Guru Golfer

As you get older you lose some of your ability to turn your torso on your back swing, so it’s important to replace that power loss with a power gain elsewhere. You can accomplish this by making a freer arm swing which doesn’t depend so much on flexibility. The following drills teach you to use your arms as major source of power.

Turn your shoulders, swing your arms.

Hang your arms. At address, your arms should hang freely from your shoulders. If they start too close to your body, they won’t have enough room to swing freely. Extending your arms too far, on the other hand, causes tension, which in inhibits a free swing. Make sure you have 6 inches of clearance between the butt end of the club and your body.

What is the most important thing in the golf swing? I can answer that several different ways, but the most important answer is “your golf swing”. You have swing issues and flaws you’d like to cure right? You need to focus on YOUR swing and find a solution right? If so, the most important thing in your golf swing may be very different than for any other golfer.

The first thing on your list should be identifying your swing fault, and more importantly the cause of this swing fault. Do not treat the symptom, find the cause and fix it!

Once you fix the “cause” of your swing fault, you will find that the most important thing in your golf swing will be much different than it use to be. It might be something linked to your mental swing thoughts or preparation.

In discussing the cause of most of your swing faults, I must inform you there is a very good chance it’s a “physical” issue. Some restriction or weakness in your body that is not allowing you to perform good swing mechanics.

Unless those physical limitations are being addressed, you will NEVER fix your swing faults!

Most golfers believe that you have to draw the ball to be a good player. However, some of the best players ever moved the ball left to right. Guys like Hogan, Trevino and Nicklaus all played a fade. So if you are trying to cure a slice you might want to consider turning into a fade instead of a draw.

Curing a slice with a fade is actually easier to do because you are already hitting the ball left to right. You just need to get it under control.

The best way to approach this is to leverage some of the things you are already doing but fine tune them. There are just a few factors that create a fade. From a physics standpoint a fade occurs when the clubface is only slightly open relative to the path of the clubhead. If you are slicing the clubface is very open relative to the face.

Grip

Let’s start with your grip. The left hand should be on top of the shaft with at least one knuckle, (possibly two) showing. Then fit your right hand to the left with the thumb of your left hand resting comfortably in the palm of your right hand. You don’t want to have too strong of a grip or you will start hooking the ball.

If you label yourself as a high handicapper, you have potential, but must solve some fundamental problems.

Swing the club, don’t throw it.

To give yourself the best chance at hitting the green in regulation, you need to maximize your power off the tee without sacrificing control.

Your swing is capable of exerting a powerful natural force on the clubhead. Work with this force to help you swing the club rather than throwing it at the ball, which can result in every kind of bad shot. Even the best golfers tend to throw the clubhead on occasion, but here’s how to avoid it.
Take your normal stance over the ball and look closely at your grip. Locate the point on the grip were the first knuckle joint of the first figure of your right hand contacts the club. That pad is the precise spot where you can sense the weight of the club throughout your swing. Your goal is to develop the sensation of clubhead weight against this pressure point all the way through your swing. On the down swing, if you throw the clubhead at all, you’ll have lost that sense of clubhead weight and the club will feel very light. To avoid this, concentrate on feeling the sensation of the shaft lying against your first finger pad all the way through impact. As you practice this technique, you’ll swing the clubhead through impact with more consistency and power.

Maybe one in a hundred students shows up for a lesson with his body in a position that is going to enable it to be used most efficiently in connecting solidly with a golf ball.

Tour pros’ address positions are distinctive, uniquely recognizable. Despite this, they have certain features in common. These features relate to the coming action. Eliminate one of these features and the use of the body is going to be less efficient and shotmaking is going to suffer.

Their knees are flexed. The most important muscles in the golf swing are between the knees and waist. Flex in the knees stretches these key muscles and helps them get ready to do their job.

They’re bent at the waist–in two directions. Most obviously, they’re bent forward, toward the ball. This creates a pathway for the arms to whirl through. Their arms hang down loosely, but not straight down. The hands are away from the pants fly about five inches.