you want to feel the back of the left wrist out away from you (see image below). This is the classic 3/4 backswing position. Once again, the logo is out of your vision (if you turned to look at your left hand). If, however, your left wrist was cupped (in the slicer position), you’d be able to see the logo.

Step 4: Backswing Stage III – Up
At the third part of the backswing (completion of the backswing), you want to feel the back of the left wrist up (see image below). The left wrist will feel very flat.

Step 5: Down Out Up Drill Stations 

Station I: Alignment Stick Down The Target Line
Place an alignment stick down the target line (see image below).

Your goal is to launch the ball to the right side of the alignment stick and draw the ball onto the target. This is a very instinctive way of honing the Down Out Up feeling in your swing. 

Station II: Alignment Stick Down The Back End Of The Target Line
Place an alignment stick down the back end of the target line (see image below). Have the golf ball under the front of the alignment stick. 

The height of the alignment stick above the ball is approximately the length of a grip. 

The alignment stick goes directly over the ball. 

Step 6: Competitive Practice
Hit 10 “Down Out Up” shots, using one or both of the drill stations (see step 5). Start small by hitting shots 100 yards. This will give your brain and body time to communicate so it can feel the correct wrist positions. Slowly increase the length of shots as you get the ball to stop hooking. You’ll be amazed at how much you need to exaggerate the down, out and up feels.