Flick's master tips: practice swinging from your knees for longer, straighter shots

Golf Digest, March, 2004 by Jim Flick

I learned this drill from my friend Bob Toski when we were doing Golf Digest Schools together in the 1970s, and I still use it in my teaching. The knees drill promotes five things in the golf swing, all of them good:

* It teaches the feeling of swinging the arms and club to turn the shoulders on both the backswing and through swing.

* It teaches keeping the club on the right arc, because if the club gets too inside, it will strike the ground behind the ball.

* It quiets an overactive body.

* It helps identify the arm freedom necessary to swing the club at optimum speed.

* It teaches a free release of the clubhead, which squares the clubface at impact.

This drill is particulary good for juniors, who often are so agile that their bodies are too active in the swing. It's also great for older golfers, who need to feel how to use the clubhead to synchronize the moving parts of the body.

When performing this drill, tee the ball high and use a driver. Swing at 80 percent. You'll probably whiff and hit the ground on the first few swings. But stay with it. When you stand up again, your shots will soar long and straight.

Jim Flick, voted No. 6 by his peers in Golf Digest's ranking of America's 50 Greatest Teachers, is based at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale and Boyne Highlands in Michigan.