Easy Golf Lag Drill | Stick Behind The Ball • Top Speed Golf
Why You Need This:
In this video, you get an easy golf lag drill.
Now this is one of the best drills out there for getting lag…
And it’s called the “Stick Behind the Ball” drill.
What we’ll cover in this video is actually version 2 of this drill.
I added a few pointers and you’ll also get answers to some of the questions…
…asked by members from the original drill video.
Let’s get started by walking through this great lag drill.
First grab an alignment stick and hold it against your grip…
…to form a straight line with your club (an extension of your club).
As you move into your downswing, you’ll want to keep the stick pointed to the right of ball as long as possible.
This will help you keep your lag and prevent casting your club early.
If you tend to cast your club, this stick will point well ahead of your ball…
So the stick gives you instant feedback on your lag angle.
Keep in mind that you don’t want to try to hit the ball with the stick.
But after working this drill, you’ll drop the stick…
And hit some balls.
At this point, you should be creating a ton more lag.
So watch this video now to get one of my favorite lag drills…
And start whipping your club through impact with tons of club head speed.
What’s Covered: How to effectively build and use lag.
Golf Pros Featured: Dustin Johnson Rory McIlroy
Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard
Video Duration: 5:03
Watch This Video Now!
Normally, this video in our step-by-step, course-based training is only available to our All Access Members…
But I’ll let you watch this ONE video today only… because I can already tell I’m going to like you !
Video Transcription:
Hey guys, and welcome back to the Top Speed Golf System. In this video we’re going to go over one of the best drills that there is out there for getting more lag.
It’s the stick behind the ball drill, this is actually version two, I wanted to add a couple of things, I got a few questions that I wanted to have answered that members had chimed in on. Let’s walk through one of the best drills you can do for lag right away.
All we’re going to do is get an alignment stick, I usually throw these down on the ground to get my alignment correct, make sure that we’re getting some good alignment as we’re setting up.
What we’re going to do here is we’re going to take this stick, and we’re going to hold it against our grip here, and we’re going to use this to see about where our club is lining up in the downswing.
So after I set up to this golf ball, now normally my club would be a little bit more vertical, a little bit less forward shaft lean, but it might feel a little bit different here, and that’s OK.
As I make my backswing and I start my downswing, what I want to do is I want to keep this stick pointing to the right side, so anything to the ball or to the right as long as possible in the downswing.
So I don’t want to start casting my club. If I start to use the muscles in the upper right arm, so if I start to cast this club at all, you’re going to feel some pressure in your thumb, you’re going to feel some pressure in your index finger in your right hand, and the bottom of your index finger.
That’s going to be pushing this club out, and these muscles up here that extend your wrist, that’s what’s called ulnar deviation, going to be throwing the club out. Those would be what cause you to lose lag.
Well if I use this same drill with my stick on the club, now as I start to cast at all, my stick is pointing to the left of my ball already.
So what I want to do, is I want to keep that to the right of the ball as long as possible, and then I’m going to go ahead and come down to contact, and then I won’t really be able to swing on through with this stick, this I just to work the backswing and the downswing. So nice wide takeaway, keep that stick pointing to the right.
Now a couple questions here that I want to make sure that I saw some people doing, sometimes they’re a little bit off.
Let’s pretend that I’m going this way, and now where should this stick be pointing as I’m creating this lag? As I start my downswing, as my club is coming in the downswing, a couple things here.
In the moves section we talked about how we’re going to actually flatten this club out a little bit, so on the way back if it’s a little steeper, on the way down that club is going to shallow out, and our hands and our club are going to shallow out.
This left wrist is going to be nice and flat or a little bit bowed. So some people when they do this stick drill, they have a tendency to want to cup this wrist, where now that gets a little bit of an arch in it.
I want to keep that nice and bowed, and now if you look at the stick from this direction, we’re going to see that the stick is pointing kind of anywhere in this zone if I took the target line with the ball, that’s the direction I’m going to be hitting and I took about a six or eight-inch rectangle out through here.
As long as that stick is pointing anywhere in this zone, that’s great. If I get a little too steep, let me go ahead and show you what I mean by this. If I get a little bit too steep, now I’m in here, well yeah, I’ve got a lot of lag, I’ve created some lag there, but now my club is chopping down too vertical.
Again I want to shallow that out, and I wanted to have this stick pointing in this zone kind of outside the ball as it’s coming down, and my left wrist is going to be nice and flat.
Now from there, I’m in a position where I can really come in with some good lag, nice and shallow with the ball. There I’m very late in my swing as my hands are hip height, that club is still pointing to the right of the ball, and then bam, I can go ahead and release that later on the swing.
Now once I get rid of the stick, all I’m going to do is I’m going ahead and let that go, just like we talk about in the straight line release section.
So here, I got the stick to the right of the ball, this is nice and flat, I’ve shallowed out my swing just like we talk about in the moves. Then as I come on through, I’m letting all that go into my straight line release.
So I don’t want to have this stick angle here and then hold off like that, I want to have that there, and then let that rip right on through.
Let’s go ahead and try that out, we’re going to get some fantastic lag, and you’re going to see that ball really explode off the face.
There we go, stick behind the ball drill, one of my all-time favorites for creating more lag. Work this drill, I want you guys to do 100 repetitions pausing as the hands are about halfway down.
Let’s go ahead and grab another ball here. I’m going to pause when my hands are halfway into the downswing. This will be position number one.
I’m going to check to make sure that left wrist is flat, I’m going to check to make sure my club is flattening out, that means that this stick is going to be pointing in this area somewhere.
Then I’m going to lose the stick, and I’m going to go ahead in my straight line release. So I’m going to do about 100 repetitions pausing.
I’m going to do 100 reps recreating that same feel with my full swing, and then I’m going to do 100 shots alternating between practice swings and actually hitting shots.
It’s really going to help you to ingrain this. For those of you who haven’t watched our moves section, we really work on flattening out this club, getting it to bow, that’s the key to getting pro-type problems that I talk about in that video.
So be sure to watch that video also, it ties in directly with this.
Good luck to you guys, work hard on those drills, I’ll see you all soon.
12 Golf Alignment Stick Drills To Improve Your Game
Alignment sticks are some of the simplest and easiest training tools in golf, and while most people think they are only good for checking and working with your target and body alignment, there are a lot of other drills you can do to improve various aspects. Of your game!
Alignment sticks can help to improve weight shift, simple alignment, and keeping your clubhead on the path as well as bunker striking, shot shaping and stopping the slice, offering every golfer a versatile tool for game improvements at the range or home!
Let’s grab your sticks ( or buy some if you don’t have any), head out to the range or your backyard, and check out these six great alignment stick drills that will help you improve your game today!
Check out our post on the best alignment sticks if you need to pick some up!
Alignment Stick Exercise #1 – Curing The Slice
youtube.com/embed/oUgePT5FVAo?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=””>
Slicing is a major problem with many golfers, and while there are countless remedies, this simple drill using an alignment stick is a great way to understand and prevent the mechanics that cause the slice in the first place.
The slice is caused when the trailing arm in the golf swing isn’t pushing through enough, and the leading arm pulls the club too hard through the strike zone, causing the clubface to open at impact, and presto! The slice!
How To Do The Drill
- Take an alignment stick and push it into the ground, then take your swing posture next to it.
- Make your swing with your hands and as you come through the downswing, push down onto the stick with your trailing palm.
Then take your club and repeat that same action when you hit a ball – if you’re doing it right, you’ll hit it straighter and with more power too!
Alignment Stick Exercise #2 – Weight Shift
Another big issue with weekend golfers is that they struggle to shift their weight through the swing and into the hitting side, so this exercise will help you move your weight through the swing.
Even though another aspect of your swing may be good, poor rotation can lead to inconsistent striking and direction.
How To Do The Drill
- Setup the alignment stick less than an inch away from your leading hip – so for a right-handed golfer, this would be on the left hip and vice versa for a left-handed golfer.
- The goal is to have the leading hip brush the alignment stick as you swing and rotate.
If you don’t, that means you haven’t rotated properly, or if you strike the stick before you hit the ball, you’ve turned too early. Using this drill will improve the timing of the weight shift and give you better rotation through your swing.
Alignment Stick Exercise #3 – Shot Shaping
This exercise will work for high-handicap players looking to hit consistently straighter shots and low handicappers who want to shape the ball.
How To Do The Drill
- Set the alignment sticks about 13 feet in front of you and about 3 feet apart. See how many you can get between them.
- Then to work on hitting straigther shots, try and hit the ball between the sticks for ten shots.
- For low-handicap players looking to shape shots, set the sticks up the same way.
- Then, for the draw, try and launch the ball on the right side of the alignment sticks and move it back left and for the fade, look to launch the ball on the left side and bring it back right.
Alignment Stick Drill #4 – Keeping The Clubface On The Swing Path
This is another consistent behavior for high, mid and even low handicap players, but using this alignment stick drill will certainly help improve that aspect of your swing.
This exercise is known as the ‘Train Track Drill,’ which is how you do it.
How To Do The Drill
- Set the alignment sticks to your target line and place them about 18 inches apart.
- Then set the ball about 2 inches away from the back alignment stick (the one closest to you) and place your club head behind the ball.
- Make your swing and focus on keeping your clubhead inside the track lane on your takeaway and downswing. This gives you a great and clear visual representation of the clubface path through the strike zone, and you will see an improvement in both striking and direction if you can keep the clubface on the swing path.
Alignment Stick Exercise #5 – Ball Striking In The Bunker
The alignment sticks will be used in this drill to set the lines up in the bunker.
???? See our article on the best club to use in a bunker.
How To Do The Drill
- Take one post and draw two lines parallel to each, about 2 inches apart and leading away from you at 90 degrees.
- The front line will be where the ball is, and the back line represents the striking point for the clubface.
- Because you need to strike the ball about 1.5 inches behind it in the sand, you will focus on hitting the back line with the clubface and allowing the wedge bounce to do the rest.
You can do this with or without the ball for variation and focus on consistently making contact with the back line before adding the ball.
Alignment Stick Drill #6 – Basic Alignment
This is a fundamental skill to playing consistently good golf, and getting your alignment correct will mean more shots on target on the course and the range.
How To Do The Drill
- Pick your target line and then set the alignment stick facing your target.
- Place the ball about 2 inches before the stick, then set your stance.
- Using the stick as a guide, check that your feet, clubhead, shoulders, and hips are aligned to the target by checking them against the stick.
You can, of course, use more than one stick here, with one for the feet and one for the club head, and then use another post against your shoulders to ensure all three are properly aligned to the target.
This is particularly insightful as often, golfers think they are aligned, and when using this exercise, they find that their hips or shoulders are either pointing right or left of their intended target line.
Practice this until you can achieve consistent alignment without them. This will increase your confidence in the course and the range and enable you to hit more consistently accurate shots.
Alignment Stick Exercise #7 – The Narrow Path Drill
Like the train track drill above, this exercise is another focused drill to keep your clubhead on the right path.
How To Do The Drill
- Take alignment stick that was sitting on your toes in the ‘Train Track Drill’ and move it closer to the ball.
- There should be a one inch gap between the ball and the stick and place the other alignment stick on the other side of the ball also one inch away. This will create the ‘Narrow Path’ for the clubhead.
- When swinging make sure that your clubhead stays between the sticks and that the divot (if you take one) travels down that same path.This will give you the feel of the clubhead travelling on the right path to the ball.
If your club hits one of the sticks, you can then see on which plane your club is travelling (in-out /out-in) and work on getting the clubhead path more consistent.
Alignment Stick Drill #8 – The Takeaway Drill
One of the biggest issues with amateur golfers is the takeaway on the backswing.
This is often done fast and ends up taken inside the target line instead of extending the clubhead along the target line for as long as possible before turning the shoulders.
How To Do The Drill
- Using your alignment sticks, place one stick directly behind the ball and make sure it is on the target line.
- When you make the takeaway with the club you’re swinging, use the stick as the takeaway guideline and ensure the cliubhead travels over it on the backswing.
- Keep the club low and take it back slowly – there is no rule that says your backswing has to be fast!
This exercise will help you keep the clubhead on the target line and help you hit straighter shots more often. You may even hit a stinger!
Alignment Stick Drill #9 – The Downward Strike Drill
Many golfers complain about hitting the ground before the ball which has a big impact on your ball striking.
Here is an exercise that will certainly help with improving the impact points in your shots.
How To Do The Drill
- Take your alignment stick and place it about an inch behind the ball and have it perpendicular to the target line.
- Once this is in place, set the ball up in front of the alignment stick and take your swing.
- If you don’t hit the stick, then your downward strike is where it should be , however, if you hit the stick before you hit the ball, then you know that you are striking the ground first and you can work to improve the downward strike on your swing.
When doing this exercise, you need to remember that if you hit the stick with your club, it could possibly break and make sure you have secured the stick on the ground as it could fly up into your face should you hit it.
Alignment Stick Drill #10 – Aim And Ball Flight Drill
This is a great alignment stick drill and it gives you an amazing insight into the ball flight and line after it leaves your club.
How To Do The Drill
Place an alignment stick in the ground about 5-10 feet in front of your ball and aligned to the target line and then hit balls at the stick. This is an excellent visual guide to see not only the line of the ball, but the ball flight.
Alignment Stick Exercise #10 – Variation 1
As an additional option on this drill, place a second stick in the ground to create a pathway. You can position this one at different distances from the first stick, giving you wider and narrower flight paths.
Practice hitting the ball through the gap between them on a straight line and this will help you achieve more consistent accuracy with all your clubs.
Alignment Stick Exercise #10 – Variation 2 – Shaping
For more advanced players, try shaping the ball around the stick instead of hitting it. So set up the exercise the same way, but instead of trying to hit the stick, try and draw or fade the ball around the stick.
This alignment stick drill will give you great visual tracking of your ball flight and shot shape.
Alignment Stick Exercise #11 – Ball Position
Another big problem that amateur golfers struggle with is the correct ball position and this alignment stick drill will help you become more confident when it comes to ball position in the stance.
How To Do The Drill
With your golf ball on the ground, lay one stick inside the ball along the target line, then place the second stick behind the golf ball perpendicular to your body. This will form a ‘T’ shape on the ground.
With the second stick running between your legs giving you the ‘true’ position of the ball in your swing rather then the ‘perceived position’ of the ball which is what leads to the confusion in the first place.
Alignment Stick Exercise #12 – The Putting Path Drill
Here is another simple but effective alignment stick drill that achieves a number of key goals when putting. It will keep your putter head travelling in a straight line to the hole and you will be able to see if your putter deviates during the stroke at all.
It also gets you the image of seeing the ball travel to the hole and go in – something that many golfers don’t always do and that is staying down after hitting the putt and watching it go into the hole.
How To Do The Drill
- To do this drill, find a hole on the putting green (can also be an indoor putting green) that is flat and set your putter on the ground aligned to the hole.
- Then set the alignment sticks just outside the heel and toe of the putter so it forms a path or channel to the hole.
- Set, the ball down in front of the putter and make the stroke.
- You should see the ball travel down the path created by the alignment sticks and drop into the hole.
If the ball hits the alignment sticks, you will know you’ve either pushed or pulled the stroke and you can correct it on the next putt.
A native of the Russian Federation implanted an electrode in his brain at home using a household drill
Dozens of prominent scientists have been trying for many years to create safe methods for chipping the human brain. The founder of Tesla has invested millions of dollars in his project, but has not yet achieved significant results. All statements by the billionaire are limited to the near future, while today he was able to present several demonstrations, none of which included the real achievements of the human brain. What did not work out for scientists, did an ordinary guy named Mikhail Raduga.
A native of Novosibirsk became the object of increased media attention after he independently performed a brain chip operation using only a household drill and paper clips as tools. This unique and extreme operation caused a wide resonance in the world media and became the subject of discussion among specialists and the public. According to the information that was first published by the Baza Telegram channel, Raduga performed this experiment on himself at the age of 40 by implanting an electrode in his own brain. It is noted that Mikhail did not have a billion dollars and a startup, like the American billionaire Elon Musk, to conduct such a study. Instead, Raduga used YouTube tutorials showing the work of neurosurgeons.
The main goal of the operation for Rainbow was the desire to learn how to control her dreams. The homegrown neurosurgeon thought about this for many years, and in the end decided on a bold experiment. According to Rainbow himself, before performing an operation on himself, he carried out several experiments on sheep to acquire certain skills. It is not clear how many sheep participated in the experiments, and it is also unclear whether they survived after that, because the follower of Elon Musk does not share such details. As for the operation itself, it was clearly carried out without proper preparation, which could lead to health risks for Rainbow Dash. So, at the time of drilling a hole in the brain, he lost up to 20% of his blood volume. In some situations, such actions end in a stroke, as well as the threat of developing epilepsy.
Finally, Rainbow drilled through his own head and implanted an electrode in his brain. The location of the electrode is the motor cortex of the brain, which is responsible for planning, controlling and executing movements. Experts note that so far there are no legal surgeries in the world to implant various implants into the human brain. Well, the use of a household drill and paper clips does raise questions about the adequacy of someone who decided to perform an operation on his own head. According to Raduga, the experiment almost cost him his life, but the autopsy of the skull was carried out at home in the city of Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), where he had recently moved. So far, there is no information about whether Rainbow actually achieved his goal and was able to control his own dreams after the operation. The homegrown Elon Musk is alive, but it’s unclear if he’s healthy. In general, a person who comes up with such ideas can hardly be considered mentally healthy, so it is extremely difficult to determine the state of Rainbow after the operation, because he was different from ordinary people before.
This material was written by a site visitor and has been rewarded.
A Russian implanted a chip in the brain by drilling through the skull with a drill. That’s how he wanted to control dreams He had no practical knowledge of neurosurgery, so he studied the “topic” with the help of Youtube and trained on dead sheep.
After online training, the man decided to drill his own skull, he lost a lot of blood, but survived and even implanted a chip in his brain. For two months he conducted experiments with a polysomnograph.
According to Mikhail, the topic of lucid dreams interested him at school. From the age of 16, he began to conduct theoretical research, and at 20 he published his first book. Later, he got a private laboratory in which he already conducted practical tests on animals (dead). Mikhail says that he published a lot of scientific papers on this topic, although he never applied for scientific degrees and did not work as a researcher anywhere.
At some point in his life, he came up with a new hypothesis – that by stimulating the cerebral cortex in REM sleep, one can learn to control lucid dreams without waking up.
“In theory, let’s say a person is sleeping, and if we stimulate certain parts of the brain, then we can send signals into his sleep, and the person can understand that he is sleeping. And I have been preparing this study for about a year and a half, ”the blogger told Baza.
Due to the fact that medical experiments on humans are illegal all over the world, Mikhail immediately realized that only he himself could become his real test subject.
“Scientists do not do research [with electrode implantation], because it is extremely difficult to obtain permission for this. Sometimes people get epilepsy, and they put electrodes on them, but in our case, we needed a person who has lucid dreams. And finding an epileptic who owns them is almost impossible. Even Elon Musk cannot conduct experiments on people – it is against the law. No one would have conducted this study for another 10–20 years, ”he explained.
For a while, Mikhail Raduga’s laboratory even managed to get funding for his experiments. But with the beginning of the NWO, revenues weakened. For some time, he tried to negotiate with legal clinics about implanting electrodes in his brain, but all doctors refused, citing high risks of license revocation.
“So I ended up in an impasse. The only way to conduct a study is to place the electrodes on the motor cortex of the brain yourself. I [at first] dismissed that thought because it’s not normal and so on. But she crept into my head. I began to think, to study this topic. And the more I studied, the more I began to understand – although it is dangerous, but if I cannot live without this study, then I can try to do it. I am glad that I survived, but I was ready to die, ”comments the blogger.
For two months, Mikhail Raduga, according to him, was preparing for the operation. I watched videos of similar operations with comments by neurosurgeons on the Internet, trained on the heads of sheep – drilled, installed electrodes.
Then I realized that I was ready to work with my own skull. He took the final step on May 17 of this year.
Bought a drill from a hardware store and got to work. He drilled into his head, fixing the skin with paper clips, implanted an electrode in his brain.
The operation took four hours – he filmed it from start to finish.
“You can see how I open the tendon helmet, drill a hole in the skull, do trepanation, place electrodes under the dura mater, conduct electrical stimulation and sew it up,” says Mikhail.
During the operation on himself, the man lost about a liter of blood and almost died. But he did not turn to doctors for help. After the operation, according to the stories of Mikhail himself, he took a shower and worked for some time, because he could not sleep.
In the next few weeks, according to the blogger, they went to research. To sleep with a polysomnograph, he attracted a researcher who caught the REM phase and sent signals to the cerebral cortex.
“In general, we tested the hypothesis that it is really possible to give signals to sleep and they do not wake up, which is the most important thing. They fall into a dream, but the person does not wake up. In the future, this will lead to the fact that it will be possible to create implants that will allow you to get into lucid dreams there and control them, ”Mikhail told Baza.
A man needs unusual research in order to continue developing technologies for chipping the human brain, explained the researcher and the test subject in one person.
Mikhail did not tell anyone about the experience of self-trepanation of the skull, not even to the researcher who helped him research dreams.
However, when the implanted electrodes began to grow into the brain, the blogger turned to neurosurgeons. The electrodes were removed, however, a hole remained in the head, sums up Mikhail Raduga.
Consultant neurosurgeon Alex Green from Oxford University criticized a self-taught experimenter from Russia. He stated that a man could easily die or get a stroke, and now he is at risk of developing epilepsy.
The editors of “NI” strongly oppose such experiments.