Often times I will practice half swings during my practice to help generate a feel in my golf swing. I like to work on the first position when the club reaches parallel to the ground and also the position after impact when the club approaches hip height. If you can master getting into these two positions consistently, you will in essence have built a Tour Level swing. This is because that in order to manage these two positions successfully, you would have turned your body correctly as well had neutral path and clubface angles.
Now the first task to the half swing is being able to navigate to the first position. To reach this first position successfully, you need to start with the club roughly a handspan from the body and aim to maintain this handspan distance right up until the club reaches parallel to the ground. When approaching this position, you want to feel as though the club head and the hands form a straight line. The best was to feel this, is having the left arm move across the body while the clubhead stays in front of the hands You also want to feel as though there's a slight turn of the body once approaching the first position. Lastly you want to see the clubface a little closed. More specifically having the same angle as the spine.
Now when navigating to the position after impact, you firstly want to feel the lower half initiate the downswing by the bumping of the left hip. Once you have bumped the left hip, you can then feel as though the remainder of the body moves onto your front foot. Now the position you want to look out for at hip height after impact is where the body points at the target with the shaft on the heel line with the 'toe' of the club pointed to the sky. You also want to have 100% of weight on the front foot.
Once you can understand these positions, you can then try doing half swings on the Driving Range. You can do this same exercise with every club. These swings are perfect for overcoming any swing errors you may have. For example if you're someone who hooks the ball, typically your initial ball flight will start right of the target due to your path being to in-out. Once you can move your arms around the body with rotation of your chest, you will start seeing your ball flight start more at the target. Also once you feel you are competent with these two positions, you can start to lengthen your swing. However some choose to continue swinging shorter as they find their swings become more efficient.
If you'd like any further help in fixing your swing path and clubface angles, just contact myself at David Waters Golf located at Emerald Lakes Golf Coaching Centre.
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