june 2019 | golfdigest.com 57
you don’t need a club
to improve your swing
by ron kaspriske
OUT
does it. you do it. we all do it.
Whether it’s in front of a mirror,
after the elevator door closes, or just
to get a giggle out of an amused
toddler, making golf swings, sans
club, is a long-established golf ritual.
Although it might seem frivolous,
you can actually improve your swing
if you pay attention to what you’re do-
ing. ▶ “It’s like shadowboxing. There’s
no anticipation of hitting something,
so you can focus on making the
moves you want and the coordination
of them,” says Golf Digest Teaching
Professional Butch Harmon, who
coaches Johnson. “It smoothes out
the whole motion.” ▶ Allen Terrell,
director of coaching at the Dustin
Johnson Golf School and Johnson’s
former college coach, says it has value
at any level, and he has been watch-
ing Dustin do it for years. “It cleans
up a lot of bad movement and helps
teach a fluid, unrushed swing,” he
says. ▶ For Johnson, that’s the key:
“I want to swing with effortless pow-
er, not power with effort,” he says.
▶ Here Johnson demonstrates how
air swings can help your game.
DJ
