When developing a technique to use in regards to improving your golf swing, you must first break the golf swing down into segments and the segments should be as follows, feet placement, hip swing, shoulder placement, grip and head position. With these five important components in relation to the golf swing, you can help your golf game by carefully taking a look at each one. From this position, you’re much less likely to cut across the ball through impact. With minimal practice, those killer pulls and pull-slices will turn into powerful draws. The golf swing is a sequence of movements, and if you start in the right position and engage the right movements, the rest will follow. If you make a poor start to your swing, then those effects can be negative, affecting consistency and distance.

Fundamentally improving your golf swing requires the golfer to maintain a fixed spine angle, rotate around a fixed spine angle, and maintain specific postural positions in every phase of the swing. In order to accomplish this the muscles of your body must have certain levels of strength. In relation to the golf swing it’s your ability to sustain the proper spine position and center of gravity during movement.

To start improving your golf swing, please think of your body as divided at the waist into two parts, each of which is going to feel as if it’s being used wholly differently. The rotation of the lower followed by upper body turns the hips and shoulders to face the target. At impact the body weight will move onto the left foot (approximately 80%) and the right heel is ‘pulled’ from the floor by the rotation of the hips.

Try this exercise, take an ordinary coat hanger and grip the longest part just as you would a golf club with the hook between your wrists and directed away from your body. The widest points making a line between your torso and the “ball. With this setup, work through your golf swing and watch the rotation of the triangle through the air. In order to do this, your wrists have to turn as you shift arm position. Loosening your grip allows your wrists to rotate in a natural motion.

Golf weight and training exercises are one of the best and the quickest ways to improving your golf swing speed and power. The heavier the shaft, the lower and straighter your shots will be, and the lighter the shaft the higher and more variable your shots will be. Many players try to make their clubs heavier by adding lead tape to the head, which changes the overall weight, the swing weight, and the shaft flex.

Oftentimes, in golf terms the opening and closing, of the clubface is termed releasing of the club. This is where the hands become an integral part of the golf swing. The simplest way to improving your golf swing and to shape your shots is to make sure your clubface faces the target but your body lines are right or left depending on the ball flight desired. Do not change your grip or swing.

Moreover, the angle of the club head must be checked on two fronts: First, the face of the club head, or the horizontal angle, must be pointing in the direction you want the ball to fly. Second, the vertical angle, which is largely effected by how you hold the club and address the ball, must be set up so that you do not lose distance in your shot.

As you slowly lift your club, do not cock your wrist too soon. Try to shorten your swing and make sure you stay down and get the ball through on your down swing. Perfect golf swing drills centered around the takeaway continues with your left wrist cupped, right arm above your left and right knee flexed.

Depending on your dominant hand the club should rest against the palm of your opposite hand and be held somewhat loosely at the fingertips with the heel of your hand providing pressure. The dominant hand should then be placed in the same position creating a V with the thumb and index fingers.

While you must work on technique and position, when it comes to actually playing the game, you need to rely on the platform and motion you have started. The next time you practice, try hitting some balls starting with the clubhead a foot or so in front (toward the target) of the ball. The address stage is about the body’s position and the proper grip. The backswing is the start of the body movement and positions the body before beginning the downswing.

As a solution to improving your golf swing, and to the kinds of problems faced by average golfers, David Nevogt : a.k.a. “Golf Swing Guru” has written the ebook known as “The Simple Golf Swing” By adopting this simple golf swing system, golfers can improve the way in which they hit the ball so that they can help hit it with a fuller force and can do this consistently.

It is not realistic for any golfer to expect improvement in their golf swing if they practice once a month. The same can be said about a golf fitness program. Improving your golf swing begins and ends with you. Training the muscles of your body to properly perform specific movements takes time and practice. Out of these golf swing tips and methods, whichever should be convenient to you should be mastered correctly if you want to look forward to improving your golf swing. Let’s face it, golf is probably the most difficult sport in the world. It takes a great deal of skill, mental fortitude and perseverance to excel at it.

By: John J. Foley

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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

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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

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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

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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

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For non-golf aficionados, one golf ball is the same as other golf balls. The only major difference such people may see between one ball from another is the manufacturer or brand name. In the eye of a golfer lover, however, golf balls differ in more ways than one.

If you want to improve your game, you need to pay attention to the type, covering material, core structure, and compression rates of a ball. You must bear in mind that your swing and level of play should be matched with the golf ball you use. Thus, you can’t expect to be like Tiger Woods simply by buying and using the same golf accessories, shoes, and balls that he uses.

Here are basic golf ball comparisons you need to know to help improve your golf games:

Common Golf Ball Types

Two-piece

If you are just starting to play golf, you most probably need to consider using the two-piece golf ball. This type of ball, aside from being the cheapest type available in the market, is aimed at providing great distance. If your swing is slow, the big rubber core of the ball helps in transferring the energy from the swing to the ball efficiently, thereby providing you with good distance.

If you are a neophyte in the game, you need to concentrate on your accuracy. Hence, you need a ball that will boost your distance, enabling you to concentrate more on building your accuracy. Once you have mastered consistency, then you need to try the other types of golf ball.

Three-piece

The three-piece ball is ideal for advanced players, who have pretty much mastered control, partly because a person wouldn’t want to spend too much for a golf ball that will brandish his or her hit-and-miss swings. Such a ball, which is preferred by pro players, is composed of a core, which can be solid or made up of liquid or gel, a layer of wounded thread, and a plastic covering.

Materials used as golf ball coverings

Although there maybe other kinds of golf ball covering, the two most popular are the surlyn and balata.

Balata

Balata golf balls, which are usually three-piece balls, are made of soft covering. Professional golfers prefer such balls because they not only cuts and scuffs easily, but they are also easier to control. Furthermore, balata balls give more spin. However, these balls have shorter life span and are more expensive.

Surlyn

Surlyn balls are more apt for amateur gofers because they are cheaper. Most two-piece golf balls are made of surlyn, a hard material, thus it is more resistant to cuts and scuffs and provide more distance. Aside from being more inexpensive, such balls are also long lasting. However, it is harder to control and does not provide ample spin.

Compression rate

Traditionally, the tightness of the golf ball’s thread windings determines its compression rate. Due to recent technological advancement, however, the compression rate of a golf ball is now basically dependent on how the ball is affected when it is hit. The compression rating of golf balls usually range from 70-110.

Low compression balls

Balls with compression rating of 70-80 are considered low compression balls. Such balls are soft and are easily deformed or compressed when hit. Players with slow swings are encouraged to use such ball.

Medium compression balls

Most advanced golfers prefer balls with a compression rate of 90. These medium compression balls provide both softness and ease of control.

High compression balls

Golf balls with 100-110 compression rating are high compression balls. Such balls are hard and are less likely to deform upon impact, compared to those with lower compression rates. A high compression ball is ideal for those whose club head speeds are high.

Be keen in knowing how the type of ball or its compression rates affect your performance. Keep in mind that the knowledge of golf ball comparisons is handy in enhancing your strengths and masking your weaknesses in the golf course.

By: Lee Dobbins

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Golf Putting Tip #1 – Hitting the ball out of the “Sweet Spot” of the Putter

Even if you have the putt correctly lined up and the pace of the green noted, if you hit the ball incorrectly you will not make the putt. Therefore, practicing hitting the ball out of the “Sweet Spot” of the putter is a must if you are going to sink those putts. This golf putting tip is simple and will help you reach consistency with your putting stroke.

Firstly, attach 2 coins to the front of the putter blade, leaving enough room for the “Sweet Spot” of the putter face to be visible. Once the coins have been attached, practice hitting the ball towards the hole trying not to hot the coins on the putter face. This golf putting tip will refine the swing line of your putting stroke, therefore, giving you a higher percentage of hits out of the middle of the putter face.

Golf Putting Tip #2 – Get the Feel of the Greens before Commencing a Round

This tip will allow you to get a “feel” for the greens before playing a round.

Before every round it is imperative that you hit some putts on the practice putting green. When hitting the putts there is no need to try and make the putts, actually for this routine there is no need to aim for the hole at all. The purpose of this routine is to get the “feel” of the greens as the practice putting green will always be cut the same as the greens on the course. So if you follow this simple tip you will be armed with the knowledge of the pace and cut of the greens before starting your round.

As mentioned previously, when using this golf putting tip there is no need to try and hit the hole. Remember, golf is as much played in the had as it is with the body. So if you start missing putts on the practice green, it will only affect your thinking in a negative way and this will follow you out onto the course.

Golf Putting Tip #3 – This tip will improve hitting the ball on the correct line to the hole.

Once you have sized up the putt to the hole and you know the line, use the writing on the ball to line up with the line of the putt. Then, when you come to putt the ball hit it at 90 degrees to the writing on the ball and it will (providing the putter face was straight at the time of contact) follow the line to the hole.

The above simple golf putting tips will help you to improve your putting and ultimately bring down your score. So next time you are at the golf course give them a try and see the difference they will make.

By: David Bailey

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Do not expect to become perfect at hitting a driver as even the best golfing professionals regularly mishit this club. Instead focus on developing enough consistency to allow you to hit enough fairways with enough distance so that you can then use your short game to make more birdies and shoot low scores. It is important to learn how to hit a driver far and straight because golf courses are getting longer and tougher so you need both distance and accuracy.

The good news is that there is a direct relationship between hitting a golf ball accurately and hitting it farther. If you consistently hit your driver straight then in time you will also hit the ball far. Remember that crooked drives do not go very far so the first step in hitting a driver further is to focus on accuracy first. You need to develop a swing that consistently strikes the golf ball solidly.

In order to develop an accurate golf swing you must have great control over the club. This means that you will need to develop a more relaxed swing where you do not use your muscles to try to force more club head speed in an effort to hit the ball further. Use your muscles and strength to support your golf swing but let the club do most of the work.

Remember that golf clubs are designed to hit the ball far if you make good contact so you do not need massive muscle power. You need to take advantage of leverage which is what will allow you to generate maximum club head speed. The best way to take advantage of leverage is to think of the club as a whip and to feel yourself whipping the club through the hitting zone. However this does not mean you have really force your downswing.

Rather have a swing that is relaxed both on the backswing and downswing. Always aim to finish in a balanced position. If you find yourself regularly losing balance in your finish then you need to back off a little and stop trying so hard. Most amateurs and even many pros are guilty of having a rushed backswing and this can affect your ball striking.

Also if you are deliberate with your swing both on the backswing and downswing you are much more likely to make better contact and if you do make a mistake then you will be more likely to find that mistake quicker. Another useful tip to help you generate more power is to think of your left shoulder exploding up on your downswing. This will help to keep the swing in the right plane where the club comes from the inside to out and will also allow you to create more leverage.

Grip pressure can also make a big difference to your swing and hitting it further. You want to use your left hand to apply pressure to the grip and your right hand should stay passive. If you try to get your right hand involved too much in the swing you will end up casting the club or coming from the outside to in which will result in hitting a lot of slices. Use some of these strategies to help you drive the ball better.

By: Mary Chillders

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