I, along with my good friend and fellow GOLF Top 100 Teacher Wayne Flint, have been working with Buddy Hansen, one of the better amateurs in the Philadelphia area, on a swing fault we see at every level of the game. As Buddy approached impact, his chest would stall. When that happens, the hands and arms have to take over the release. This is no good because any release pattern that relies on hand timing instead of proper body sequencing is going to be less reliable and predictable.
For Buddy, it showed up most in his iron play. He simply wasn’t striking the ball as solidly as he wanted. He could hit a great shot, but the misses were inconsistent. His swing didn’t need a rebuild, it just needed a tune-up in one specific area.
You don’t have to spin your chest at top speed to play great golf, but it does need to keep moving (instead of stalling) through the downswing. We addressed it with a series of feels and drills designed to keep his pivot moving. You can see the entire progression in the latest episode of our Pro Work series below.
To start, we had Buddy allow his head to drift slightly to the right as he turned back, making it easier for his chest to complete its turn. Think of it like winding a spring. The more fully you load the spring in the backswing, the more energy you can release on the way down.
Players who stall through impact also tend to lose their posture, with the hips moving closer to the golf ball. That pushes the swing direction out to the right, and the club approaches impact on a much steeper, more upright plane. From a ground-pressure standpoint, it often feels as though pressure moves out toward the toes of the lead foot — if it ever fully gets to the lead side at all.
Instead of standing up to create space, we wanted Buddy to keep turning his chest. One feel that really helped was paying attention to where the pressure finished in his lead foot. Rather than moving toward the toes, it needed to feel as though it was settling into the heel, a good indication that his body was continuing to rotate around instead of standing up.
Once you understand that sensation, try this drill. Have a friend stand facing you a safe distance away and hold a club shaft straight out at about elbow height while taking a couple of steps toward the target side. As you swing, it should feel as though the club travels around and underneath the guide shaft. If your chest stalls and you lose your posture, you’ll immediately feel as though the club wants to move upward into the shaft. (Just make sure your friend is standing far enough away that even a poor swing can’t actually hit it.)
Even highly skilled players with plenty of clubhead speed fall into this pattern because standing up out of posture creates the sensation of having more room to swing the arms faster. It’s one of golf’s classic illusions: what feels more powerful is often less efficient. Keeping the chest turning through impact improves contact, stabilizes the clubface and ultimately produces more consistent ball speed.
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