Elite Golf Performance

A big trend I’ve noticed is people have been told to tilt the shoulders at address with driver more. Although not wrong, this gets overdone pretty often. Set ups should feel very natural and athletic, not manufactured and forced. If we set up with too much tilt and too far behind the ball, we’re only naturally going to want to dive forward to try and get back to the ball somehow.

A big issue I see in countless students. So many players steepen the club significantly in transition. But usually this is caused by backswing issues that are promoting that very move. Always start with asking yourself “why” you may be doing something instead of looking directly at the area or move you’re unhappy with. Typically we will see a huge improvement in transition once we neutralize the takeaway in players who do this.

If your head is higher at impact vs. where it started, you’re going to struggle with thrusting, throwing the club at the ball, and not being able to get your body open at impact. I wouldn’t say I recommend working directly on keeping your head lower by impact, but it is an area that could explain why you physically cannot stop doing these things not matter how hard you try.

This is surprisingly more common than seeing under rotated hips in the backswing for me. When we rotate are hips too much, we give ourselves more work to do on the downswing in order to get our hips open at impact. So if you’re wondering why you can’t get them more open, start with this simple tip of making sure you haven’t made your life more difficult with too much hip turn.



Remember you can get a free swing evaluation from me on the Skillest Simply search Justin Nogay and you’ll be able to get personalized swing analysis and feedback.

I notice most slicers of the ball start by taking the club way inside. In my opinion, this is promoting an over the top move right away. Can you pull off an inside backswing and keep it there on the way down? Sure, it’s possible. You also run into contact issues and creating very “artificial” moves. I’d certainly take my chances with a more neutral backswing to properly allow the club to drop into a better position. That is a more natural and more reliable matchup to me. I like to have my students on the Skillest adopt a natural and athletic golf swing, not a manufactured and unnatural movement.

Stop looking at just symptoms. Often times we like looking at what we do at impact or follow through and try to directly manipulate it. This typically leads to even worse outcomes. This is why I like digging into the root cause of an issue rather than slapping a band aid on it. With all my students I like to create an understanding with them of what is actually causing that one “move” or “swing fault” that they dislike. This leads to a more long term focused and successful way to implement a change.



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There’s lots of great information out there. A lot of technical data points, which I absolutely love. But the problem is it sometimes can get overwhelming for golfers. One of my favorite things to do is give athletic movements or tasks that can relate to the technical improvement we want to make. This essentially can free up golfers and prevent them from getting overwhelmed. So next time you’re overwhelmed, simplify it and find an athletic movement that gives you all the feels you need without making it over complicated.

Ryan Fox has a golf swing that is so unique and brilliant, but not exactly recommended to try and copy. Why? Because physically most people wouldn’t be able to match up the swing the way he does. The requirement of mobility and strength in so many different areas is likely too difficult for most to copy. It’s great to look at all the unique swings and matchups out there, but it doesn’t mean you should try and copy it.

There’s nothing wrong with a little trigger or slight bump laterally. In fact, lots of great players do this. This move alone can create so much more athletic freedom and flow in the swing. It’s a small amount, it’s early, but it is completely acceptable.

Implementing swing changes is often about feels, cues, movements. There’s always complexity within golf swing changes, but if you can eliminate some confusion with an athletic, powerful, simple feel, it’s certainly more bang for your buck. Really trying to simulate the unweighting and absorbing force into transition by gently letting go of the weighted ball, catching it and pretending I’m about to aggressively throw it. If you have a wall to throw a ball into this would probably be even better. Try it and let me know what you think.