Transcription
Riley Andrews:
Show us one where you put quite a bit of energy in the system early in your backswing.
TJ Kathrineberg:
Okay.
Riley Andrews:
And then super chill it out in the honey hole. And then you can shoot it back out all in one motion. But manage your energy. Beautiful. Like right there. That’s an even better strike than the first one.
TJ Kathrineberg:
Yeah.
Milo Lines:
Let’s talk about how finding the honey hole, one of your terms,…
Riley Andrews:
Honey hole, baby.
Milo Lines:
…can make you into a great player. Okay, guys. So again, on your Instagram…I don’t remember if this was on yours or Luke Bracey’s, one of you. But I heard the term honey hole. And I saw what was demonstrated, and for me it equates to some different language. But let’s walk through what the honey hole is in the golf swing.
Riley Andrews:
Beautiful. So the honey hole is, traditionally speaking, like P5 or delivery, is what honey hole is. But we call it honey hole because we use it with a lot of our juniors. So something that they can remember. If you go, “Hey, show me P5,” they don’t really register it.
Milo Lines:
I don’t use the P system much, once in a while, just because people like that language. But I say from here we’re kind of hitting the square. And that’s how we begin to shallow the golf swing and create some pelvic depth, right?
Riley Andrews:
Sure, sure, exactly.
Milo Lines:
So let’s walk up to the top of the backswing, and then show me what honey hole is.
Riley Andrews:
Okay, perfect. One, I think that when we’re looking at honey hole, you look at all these different swings on tours, obviously really, really high level swings. And you see all kinds of differences. From Matt Wolff in the backswing compared to Adam Scott, they look very different. Even at impact at times we’ll see differences. The golf club will be in different positions. You see a guy like Neem, and the golf club’s super low, the grip’s low. Hogan, the grip’s low. You got guys like Jimmy Walker, the grip’s a little bit higher, it stands up. So we can’t necessarily say that impact, where the golf club is, is the same way. We need to get the golf club back to the same spot in space.
Milo Lines:
Impact changes slightly because everybody grips the golf club slightly different. And so the matchups required to get the face and the path aligned where they want it to go might be slightly different, right?
Riley Andrews:
Yeah. And I love what you said there. Matchups is everything in this game. However, when you’re really studying all these really elite level players, you’ll see the golf club in an extremely similar position in one spot in the golf swing. And that’s what we call honey hole. The club itself, just the geometry of it, where it’s at, where the face is pointing, the shaft, the grip, is in the same position with almost every really high level player. Right here in honey hole. So again, getting back on topic here, Milo, where I’m swinging up to the top, what to do from here, I think was the question.
Milo Lines:
Yeah. So in my vision, there really is no such thing as the top of a golf swing. The golf swing is a swing, but we’re going to use that arbitrary spot as the top. So we arrive up here where the club begins to change directions and our body begins to change directions. What do we want to see happen?
Riley Andrews:
So, number one, if we’re looking at hip depth, which is a super common term now, we’re always looking at trail hip. We don’t really necessarily care about what’s going on in this lead hip because I can move this lead hip correctly. But the trail hip, I don’t maintain or create depth in it. And now I’m in extension. So problem. So from here we want trail hip depth. And just that little move…Look at what the golf club does. I didn’t do anything up here at all with my arms, hands, nothing.
Milo Lines:
It lowers everything down.
Riley Andrews:
It lowers everything down, exactly. And you can do some different kinds of things just to get the golf club in different positions back there if you want to. With maybe your arm structure, you could go internal rotation, that gets the head a little bit deeper if you want to do that. Especially with guys that like to draw it, that’s helpful. You can do some stuff with your hands where we get lead wrist flexion to control the face just a little bit more. All that stuff, again, that’s in matchups. But just generally where the instrument is located, if I just sit, only that, now the golf club’s in honey hole. And this is what we actually deem as the finish of the backswing. So we’ll put energy in and float to here. That’s the finish of the backswing in our minds at our academy. We’re floating into here. That’s it.
Milo Lines:
So your goal is to float to there and then let the energy go.
Riley Andrews:
Float to honey hole, turn, and shoot it out into finish.
Milo Lines:
Awesome. Well, we’ve got one of your assistants or another coach in your academy here. Remind me your name. TJ?
TJ Kathrineberg:
Yeah, TJ Kathrineberg.
Milo Lines:
Okay. We’re going to let him be the demonstrator and hit a shot for us. Because I’ve already seen you hit it and know you can do it.
Riley Andrews:
Yep.
Milo Lines:
So walk me through your feels to get to honey hole and to deliver that nice strike.
TJ Kathrineberg:
Yeah. So the way that I float into honey hole is…And again, we’re talking about top of the backswing, but the finish of the backswing in my mind is that honey hole place. So floating into honey hole is at what traditionally would be called the top of the backswing. The first thing I do is I sit and create some flexion in that right hip socket. So here is kind of the sitting motion. And if I do that properly, that golf club, as Riley was saying, just floats into that spot. There’s not a lot that I try to do with my arms, my hands, any of that, really.
Milo Lines:
So that’s the real key. We’re not pulling it down on the golf club to try to make the thing go fast out of the top. We’re floating into that position, and our arms are kind of just weightless.
Riley Andrews:
Yep.
TJ Kathrineberg:
That’s a great point because we don’t want to shoot energy out of the system too early. Because then the whole thing gets thrown out of whack. I don’t have as much speed actually at golf ball where I need it. So that’s why we hold onto it a little longer, sit, and now from here I’m able to shoot all the energy out of the system that way, not here. So it looks a little something like this.
Riley Andrews:
Good. So if you do that again, TJ, you can…I think this is good training for this. Show us one where you put quite a bit of energy in the system early in your backswing. And then super chill it out into honey hole. And then you can shoot it back out all in one motion. But manage your energy. Beautiful. Like right there. That’s an even better strike than the first one. And you’ll notice how chilled out up here it is. It’s energized. Once he energizes it, then it’s floating. This is all organization time up here. And I think that’s why I like your term. There’s not necessarily a top of the backswing position. Because if you do that, if that’s your mindset, you’re going to carry energy up here for too long, most likely. Energize, boom, it all floats into honey hole. And then you can energize again to shoot all the energy out like TJ was talking about.
Milo Lines:
I like to think of it as a swing set. So when I’m on a swing swinging, when the swing set arrives up here, it doesn’t just immediately change directions. It comes up, floats, and then gravity takes over, and boom. It accelerates down.
TJ Kathrineberg:
Exactly right.
Riley Andrews:
Yep. Shoots energy back out. So all that is you’re just storing energy up here. Almost feels like you’re getting rid of it. Like it’s chill, little bit of rotation on the other side, away we go.
TJ Kathrineberg:
Awesome.
Riley Andrews:
Awesome.
Milo Lines:
So I hope you guys have all liked this video. These guys are awesome coaches. If you do like it, come on over to milolinesgolf.com where we can teach you how to apply these principles. And visit these guys on their Instagram Elite Golf Schools. Come visit them for a golf lesson. They’re awesome coaches.
Riley Andrews:
Beautiful. Thanks Milo.
