Chances are that you've heard of 'the slot.' It's a position halfway into your downswing from where you can hit the ball on a slightly in-to-out path. You might think of it as the lower part of your swing plane, starting at the point when (if you're a right-handed player) that your right elbow drops down close to your right side.

Here’s a great golf drill to practice getting into the slot on the downswing. Go to the top of your swing and stop. Then, bring the club down to about waist high. As you do this, feel your right elbow come into your side. Make sure you cock keep your wrists. Pump the club two or three times like this. On the fourth pump, go ahead and hit the. Swing to the top as normal, and hold the position. Now take your trail hand off the club and grip your lead wrist from underneath, as shown. Move slowly and smoothly into your downswing. As you do this, use your trail hand to pull the lead arm downwards; avoid any tendency for it to move out towards the ball.

It then dawned on him exactly what the difference was between purposely dropping the hands in the slot and “allowing” the hands to drop in the slotor creating a situation where the hands will drop in the slot. He hit a few balls, with mixed results of course, but he hit two balls in a row that were solid and had nice controlled draws.

Step 1

Address the ball normally. Everyone's setup is slightly different, but your feet should be about shoulder-width apart when using your driver and slightly narrower for the shorter clubs. Bend forward from your hips so your spine leans toward the ball and your knees are slightly flexed as if you were squatting to lift something. Let your arms hang down, with your triceps resting lightly against your chest and the club head behind the ball.

Step 2

Start your takeaway by turning your shoulders, keeping your arms relaxed without bending your elbows.

How To Get Into The Slot In Golf Swing Test

With your triceps resting lightly against your chest and your knees slightly flexed, you'll be able to turn your shoulders and carry your hands (and the club) to nearly waist high before your right elbow will need to bend. You'll have made most of your shoulder turn at this point.

Step 3

Bend your right elbow toward your right shoulder. This will simultaneously cock your wrists and allow you to finish your shoulder turn.

When you finish this part of your swing, your shoulders will have turned roughly 90 degrees from your address position, pointing the club shaft down the target line and parallel to the ground. A quick checkpoint: At the top of your backswing, your right shoulder will be visible underneath the upside-down V formed by your hands and forearms, and your right forearm will be parallel to your spine.

Your hips will be turned slightly to the right and your left knee pointing slightly behind the ball. You'll feel tension in your right knee as it resists your hip twist; this is what most golfers refer to as a 'weight shift.'

Step 4

Drop into the slot by letting your knees return to their address position – both flexed – and let your arms drop slightly so your right elbow moves closer to your right side. Although this action causes a chain reaction. Your hips will start to unwind, your shoulders will start to uncoil, and your downswing will start. Dropping into the slot feels as if you are just exhaling so you can relax for an instant – but only an instant.

Step 5

Hit the ball as hard as you want. The 'relaxing' started your hips unwinding and, as Ben Hogan wrote, 'After you have initiated the downswing with the hips, you want to think of only one thing: hitting the ball.' Once you're in the slot, it's hard to go wrong. All you need to do is straighten your right elbow, finish your downswing, and hammer the ball toward the target.

Do you struggle slotting your golf club?

A lot of golfers are being told you have to externally rotate your shoulder to get the club into the slot.

Well, I work with some players that are older, and I actually have a Mini Tour player, who struggle with getting that kind of range of motion in their shoulder.

How To Get In The Slot In Golf Swing

If you get set up and you place your arm like this, and you try and twist that shoulder back, and you try and get as much rotation this way as you possibly can, what you’ll find is, you may not have a lot of range of motion.

You may only be able to go to here. So, if you can’t slot the golf club because you’re trying to get your elbow in front, up to your belly-button, which is kind of the theme to externally rotating your shoulders, trying to get the elbow up, and if you can’t do that, well, you’re never going to slot it. You’re going to be over the top all day.

How To Get Into Slot In Golf Swing

What we’ve done, and when I was working with one of my Mini guys is, we got to the top, we wanted to feel that right elbow slot back behind the seam of their shirt and getting that elbow to line up. So, if you have a seam in the side of your shirt, use that as your point of reference. And what you’ll want to feel is, let your right elbow soften up, so feel nice and loose, put that elbow on that seam, go to the top, and return that elbow on that seam, then smash the golf ball to the finish. I’ve learned some of these tips through the BioSwing Dynamics group, and what we’ve talked about is, when you have your palms up, and like you’re doing a bicep curl, you’d put your elbows in front and curl up, but if you flipped your grip and went palm-down, you would retract your elbows and put your elbows back.

How To Get Into The Slot In Golf Swing Training

If you’re a neutral to weaker grip golfer, preferably more on top, right hand or trail hand, then you want to feel that elbow line up a little bit deeper in your downswing as well. It matches up to that trail-arm action on the golf club. So, if we do it all correctly, you feel that right elbow soften going back up to the top.

How To Get Into The Slot In Golf Swing Simulator

Again, feel it get back behind your hip like you’re trying to drop your elbow into your butt pocket. Feel that elbow get back, smash it down to the ball, and have an awesome delivery into the impact area. This is a great tip and a great use of your trail arm to slot the golf club if you struggle doing it, because if you can get your hands a little deeper, your elbow a little deeper, especially if you have a hard time doing this, it’ll help push that club from the inside and you can start hitting some tight little draws.