Golf Tip Swing

Archive for October, 2009

Here is a tip I found in the Full Swing Handbook by Peter Morrice.

The golf swing starts when the club is taken back.  This starting back action  sets the shape and pace of your golf swing.   A golf swing that starts off  smoothly has the arms and body moving in sync and has a better chance to produce the results that you intended.  One that starts quickly or out of sequence will require you to compensate and this often produces undesirable results.  So how should you start your golf swing?

The following list will describe several keys to a good takeaway.

1. You should not start from a still position, this is a good reason to waggle the club at address as described in a previous post.
2. You may try a forward press in that you push your hands slightly forward toward the target immediately before starting the club back creating a rebound of the forward press
3. When you start back all hands, arms, and shoulders are moving away together in what is called the one-piece takeaway

When the clubhead reaches hip high you should notice 3 positions

1. The shaft is parallel to the target line, the butt end of grip pointing just left of target
2. You should have a slight hinge in the left wrist
3. The toe of the clubhead should be turned upward, as the forearms naturally start to rotate.

The only other factor to contemplate is tempo.  The starting back needs to be the slowest part of the swing.  If you start with a smooth and wide extension then you are more likely to maintain this throughout the golf swing and create a slow back swing with a powerful forward swing and soon your shots will be on target and long!

Love,

John

This is a tip from Todd Sones, Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher.

Lack of solid footing can be detrimental to your golf swing.  One golf tip from one of the leading golf instructors, Todd Sones, is to practice your footing in a fairway bunker.

This is a great way to promote proper weight movement.  If you make reverse weight shift in a bunker you are likely to lose your balance.  Hitting from the sand teaches you to keep the lower body balanced, letting your weight transfer naturally to your rear foot going back and to your front foot going forward.  It also helps with the tempo of your swing.

Did you ever wonder why good golfers when the go thru the pre-swing routine waggle the club back and forth until they feel ready to swing?

The waggle is important because it is the pathway to start the golf swing in motion.  The waggle is used to develop a rythym to take the club back in a loose fluid swing.  The waggle is used to release any tension that the golfer feels before hitting the golf ball.

In other words, the waggle in the golf swing will assist your subconcious mind into thinking about a truely productive thought.  The dynamic swing is what makes great golfers.  The static swing produces wild shots.  A swing that starts from small motions somewhat like a diesel engine that starts slowly and then revs up with to produce power.

A golf swing is a sequence of events that produces energy and power.  The waggle is the starter that warms up the energy to produce the proper path for the power to take place.

Until the next time,

John

Here’s a simple golf swing drill to help you take the club back and swing forward in the correct alignment.  You see many golf instructors using this precise golf swing drill on the practice range to improve the golf swing.

Take 2 golf clubs and place them on the ground in front of you,  one is placed on the outside of the golf ball with the club head in pointing up and out in front of the ball, the grip end is pointing backward, align the club head pointing toward the target line.

Place the other club parallel to the first club in front of the feet with head pointing toward the target and grip end is pointing backward.

Swing the golf club by taking the club straight back towards the inside to establish an on-plane swing.  At the top, you are in perfect position to swing the club into the ball on the inside path.

If you are on an outside path you will hit the club on the ground.  Practice with these clubs on the ground to engrain into your subconscious how the swing plane should work.

Until next time,

John

I’m always looking to improve my driver golf swing.  Here is a tip I found that can improve your driver golf swing.

Like anything when learning golf you need to develop some basic swing drills to affirm in your mind what is suppose to happen. One classic driver golf swing  drill is described in David Leadbetter’s “The Fundamentals of Hogan” and goes as follows: (This drill reinforces how your body should work while swinging a club.)

1. Take your posture with your driver in your hand, setup just as you were to hit the ball
2. Drop the club to the ground and fold your arms together across your chest area.
3. Keeping your lower body solid without excessive foot, knee, and hip motion.  Move and turn to your right side.
4. Feel the left shoulder moving down, back, and across so you feel the left shoulder brushing your chin.
5. Shoulders turn 90 degrees to your spin. Don’t tilt or raise them just turn them to the right.
6. A slight inward movement of the left knee is OK but keep a reasonable gap between both knees at the top.
7. A turn of 90 degrees at the shoulders and 45 at the hips is a good rule to follow.
8. Now that you got this turn down.  Pick up the driver and try to hit it.

No matter how good you can swing a club or if you are just starting out in the game, chances are that you would like to improve on your driver golf swing.  The driver golf swing should be fluid and consistent.  Working on simple drills will help improve your game.

Please feel free to click on any of the links throughout the site to visit golf instructors training and advice.

Until next time,

Golf is always fun,

John

Jack Nicklaus was one of the greatest golfers of all time and he described
in his book “Golf My Way” how the setup is the single most important thing
a golfer could do to improve the shot.

Now think about that for a minute. Do you spend hours on the driving range
whacking balls and see no improvement in your game? Are you finding yourself
inconsistent all the time and don’t really know when or if you will ever
hit a quality shot.

Pro’s don’t spend hours on the range whacking balls only. They spend hours working
on the setup. Yes, that’s right, hours on the setup. The great golfers want to know
what position they are in with the setup before they even swing.

The reason is that if you are not in a good position at setup, the ball will not go in the
path you want it to go regardless of how well you swing the golf club.

I just watched a DVD by Bobby Eldridge of pure point golf, he says to do the following:

• After you grip the club bring the golf club chest high and the shaft parallel to the ground.

• Next, move the golf club to waist high, keeping the shaft parallel to the ground.

• Then bend at the hips, not at the waist until the sole of the club touches the ground.

• Feet, shoulders, knees, and hips all need to be parallel left of the target.

• The weight is balanced, not on the toes or on the heels.

• Knees must be slightly flexed, not straight or bent to much.

• Make sure your lower back is straight and not bent at the shoulders and keep your chin up.

• Feet need to be a little bit wider than shoulder width.

• Arms need to remain long not bent at the elbows

Ball position must be in the center for the loftier clubs such as pw, 9, 8, 7 and as the club gets longer move the ball forward as loft decreases.

To see this for yourself please click here and tell Bobby I sent you.

Until next time,

John

In golf it is only possible to hit one golf shot at a time. Often times what happens is that you start thinking about the next shot without having executed the shot your trying to hit now. So how do you go to thinking about just this shot?

There are two possible outcomes to a shot. You either hit a great shot or you have to recover.

If you hit a shot that is where you want to hit it, you can think about placing the shot in position to make a birdie.

If you hit a bad shot, you think about placing the ball in a place to recover to get to the green.

Focus only on that one shot and where you want to place the ball. Do not even think about how to hit the next shot until after you have executed the current shot. Make a plan, visualize the plan, execute the plan and then evaluate the results. After evaluating the results, decide if you must recover to get in a position to score.

Plan, Visualize, Execute, and Evaluate. If you do this one shot at a time, you will score!

Until next time,

John