Perfecting Jordan's swing

This week we look at the youngest member of the junior academy six-year-old Jordan Mann (pictured below).

Jordan’s favourite club is his driver, like most youngsters they like to hit the ball as far as they can. Jordan’s swing with the driver is balanced, controlled and consistent. This is partly due to his set up procedure. We are keen to get children into the right position early on as this helps create a repeatable swing.

Jordan sets up with his feet together then moves his left foot a couple of inches to the left then his right foot to the right so the feet are at least shoulder width apart.
This set up routine stops him rushing and ensures the correct ball position, which is just inside the left heel.

His swing is very smooth and balanced unlike most amateurs when they try to hit the driver hard too early in the swing. Jordan hits the ball a long way for a youngster with a perfectly balanced swing — a lesson for us all to learn.

Other things to remember when looking for more distance off the tee include:
- Tee the ball a little higher than normal, and play it forward in your stance, opposite the instep of your left foot.
- Widen your stance slightly, and settle at least 60 per cent of your weight on your right side. Your head and your hands should be placed slightly behind the ball.
- Maintain a light grip pressure, relax your body and don’t ground the clubhead – hover it slightly above the turf.
- Combined, these adjustments will make it a lot easier for you to make a full and free shoulder turn, create a wide arc and get your body fully turned behind the ball at the top of your swing. You should feel an increase in the amout of body coil.

Working on Jordan's grip
Under the Potter microscope this week is 6-year-old Jordan Mann.
Jordan is the youngest in the Academy but technically has an extremely good golf swing for his age. The one area we are going to look at, though, is his grip.

We can see at the set up position that Jordan’s right arm is straight and his left arm is slightly flexed because his left-hand grip is weak with the V of his left-hand pointing towards the left shoulder (see fig 1) rather than his right shoulder this will cause his shoulders to be open at address.

At this age it is sensible to use a two handed baseball grip but I am a keen advocate of trying to get youngsters to grip it with an interlock or overlap grip as soon as they are strong enough, as a two handed grip tends to make the right hand too dominant as illustrated here which makes the shoulders aim left.

The correct grip is illustrated with the left arm straight with the right arm slightly flexed (see fig 2). This is the only minor fault in an otherwise very good swing.

Jordan will improve greatly this year especially if he has a growth spurt