Golf Swing Fundamentals:
When you lift your head, your body follows, causing your swing to become off-balance and resulting in topped shots. To fix this, focus on keeping your head see post down and your eyes on the ball throughout the swing. This will help ensure that you maintain a steady posture and make solid contact with the ball.
I am sure you have all seen Adam Scott set up to a golf ball. He has the ‘textbook’ posture that was taught for the past years. This allows certain movements in the swing and for the golfer to be more athletic. There have been great golfers that page play the ball forward in their stance and great golfers that play the ball back in their stance. The point once again is that the ball position does vary from golfer to golfer and may not be a true fundamental because of the great variation.
If you can perfect each of those areas, then you’ll have a really great chance of hitting a good shot. As a final review, you can check out our article on the golf swing sequence. The moment of truth in the downswing is, obviously, the advantage impact; the moment your club makes contact with the golf ball. When you make contact with an iron, you want that club face to be square and the club to be moving down at the ball into the ground (this creates shaft lean at impact).
The same old pieces of advice may have led your game down a path of inconsistency. Below, we provide a comparison between the old fundamentals and the new fundamentals of golf. He had rotated his left hand so far to the right that almost four knuckles were visible. To make things worse, he held the club so tightly that his forearms rippled when he took his grip. Once you have the set up building blocks and a solid swing you want to add speed. I will add speed to a fundamentally sound swing, but not until then.
Too many golfers start their backswing by rotating their hips which leads to leaving your weight on your back leg. Having the perfect swing is not as easy as most people may think. But you will require some advanced practice drills to make your swing a great one. We have a detailed article to guide you on how to hold a golf club ‘ the correct grips. Having a proper grip is as important as hitting the ball properly. If you hold the club loose, your club may slip out of your hand.
This will help promote a more neutral swing path, reducing the likelihood of hooking. Another culprit of slicing is an outside-to-inside swing path. This means that your club is traveling on an outward path during the downswing and then crosses over the intended target line. This will help promote an inside-to-outside swing path, reducing the likelihood of slicing. Your hips should move first by starting to uncoil but they should do so without sliding forward much.
I know that can mean a lot of things, but for me it’s using my shoulders more to take the club back and not letting my hands get too far ahead of my body rotation. The club, hands, arms and body should be turning together (below). If you don’t stay connected, it can create a world of wrong in your downswing. A good way to keep your hands from taking over the backswing is to delay your wrist hinge until the shaft is about parallel to the ground like it is in this photo. Every setup and swing are different and best when how each person is built is considered.
The most common way is to hit golf balls at the driving range. There are so many parts to a golf swing ‘ which is why you should break them down into different categories. The first part is the address position ‘ this includes your grip, stance, and posture.
Your goal is to get the back of that hand’the logo on your glove’facing the target at impact. Golfers looking for more consistency should add a pause at this position before transitioning. This pause is crucial in setting the right tempo for your golf swing and will help generate more power and accuracy to your shots. While the basic golf swing basics are the same, you’ll discover that the best golfers build upon those fundamentals to create a swing that works best for them. Ironically, sometimes the best way to learn golf swing basics is to learn to avoid golf swing mistakes you see other golfers making. The start of learning proper golf swing basics is to first get into that proper swing stance.
However, practice shouldn’t just be limited to the driving range. Taking your skills from the range to the course is like putting your training into action. By playing on the course, you can experience the challenges and nuances of different lies, distances, and course conditions. This allows you to transfer your improved swing from practice to actual play, leading to better performance when it matters most. A proper golf grip is the golfer’s lifeline to the club, forging an essential bond that directly impacts the swing.
The takeaway portion of the golf swing begins as soon as the club starts moving back and ends when the shaft of the club is parallel to the ground. During that short period of time, several critical moves must happen in order to put the swing on a good track. After impact, it’s important to keep the momentum through the rest of your swing. To use a baseball term, feel as though the club is driving out to center field. The worst thing you can do is decelerate into and through the golf ball. Keep your eye on the ball through impact and finish with the club nice and high on your follow-through.
Just remember that more practice doesn’t necessarily guarantee a perfect swing. Instead, it’s about going to the driving range or short game area with intention. This will help you improve in each session ‘ even if you only have 30’60 minutes. If you need a good drill to improve your takeaway, try the motion drill from Golf.com.
While I’m confident that all the tips above will help your golf swing, never forget to keep refining your short game. Even the best players in the world suffer from days when their swing is off. This is why you need a solid short game to come in and save the day like a superhero. Additionally, it’s important to not swing the club too long (past parallel) or too short of parallel either. This allows a proper shoulder turn and maximum power without swinging like you’re John Daly.