Improve your golf swing…

In golf every single shot is important – the golf swing, the chipping, the putting. But, without a good golf swing to get you started you’re not going to achieve any birdies or bogies, so how do you improve your golf swing to improve the rest of the game?

A common misconception for golfers – especially those that do not get out on the course very often – is that the hands are the most important aspect of a golf game. While the hands are important, golf is similar to building a hotel – no matter how hard you try you can’t start at the top and you can’t miss floors out. You need to build it just one floor at a time.

That means that the foundation – your feet – has everything to do with a quality swing. The upper body portion of a golf swing can be perfect, but if your feet aren’t set, you still don’t know where the heck the ball will go. Here are a couple of backyard tips to get your balance while standing over the ball without swinging at it.

1. Set a ball on a tee in front of you. Measure an impact point with the club in which you attain balance for a good golf swing. For a proper foundation, the knees need to be slightly bent with weight distributed on the balls of the feet. If you are on your toes or your spine is arched, this is NOT a good balance point.
2. Drop the club on the ground, but don’t move your feet in doing so. Keeping proper balance, transfer the weight to your back foot and then through to your front as if you were swinging. Keep doing this repeatedly until it feels like a pendulum motion. If done properly, the motion of your arms go with the motion of your feet from back hip to front hip. This is the beginning of a proper golf swing.
3. Another issue that plagues high handicappers is the overuse of hips to try to compensate for lack of balance. However, with proper balance, the hips become easier to incorporate because it is all just one continuous, fluid motion instead of several individual herky-jerky motions. Here is how to continue a proper golf swing
4. Begin the weight transfer as outlined in Tip #2. If done properly, the arms will flow from hip to hip with the weight transfer. This time, when the arms start in the pendulum motion, continue to increase the motion while maintaining balance.
5. As your motion increases, you will notice that your arms are going back and coming through further, almost to a ¾ swing. If you are keeping proper balance, the weight transfer has shifted through the feet to the hips without you even realising it.

If you can get those four steps down, chances are that you can shave several strokes off your game.

With that completed, the upper body becomes much easier to deal with. The focal points for high-handicappers should be the spine, arms and head. Proper spinal alignment is necessary for any successful swing. If your body is out of balance, the spine will try and compensate mid-swing, thus throwing your swing off.

6. Continuing with tips 1-5, elevate your swing to a full swing now using the pendulum motion. If you feel your back start to tighten, you are moving your upper body while doing so, which is throwing your spine out of alignment.The bottom line is that if your spine moves, your head is going to have to move…they are sort of connected in that sense. It doesn’t matter if it is golf, baseball or hockey, if you move your head, you can’t keep your eye on the ball.

7.  Set the golf ball on the tee with the number in the spot of where the club would meet the ball. Repeat tips 1-6, but this time, focus in on that number at the impact point. If you lose sight of the number, your head is moving.

The arms have already been incorporated into the swing with the pendulum motion, but you still have the task of not trying to overswing, which throws off the balance. Assuming that you keep proper balance, the arm action will be there. The only thing left is to work on wrist action.

8. As you continue tips 1-7, get a rhythm in your head during each swing that pinpoints the time that the club would connect with the ball. It can be a favorite song, a mental melody or a phrase that you say. Correct timing of wrist action will keep your drives solid and straight.

Now, you will not only hear the ping of the impact, but you will feel it in your body. The strokes shaved off your scorecard will also be music to your ears!

You are now laying the foundation for an improved golf game. Check back each week as we will dive into specialized topics on the game, including play around the green and the perfect iron shot.

With these tips and those coming in the next few weeks, screaming ‘fore’ will be replaced with writing ‘fours’ on your scorecard.

Do you have a specific question you’d like answering about your golf swing? Then just ask it by filling in the box below. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer all of them straight away, but I’ll do my best!