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Michael Brown
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A few days back I went down to my local course for another round of spring golf. This is the time of year when you get to fool yourself into thinking that you are better than you really are. The grass is still dry from the winter, the snow is gone but the new growth is not sufficient to impede your ball. This means the distance of your drives and fairway woods is outrageous. I reached all of the par 5′s in two strokes, coming up a few yards short of the green each time. Whoa, this would never happen in July; it’s a nice feeling but well, it ain’t true.
Since I was playing by myself I made a special effort to take each shot and concentrate on all the factors necessary to make a great shot. Approaching the ball from behind, picking out my long distance target, my intermediate target and then beginning my setup routine. The main thing I want to emphasize today is the whole question of balance. How many times on the course have you seen someone take a swing and almost fall over? I spend a day each week as a marshall, driving around in my cart urging players to keep up with the group ahead of them, and this is a phenomena that I see too much. I think that once we have mastered this important foundation that a number of our golfing woes are cured. This is the area that I spent the most time with the other day and I came away really pleased with the results.
When you watch the pro’s on TV you will see them finish with this magnicifent turn and club held high finish. They are perfectly in balance through out the entire swing, which gives them the ability to come through the ball unimpeded or blocked by any part of their body. You never see them struggling to stand up after their swing (unless they are trying something crazy like hitting out of a lake). So, how do you find a way to copy those efforts, and make your finish look and feel that perfect?
The process begins with the setup. When you have decided upon your target and are now establishing your body beside the ball to send it on its way down the fairway. After I have insured that I have the proper grip, the next thing I want to establish is the proper distance from the ball. I want my arms hanging directly down from my shoulders in a relaxed position I check to insure that I am standing close without crowding the ball or reaching out for it. Now that I have established the proper distance I want to insure that I have good knee bend and straight spine alignment. You have undoubtedly heard this before but it is critical to the balance process, good knee bend insures that you will maintain your balance through out the swing and the straight spine insures that your swing will follow a path around your body that enables you to return to the ball with maximum power.
There is a lot of hype these days about “swing path” ; single or dual, inside to out, etcetera. There are whole websites devoted to the “biomechanics” of the swing. All of of the major club manufacturers have a mechanical robot set up with the “proper swing path” so they can test their clubs. The bottom line is that it is different for everyone who picks up a club. Shorter players will swing more around themselves while taller players will have a more vertical swing. The important thing to remember is that the swing needs to revolve around the straight axis of your spine. The best visual way to achieve this is to focus on the triangle formed by your hands on the club and your shoulders. That triangle should never break down. As you turn into your back swing your hands should always remain constantly in front of a fixed point on your chest. When you reach the top of the swing, the triangle will simply rise straight up as you coil the shoulders to store the power for the downswing. This focus keeps the swing on the correct path for anyone who uses it, short or tall. The best thing is that it keeps the elbows from flying out and enables you to apply maximum power to the ball on the downswing. Another tremendous benefit is that it keeps you from swaying away from the ball on the backswing which means your downswing is a simple uncoil through the ball into your balanced finish.
One of the reasons the game of golf is difficult to master is the fact that it is impossible to think about any of the above while you are actually executing the swing. It typically takes about 1.5 to 2 seconds to complete the whole golf swing. Any thought that you try to add to the swing mechanics during the swing itself is sure to only complicate the swing. By focusing on the knee bend before the swing, and the shoulder triangle during the swing the rest of it takes care of itself. Try this next time you go to the course, I am sure you will be pleased with the results. When you find that your finish is a posture that you can hold for 5 seconds or more, you have achieved the balance that is critical to your success.
Michael Brown
March 2009
Golf Swing Tips : Improve Your Golf Swing Technique …
The golf swing requires balance in order to develop tempo and execute each phase of the swing. Specific exercises such as Airplane Rotations can improve the ability of your body.
3) It must follow a symetrical protocol – the true key to maintaining optimal muscle/tendon/joint balance on both sides of the body. This allows for enhanced golf swing power.
We all know that golf is a mind game but sometimes you just need to flick the switch and turnthose thoughts off for a while.
Imagine trying to hit a good shot after having to remember to get your feet in the correct position, and keep your eye on the ball, and get your grip correct and align your shoulders in the right position, and remember to hold the club correctly and not too tightly and all that goes on in about 1.5 seconds. – the list goes on and on but there is one thing for sure…
If you try to go through the whole list of actions you need to take for the perfect shot, you are never going to hit the golf ball well.
It’s not possible to play well if all these thoughts are whirring through your mind just waiting to explode the moment you try to hit the ball.
There’s just too much to think about all at once.
That tension makes you grasp the club all the harder and before you know it, your golf ball is sailing through the air on a curving trajectorythat you couldn’t reproduce if you tried.
There is a time when a blank mind will do you the world of good and that is just before you hit the ball.
This process is made easier through practice as the various actions become second nature and you don’t need to think about what you are doing.
This is the importance of the repetitive nature of consistently hitting the same shots at the driving range or on the practice tee.
What your body can do on autopilot; will negate the need to think, when thinking will only get in the way.
All those things that you learned, either from a golf pro, or through instructional books and videos, needs to be acted upon but not thought about to the extent that you can’t follow through effortlessly with your swing.
I live in a mountain community and our local course is just that, mountainous. This means that there is no such thing as a flat lie from which to hit the golf ball. This is kind of an exaggeration as the tee boxes are generally level, but not always. It is a municipal course owned by the city of Denver and their budget over the years has not been very generous. A few of the more shaded tee boxes will loose their grass over the course of the season and you find yourself looking for a place to stand that is level enough to hit the shot.
I mention the above to stress the amount of awareness that you need to bring to the course when you come to play golf. Standing on an unlevel tee box can present some subtle challenges to your game and it is important to be aware of those differences. Paying attention to the level can be very important, if the ball is slightly below your feet and you are not standing close enough you could hit it off the toe. On the course itself you are usually aware of the fact that the ball is above or below your feet and make adjustments accordingly. I say usually but that is not always the case. If your drive sliced off into the rough above a sloped fairway and the others in your foursome were all in the fairway you might hurry to your ball and (even though you selected the correct club for the job)take a hasty shot to get back into the fairway. In the process you neglect to correct for the fact the ball is above your feet and wind up pulling the next shot way left across the fairway into the rough on the opposite side.
This brings up the importance of having a pre-shot routine that you employ with every shot that you are going to take. You cannot have a a consistent golf game without a consistent approach to the ball and a routine that you use every time. It took me years to figure this out and when I finally did the change in my overall score was amazing. Starting from behind the ball as I approach, I am thinking about the lie of the ball itself. is it standing up on the top of the turf or is it nestled down? This makes a big difference in your club selection. Next I check the ground above/or below the feet? What are the other factors that I need to correct for? Do I have trees or obstructions to get through or around? All of this plays into the club selection. Once I have made up my mind as to the club that I will use then I start my pre shot routine.
Standing behind the ball I pick out a long distance target, usually beyond the green itself. A big tree, a house across the hill, even a mountain top. Then I pick out an intermediate target about 3 to 5 feet past my ball. When I approach the ball and get into my stance I am focused on aligning my body with that intermediate target. Now I want to check and insure that my grip is correct. Next I insure that I am the correct distance from the ball. I set the club down centering the face at a perpendicular angle to the target and check to insure that my hands are comfortably hanging straight down from my shoulders. (Not reaching out or too close to my belly) Next I check my balance am I comfortably balanced on the center to the ball of my feet and are my knees slightly bent without sitting down. Is my back straight and am I keeping my chin slightly up so that I see the ball staring down a line from my nose rather than looking straight at the ball with my head angled down. Now I am ready to pull the trigger and make my shot. I have refined this to take about 30 seconds or less but the results are so much better than when I had no routine at all.
Your results may vary, and I am not suggesting that you copy my routine. More to the point if you are not using a routine you need to develop one. When I finally understood the importance of a good routine, I looked around for the best training that I could find to help me develop one. I found actually two instructors online who stressed the importance of a good setup routine. The first person I would recommend that you read is Tracy Reed. His Ultimate Golf System is a bit pricey. He has the most excellent video review of Tiger Woods swing that I have ever seen. And his blog is full of excellent points and advise on the whole game of golf with special emphasis on maintaining your balance through out the swing. His free golf instruction videos are fantastic.
Obviously the second system that I would reccommend is the Purepoint system for the rock solid fundamentals that Bobby Eldrige teaches. Bobby recognizes that we are all different in swing speed, heighth and ability and his teaching is designed to take you from where you are and help you to improve. The apprentice class will enable you to chart your current ability and then set goals to improve over time. The golf instruction DVD’s that he offers cover all aspects of your game. There is no better way to improve your golf game than by having good fundamentals and the beginning of that is a good setup routine.
your shoulders. That triangle should never break down. As you turn into your back swing your hands should always remain constantly in front of a fixed point on your chest. When you reach the top of the swing, the triangle will simply rise straight up as you coil the shoulders to store the power for the downswing. This focus keeps the swing on the correct path for anyone who uses it, short or tall. The best thing is that it keeps the elbows from flying out and enables you to apply maximum power to the ball on the downswing. Another tremendous benefit is that it keeps you from swaying away from the ball on the backswing which means your downswing is a simple uncoil through the ball into your balanced finish.
