Thursday, January 26, 2012

Golf Swing Basics - Make Yours Precise, Purposeful, and Powerful

Many recreational golfers have never had professional lessons or instruction in the golf swing basics. Many learned their swing from those who introduced them to the game, or by watching other players.

I first swung a golf club at age 25 mimicking what I saw other players doing. I actually fashioned a somewhat usable golf swing with this method and eventually managed about a 15 handicap.

What I had really done was build a trap that took me many years to realize, and more time to get out of.

As I became older and progressively lost arm strength, I found that I was developing a lot of swing problems such as; loss of consistent distance, a very persistent slice, hitting all of my irons about the same distance and these were just the noticeable ones.

The trap was that having never received professional swing training I did not know what to try to correct, I did not even know how to accurately explain what was wrong.

I continued to play and watched my handicap climb to the 25-30 range, and began to decide that I just was not and never was going to be a good golfer. I was confused, my playing partners, most of which were similar in stature to me and about the same age, were still paying well. But I failed to connect the dots.

I did try a few lessons along the way, not finding the solutions to my swing problems. This was not always the teaching pro's fault, when they saw so many problems they probably became overwhelmed and just picked out one thing to try and correct. Of course these band-aid fixes were not the answer.

At about age 50 I finally decided to see if I could actually change my swing, I went for a few more lessons, one of which actually corrected my slice. Researched what a golf swing should be, and went about teaching myself a good golf swing step-by-step.

I found that the classic modern golf swing is a very complicated collection of basic physical and mental building blocks. But when assembled and executed correctly becomes a very precise, and powerful golf swing.

I started with the raw basics of stance, alignment, ball position and grip, I saw the rest of the swing as a series of building blocks that should actually be learned in order and then built on top of each other until the end result is achieved.

The building blocks I identified and the order I took them in are;

Weight shift - At its very basic level the golf swing cannot work without an adequate understanding of the weight shift. A proper weight shift enables the big powerful muscles of the legs and torso to supply the power needed for a quality swing.
One piece takeaway - The idea of taking the club back and into exactly the proper position by moving the shoulders, and allowing the arms to just ride along never occurred to me before.
Backswing - It took me awhile to realize that the backswing is the true engine that powers the entire swing, everything that comes before is just preparation, and everything that come after is directly influenced by the backswing. I spent a lot of time getting my wrist cock working and creating and using lag, the major club head speed producers.
Transition - The transition is where the change of direction happens, the start of so called "dropping into the slot". Some people argue that there is a slight pause at the top, others say the lower body actually begins to unwind just before the backswing is complete.
Downswing and impact - This is the payoff, you have to keep your arms and hands tension free, light grip pressure and let the arms fall naturally, being placed in the proper position by the natural release of the club head at exactly the precise instant it is square to the target line. Sounds really hard but if the backswing was correct and if you have built and are adequate lag this will be almost automatic.
Follow through - A complete follow through contributes greatly to total distance, if you have correct not focused on hitting the ball, but rather swinging through it, maximum club head speed really occurs after impact. The forearms complete their rotation just after impact, the momentum of the swing will pull you completely up on your front leg and fully facing the target in a balanced finish.
If you are having trouble with your swing find a qualified PGA teaching professional in your area. Read the books by some of the great golfers and swing coaches. Practice the correct moves and sequences until they are muscle memory and automatic.

The one caution I would have is be careful of random tips you might find on line, be sure you are trying something that will really help, rather than a band-aid fix that will only work a short time.

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How Do Tour Golfers Get Those Prodigious Golf Club Distances?

The announcer gives the distance to the stick at about 180, the player pulls a 7 Iron. And then he sticks it 2 feet away! And it is not just a few players, they all do it. How in the world can they get such huge distances out of their clubs?

Are they using some super golf clubs, that the rest of us can't buy?

Granted they do have the latest and greatest clubs that all have the proper loft and lie, they are all the correct length, they all have the correct shaft stiffness for that particular golfers swing.

Well when you consider all of that, they are different clubs than most amateur golfers have, not that we can't get them, we can, but we are not that careful and do not get custom fitted.

The equipment really only explains part of the equation.

Tour golfers almost always have a perfect swing, all the parts, the grip, the stance, the backswing, the impact, the follow through are all done exactly correct, they do have more club head speed, they do have perfect swing tempo. Not every swing but you almost never see the kinds of swing faults you see at the municipal course.

There is also something else, parts of a perfect swing that many recreational golfers are not even aware of. But if they were, and could use the same subtle swing mechanics, they also could get fantastic distances from all of their clubs.

Most of us have heard things like the following;

Hit down on the ball, or hit the small ball first.
We have been told that the hands lead the club head.
We have heard fleeting references to a thing called lag.
How about rolling the forearms over.

One thing these things have in common in that they all come into play in a very small portion of the swing, they all make their presence known in the 6 to 8 inches before and after impact, or about a tenth of a second!

Lets expand on those golf swing subtleties a bit;

A descending club face is created by good fundamental swing mechanics, a big part of it is lag, the more lag you can create and maintain the easier it is to have a descending swing.
Keeping the hands ahead of the club face all the way through impact is easier when your arms are tension free and being moved by the shoulder turn, the rotation of the lower body and proper weight shift.
We usually hear lag discussed in conjunction with a driver swing, however lag is part of every full swing, and is a major contributor to club head speed. Hitting the ball harder, does not increase distance, hitting it with a seemingly effortless, balanced swing with maximum club head speed in the impact zone, and a square club face are what does it.
This is where the forearms rolling over comes in. Beginning at about waist high on the downswing and all the way to waist high on the follow through, the proper natural release of the club head will square the club face. The trailing forearm rolls all of the way over the leading forearm, when timed exactly right the club face squares exactly at the ball.
If you can find a very slow motion video of a tour players swing with an iron that shows the impact zone, you can actually see all of these things happen. The typical tour players actually adds up to 8 degrees loft to whatever club he is hitting so in effect a 7 iron becomes a 5 iron and so on. So how do the rest of us get there. Find a quality teaching pro to show you each part of a proper golf swing, and learn to perform it perfectly.

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