The irony of working with Blake Elliott of McNeese State on his swing is that we haven’t tried to do anything to increase his power and distance – it has just increased as we increased his leverage and efficiency in order to make him more consistent with his ball-striking.

I’ve said that the optimal technique for increasing accuracy and consistency will also be the model for combining it all with optimal power and swing speed.

Here’s the “before” sequence that shows what his swing was like after our first week together in Southern California, and before we began to address the down swing more intensively last week:

Blake “Before” – High Heel Impact

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As you can see below, while working on getting Blake more aggressively onto his left foot on the impact/follow-through phase does more than one thing – it makes his down swing less violent, it allows him to release the right foot more so he doesn’t get stuck over it – there is a toe release on the above swing, but watch that foot action below…

Blake “After” – Lower Heel Impact

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And that lower heel shows that he’s not jumping at the ball, rather leveraging the club down and through.

This is just a drill, of course, but you can see how, with practice and work on the sequencing, he’ll be able to incorporate that action into the “playing swing,” which takes time.

Now, this is a beautiful action through the ball…

Sweet Release…

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There are multiple phases to making lasting swing changes.

First, you have to figure out what to change, and how to adjust the sequence of motion, either from address or from the top.

Then, you must make the address changes in order to make the new motion sequence without compensations.

Then, you must actually get a decent motion and put it on the ball, and only then can you move forward with reps and practice to ingrain the new feeling and motion.

And then, you have to work on it so that when you take it out on the course, you’re not thinking about the motion but just swinging, as you did before the changes.

Blake was in the second-last stage when I left last week, and now he’s going to finish off the changes with the drills and practice we discussed, and he has a few weeks before the new NCAA Div-1 season starts for his sophomore year at McNeese State.

I have to say, this is my work and what I do (working with people on improving swing action), but I can’t help being personally impressed with young Blake’s athleticism and how he swings those clubs.

And I will be watching to see how he does!