Golf Basic Tips

The golf swing is the most complicated action in all of sports. Even the best golfers in the world can sometimes have trouble perfecting and repeating their routine over and over. With that said, it is possible to improve golf swing mechanics. Whether you are a once-per-month duffer or an aspiring professional, these small tips to improve golf swing mechanics can shave valuable strokes off of your score.

Limit your movement

Like with any other type of physical motion, a golf swing is easier to repeat if it requires less movement. The best golf swings are often the simplest ones. This means that if you want to really improve golf swing mechanics and help your game, you will have to eliminate any part of the swing that’s not helping your ball striking. For instance, some players get entirely too much movement from their head during the golf swing. Other players might need to work on their hips to improve their golf swing. If you take the time to really study your swing, you will see that there are certain movements in your routine which are taking away from both your power and consistency.

Balance

Staying balanced is a key if you want to improve golf swing mechanics. Out on the course, it is sometimes difficult to think about balance and all of the other things that go into making a successful swing. When you are in a hurry, you can find yourself rushing through your pre-shot routine and falling off of all of your shots. In order to improve your balance, you need to start at the beginning. Make sure that your stance leaves your feet just wider than shoulder-width so that you’ll have a good base to work with. From there, staying balanced throughout the swing will give you the best chance to improve golf swing mechanics.

Shoulder turn

Have you ever watched Tiger Woods or any other the other top professionals and wondered how they hit the ball so far? After all, it doesn’t even look like they are extending that much effort. The secret to their success is the fact that they have excellent shoulder rotation. One of the biggest problems for amateur golfers is that they want to swing more with their arms than with their shoulders. In order to improve golf swing mechanics, you will need to realize that your power comes not from the arms, but from your legs and from excellent shoulder rotation.

By: Allen Maxwell

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

The golf swing takeaway is a 1 piece takeaway. To achieve this, here’s what we need to do.

1) Keep the left and right forearms straight during address. The arms are relaxed and pointing down. This allows consistency in our setup. The distance from our hands to the body is about 1 palm distance.

2) Imagine a triangle formed between the left and right forearms.
This triangle is maintained in the 1st part of the takeaway.

3) Move this entire triangle to the right during the takeaway.

4) Do not rotate the hands, wrist, or cock the wrist early in the takeaway. Focus on keeping the forearms straight, especially the right forearm. This ensures a wide takeaway and allows the wrist to cock naturally.

5) Once the hands reach around the waist level, allow the shoulders to turn to complete the rotation. A tthe top of the swing, ensure that the left wrist is not cupped or v shaped.

Another point to take note of is the rhythm and tempo. A good rhythm is 1, 2, 3. Count 1 initiates the takeaway, Count 2 is when we reach the top, Count 3 is the transition from backswing to downswing. A slow takeaway and straight right forearm, results in a wide and slow backswing that results in alot of torque and prevents us from jerking down the club too quickly in the downswing.

Last point to note is to maintain the right knee bend angle and prevent it from straightening during the takeaway. We can do this by imagining that we’re sitting down on a high chair and have the pressure on the balls of our feet. This provides enough flex in the knees. Be careful not to flex too much also. We should have the right amount of tension in the muscles to maintain the correct angles in golf, and yet not too much that we get all tense and uncomfortable. Everything in the right proportion will allow us to build a nice and enjoyable golf swing.

By: Sherman Choo

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

Achieving a powerful golf swing is easy when you know what generates the power in your golf swing. Do you think it’s just a matter of swing harder? I’ll bet you’ve tried that one. How did it come out? Your golf swing needs a sequence of motion using your hips.

Here’s a little golf tip for more power in your swing.

When you start your downswing you rotate your hips aggressively. The only thing you need to remember is that the faster your hips rotate, the faster your arms need to go to stay in sequence. But…if you are not physically strong enough and flexible enough to achieve this very demanding sequence of motion in your golf swing, you can try as much as you want and it won’t happen.

Your mind may tell your body to rotate your hips faster, but being tight and weak will not allow it to happen. That’s where golf specific fitness comes in. Doing a couple of targeted golf stretches and golf exercises will make it easy to accomplish this powerful move in your golf swing.

Do a rotational stretch for your core, and also a rotational strength exercise like a twisting crunch on a stability ball. The combination of the stretch and resistance exercise will greatly improve your bodies ability to generate maximum power with your hips (and core).

So the gist of it is you need to use your hips to create a powerful swing, but you need to strengthen and stretch that specific area of your body to accomplish it. Does that make sense? If you don’t, do you really think you can do this specific move in your swing for 18 holes? I think not! Your body will break down from the physical demand you are putting on it.

So the take-away from this article is strengthening and stretching your core area to be able to use your hips for a powerful golf swing.

Do you want to find out more about creating more power and consistency in your golf swing.

Download my FREE golf ebook at http://www.performbettergolf.com/free-golf-ebook.html

By: Mike Pedersen

About the Author:

Website content

Before we get to the bunker play tips, I have to preface what you are about to read with but one word… practice. Once you get the basics (which are forthcoming) you’ve got to take the time to practice and gain confidence in the execution.

Believe me; getting your sand play up to a decent level is well worth the time spent on it. With a decent sand game, it is actually more advantageous to be in a bunker around many greens than it is to be buried in the rough just a few yards away! And you’ll score better as a result.

For good bunker play you need to understand some basic techniques. Actually, before we discuss technique, you need to have a sand wedge in your bag… not a pitching wedge… I’ll tell you why in a moment.

First all, with your set up you want to open you stance, hips, and shoulders to the left of the target (right handed golfers) and the ball positioned slightly forward in your stance. Establish solid footing by digging into the sand just a bit.

With your setup to the left of the target, you now want to open the clubface (rotate the sand wedge so the more of the clubface is exposed).

As far as the swing path goes, you want your swing path to follow the alignment of your body just like you other shots.

With a sand shot you want you club to enter the sand a couple of inches behind the ball. I like to have people imagine that just underneath the ball in the sand, the golf ball is sitting on a tee; and what you are trying to do is clip the tee out from under the ball without disturbing the ball itself.

Keep your wrists firm until well after impact. You don’t want get ‘flippy’ with your hands when it comes to sand shots.

When you are first learning to play a bunker shot, strive to gain consistency with your entry point behind the ball and consistently extracting the ball onto a putt-able position on the green.

The next step for you will be to alter the distance of your bunker shot using your swing speed with you ‘basic’ bunker swing and shot. However, the first and primary goal is to gain a consistency with your swing tempo and your entry point. For the beginning sand player, gaining confidence in getting the ball consistently out of the bunker and putting is the first goal and the first building block. Just getting this first basic skill established fluently will save you strokes immediately. Don’t worry so much about variations to your bunker play… these can come later… just get comfortable and confident with that fact that you’ll be out and putting. Rome wasn’t built in a day… or something like that.

I touched on this earlier and now I want to give you a bit more detail on your bunker equipment (sand wedge) and why you must have one.

First of all, believe it or not, the sand wedge is designed for sand play.

Bounce – the sand wedge has a rounded sole that actually sits lower in comparison to the blade of the club. This feature allows the club to glide through the sand rather than dig into it.

Loft – greater loft that the pitching wedge – 55-60 degrees as opposed to 48-52 degrees. This gets you ball up and over the lips of the bunkers more readily rather than trying to ‘manufacture’ a shot with your pitching wedge.

Toe to Heel Design – this what gives the sand wedge the oval appearance – but more than this – it is what keeps the sand wedge from digging in and allows you to ‘splash’ the ball out of the bunker.

Bottom line – if you’re not using a sand wedge for your sand shots; you’re making things much more difficult than they need be.

Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds relaxation over a shot. Particularly the sand shot. Tension and nervousness are shot killers. The basic sand shot is not at all a difficult shot to extract, it’s just that those who fear them are those who don’t take the time to practice them… think about it this way… it’s the only shot where you are going to actually purposely miss the ball!

So get out there and find a place to practice and get better. Remember first things first… just work to gain consistency and you’ll start improving your game.

By: Jeff O’Brien

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content