Entries Tagged as 'Golf Swing'

Take the Slice Away from Your Golf Swing

All golfers want that perfect golf swing that they can always rely on. It is a swing that can be used effectively with either a wood or iron. You can tee off and drive with it, adapting to changes in wind and terrain. It is a swing that can get you out of bad situations like bunkers and even water. It is a swing that is as simple as it can get, yet can be versatile and dependable.

That isn’t happening though if your swing has slice.

Perfecting that golf swing definitely isn’t easy, no matter how you look at it. It takes a lot of experimentation and practice to get the kinks out of the swing. However, the real fact about this is that it is actually simpler than you think. It is mostly about what you do during your swing.

Simplify

One tip that always works is to always keep your swing simple. With as few movements as possible, you can take away unnecessary movements that may be both a waste of energy and bad for your swing. There is no real need for your elbows to bend during the swing and you have to only pivot with your feet as you follow through. There is no need to take an extra step or anything, which can skew with the shot.

Rhythm

Of course, if you can’t improve by yourself, then get a coach who can teach you the finer points of improving your golf swing. Balance and correct positioning are crucial to a good golf swing. However, without rhythm, you can never achieve these two things. You are to ensure that you can have a smooth rhythm in your swing to fix whatever you need to fix. You can hum a tune, sing a song, count, or do whatever is necessary to get a rhythm down to swing correctly.

Hand and Wrist Position

Another tip is to always mind hand and wrist position. One of the major causes of slicing is that the club is twisted during the swing, which makes it hit the ball in a crooked manner, driving it in directions other than straight ahead. This is due to the hands and wrists twisting during the swing because of wrong positioning. The technique must be refined in order to correct this mistake.

Interlocking your hands by connecting the little and ring finger of your dominant hand with the index and middle finger of your complementary hand (never call that other hand ‘weak’) to solve this problem. This can help you prevent that unnecessary twist with a little practice. It can also help you improve in terms of accuracy and distance.

Straighten Your Spine

Always have your spine straight and acting as an axis for your swing. The importance of spine alignment can never be understated when it comes to golf. Imagine yourself as a pendulum with your spine as the point of axis. This can help you simplify your golf swing in a great deal.

Hip Rotation

With that spine straight and fingers interlocked, you must also remove excess hip rotation in your golf swing. While lots of hip rotation is something that can make a punch stronger, this is not boxing. In golf, that hip rotation causes slicing, and that can damage your game. Therefore, you must keep hip rotation as minimum as it is required. However, don’t mistake this for removing hip rotation in your swing as it is still required to generate power in your swing.

Therefore, study how much hip rotation is needed to improve your swing. These tips, along with lots of practice, can help you remove that slice and achieve distance and accuracy in your golf swing.

Tags: Golf Swing by Golfer Dude
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3 Golf Swing Drills to Improve Your Putting

After hitting the ball as close to the hole as possible, it is just a matter of putting so you can move on to the next one. While this may sound easy given the short distance, there are still some who have a hard time. To help you out, here are 4 golf swing drills you can try.

The first is the one handed drill. You do this by practice putting ten balls using only your training hand. This drill lets you focus on the palm of your hand as it moves towards the cup.

Next, practice putting using your target hand. The emphasis here is for you to concentrate on your back hand moving towards the cup.

When you do this drill using either hand, be conscious of the toe of your putter in the follow through. Should this turn away from the cup or point toward it, this means you are turning your hand. So you know you are doing it right, the face of the putter should be square to the cup.

Another drill is to practice putting with one eye. Some golfers do this because it stops them from lifting their head prematurely. If you have played this game often, you can even try putting with your eyes closed.

But won’t closing your eyes make it harder for you to see where the ball is going? Yes but research has shown that when you try to putt with your eyes open, there is interference with the brain/muscle control system. By closing your eyes, you are relying more on your hands to guide the ball into the hole. And how will you know if the ball goes in? By simply using your sense of hearing.

To do this, you have to practice first putting first with your eyes open at a range of 10 to 50 feet from the hole. After putting these balls with your eyes open, do the same thing this time with your eyes closed. If the ball goes in the hole, you know that sink the ball with your eyes closed.

Another eyes closed technique involves dropping some balls to the ground and just putting them. The objective here is simply to let you feel how the stroke flows back and forth. Do the same thing also with your eyes open. Now that you know the difference, try to incorporate that when you are putting the balls into the hole.

The last golf swing drill is called the alignment drill. To do this, you lay two clubs on the green about six inches apart and make sure that they are parallel to each other. Now putt the ball to see if your stroke is aligned at impact and steady on the back and forward stroke. Do this several times and if you get tired, take a break and rest for a while before resuming the drill.

Practicing some golf swing putting drills like those mentioned will surely help you improve on your game. Who knows? You might even win when you are playing 18 holes with friends. If you can do that at short distances, the only thing to practice on now is your long game because this is just as important as the short game.

Tags: Golf Swing by Golfer Dude
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Tiger Woods Golf Swing

A lot of people have been asking for a long time, “why is Tiger (Woods) so good in his game? How can Tiger be consistent on every Tour? What does Tiger do differently with his game to make him the success that he is at golf?” and the list of questions go on and on. Some people theorize that it’s all about his putting game, while some people say that it’s the power of his drives, some people say he has got the strength of a bull and some opine that it is his golf swing.

These people may be right, but then again they may not. Depends on how you look at it and what kind of golfer you are that would dictate what you will say. But in reality most of us already know the answer but tend to say different things because we can’t really admit to the fact that Tiger Woods has the best darn swing in the world today.

The reason why I say it’s the best is because of his natural ability to use his dexterity, flexibility and strength in one fluid motion to create his tour winning golf swings. Knowing this let’s break down the famous Tiger Woods swing in to 4 key elements of the full swing motion.
These are 4 key elements of Tiger Woods’ swing:

1. At the very start of his swing. Woods uses his amazing flexibility to reach far back (notice that when he extends his swing backwards it reaches farther than most golfers on any tour, this is one of the main advantages of Woods ), extending his range of motion at the same time as keeping his rotary torso in a straight line over his right leg.

2. Once he releases the swing forward, Woods has already built up maximum clubhead velocity. This is achieved by rapidly turning his torso and pressing his right leg forward toward the swing. Throughout the full motion of the swing, Woods wastes little or no energy by keeping a straight line above the ball. Aside from the velocity and the force from his shoulders and arms, he uses his upper body strength in the swing as he pushes forward.

3. Woods drives the clubhead through the ball (maximum clubhead-ball contact is needed so the chance of slicing or chopping the ball is avoided), using the force from his hips, shoulders and wrists he concentrates impact force and makes a very high initial ball speed. Within 2 feet off the tee and the club the ball is now traveling at speeds that reaches around 180 miles per hour – this ball speed is up to 20 mph faster than the average tour pro.

4. One of the most over looked elements and factors in the golf swing is a good follow through. A follow through is the after impact motion that makes a full motion achieve fluidity. By this time, Woods allows the club head’s momentum to lengthen his follow-through (this means that the force of the swing is kept at the maximum level from the start of the swing, any decrease in speed will make the follow through rough) far around his back, completing a long and smooth clubhead rotation.

And that is the secret to the championship winning golf swing of Tiger Woods.

Tags: Golf Swing by Golfer Dude
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Improving Your Golf Backswing Effectively

Learning how to master your backswing is going to play a very key role in your ability to actually have a great game of golf.  Without a good backswing, it is going to be very difficult to actually have a good game.  You can still play without a perfect backswing but improving your backswing will greatly improve your overall game just as much as mastering your putting.  It is important before you start working to improve your backswing to remember the goal is not so much to improve your power, but rather improve your distance as well as form. 

If you are starting with a good solid stances as you swing, which includes proper posture, as well as shoes and alignment with the ball you are going to have a much better attempt at improving your backswing.  Without a good sturdy posture, you are going to twist at the wrong moment and even potentially have huge problems with not being able to really grasp the club properly.  This combined together can create huge problems in a successful backswing.  Your first line of defense is to always ensure you have the right stance, which will allow you to quickly and easily perform the appropriate follow through for your swing. 

If you have any doubts about your stance take a picture with a camera, or ask someone else to take a picture.  Then compare the proper stance with the exact way that you are standing.  If this is not an option for you, look into some lessons, which will allow you to work with someone to truly master your stance.  Building your skills upon a good set of foundation skills is necessary in order to ensure that you are learning the right skills as you need them.  If you have the ability to work with an instructor this is going to be the best way since they can be much more honest with you about the flaws in your stance than you will be with yourself. 

Your next set once you have corrected your stance is to look at the problems with your grip.  If you are overextending your grip, or even holding the club the wrong way you are going to have a bad backhand from the very beginning.  There is no way possible to have a correct backswing if you do not grip the club appropriately.  It is physically impossible and you will find that you are met with countless frustration from attempting it.  Sometimes even changing the position of your hands by just a fraction of an inch can provide a dramatic difference in results that you would not be able to otherwise notice. 

The last major consideration when improving your backswing is that you need to pull the club back from the ball before you lift it off of the ground.  Most players make the mistake of lifting the club back and up at the exact same time.  This will result in you hitting the ball off centered and can greatly damage your backswing.  Ensure that you are pulling the club straight back before you start lifting it up and you would notice an almost instant improvement.  This is not something that should be unnatural of difficult to do.  As long as you make a conscious effort to pull the club back before up, you should find that is enough of an improvement to help your backswing.

Tags: Golf Swing, Golf Tips by Golfer Dude
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One Hour Golf Practice Plan For Improvement

Would you like to improve your golf game?

If you can spend an hour of your time practicing your golf game here is what I suggest you do to get the most benefit out of this time.

When you arrive at the practice area the very first thing you should do is a few stretches to warm up and you should do this for anything up to 5 minutes or until you’re warm. Once you’re loosened up the next thing you should do is to start off hitting a couple of wedge shots and then slowly go through each club in your bag, hitting a few shots with each one until you reach your driver. This process should take about 20 minutes. When hitting these shots you should treat each one as though it’s a real shot on the golf course. In other words, choose a precise target for each shot and then go through your normal pre-shot routine.

Once you’ve finished the 20 minutes of hitting full shots you should now practice pitching for 15 minutes and you should do this by hitting shots to all different distances.

What I mean be hitting shots different distances is that you should aim to hit one shot 30 yards, the next one 60 yards, one 75 yards, the next 40 yards etc, etc. And remember to treat each shot, as you would on the course i.e. pick a target and do your pre-shot routine.

Now practice your chipping and bunker play for the next 10 minutes and once again pick a target and go through your pre-shot routine for each shot. It’s important that you treat each shot as a real one and not some practice shot that doesn’t matter.

When practicing get yourself into the mindset that you have on the course. That way when you get to the course you’ll be better prepared.

You’ve now got 10 minutes left to work on your putting. And I suggest you practice putts outside of 10 feet, concentrating on your distance control and then end the practice session with some short putts (e.g. 2-3 footers). Do this so you leave your practice session on a successful note. Here’s a summary of your 1 hour practice session …

One Hour Weekly Practice Session

  •  5 minutes of stretching to get warm.
  •   20 minutes of hitting a couple of shots with each club, starting with the wedge and then progressing through your clubs until reaching the driver.
  •   15 minutes hitting pitch shots different distances i.e. 20 yards, 45 yards, 60 yards, 30 yards etc. Never attempt to hit a shot the same distance during this 15 minutes period.
  •   10 minutes of chipping and bunker shots.

Final 10 minutes of putting, mainly working on distance control on putts outside of 10 feet and then finishing off this time with some successful short putts.

Remember To Approach Each Practice Shot As Though It’s Real Shot On The Golf Course

Nick Bayley is a professional golfer who has discovered just one golf swing fault that could be stopping YOU from ball striking consistency and success. But luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute golf swing test to see if you have this swing fault or not. So don’t delay!

Go here to take The Golf Swing Test™ now: http://www.yourgolfswingtest.com/

Tags: Golf Swing, Golf Tips by Golfer Dude
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Fix Your Golf Slice With This Proven Formula

Want a proven formula to fix your golf slice? Well, as an expert in that area here is the exact formula I’ve used to cure literally thousands of golfer’s slice problems from all around the world. And without any further delay, here are the 4 things you must do to fix your golf slice in the quickest possible time…

1. Setup for a draw

2. Swing from the inside so the ball starts to the right (for a right handed golfer) of your final target

3. Contact the ball with a slightly closed clubface

4. Have equipment that encourages you to draw the ball

Now that list of 4 things is generally the opposite of what every golfer does to hit a slice. For example, when a right handed golfer suffers from a slicing problem they generally aim to the left to allow for a slice — which just makes it worse, doesn’t it?

Now the absolute quickest possible way to fix your slice is to do the exact opposite of what you’re currently doing. So that means you have to setup for a hook. Then you need to try and swing a lot from the inside and release your hands a lot through impact so you contact the ball with a slightly closed clubface. And finally, you need equipment that helps you to hit a draw/hook.

If you did all of these things you could fix your slice tomorrow.

Seriously! It would happen that fast.

But here’s the problem — because it would feel so strange for you to do all of these things at the same time you would barely hit the golf ball….at least for a few days.

You see, golfers are adverse to change. It’s taken you a long time to build up the habit of slicing and if you go slowly at trying to fix it then it will take a long time to fix it…if you ever do it at all.

Now I assume you want to fix your slice sooner rather than later. So trust me, the absolute fastest way to fix your slice is to forget about results for a few days (even up to a couple of weeks) and exaggerate the exact opposite of what you do to hit a slice. And if you’re like most of my students who do this, after a few days you’ll be hitting the ball straight!

Yes….straight!

If you exaggerate the opposite of what you do to hit a slice you’ll eventually hit the ball straight — not hook it. I know that sounds weird but that’s just how the golf swing works. Because what you think you’re doing as you’re swinging and what you’re really doing are normally two completely different things.

Now when you’re making changes to your golf swing to fix your slice you’ve got to work on one thing at a time. And the best place to start is with the setup. You need to setup the opposite of what you’re currently doing. So have a strong grip, align yourself to the right of the target, position the ball back in your stance etc., etc.

This will be tough to do but if you REALLY want to fix your slice you’ll do it.

Once you’ve done that you then want to exaggerate swinging from the inside. Then you’ve got to work on releasing your hands through impact so you contact the ball with a slightly closed clubface. Finally, if your equipment is promoting a slice rather than a draw then you must get equipment that encourages you to hit a draw/hook.

So that’s the proven formula you need to follow to fix your slice. And remember, to get the fastest results you must exaggerate the opposite of what you’re currently doing to hit your slice. To make a start I recommend you change your grip to make it stronger, because I know of golfers that have just done that and fixed their golf slice. So start with making changes to your setup and then progress through the rest of this proven formula after that.

Nick Bayley is a professional golfer who has discovered just one golf swing fault that could be stopping YOU from ball striking consistency and success. But luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute golf swing test to see if you have this swing fault or not. So don’t delay! Go here to take The Golf Swing Test™ now:  http://www.yourgolfswingtest.com/

Tags: Golf Swing, Golf Tips by Golfer Dude
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Take this golf swing test…

In my travels across the Internet I came across a website that has a unique golf swing test. This golf swing test was created to see if us golfers have a single swing fault that is stopping us from hitting the ball further, straighter and more consistently.

Apparently if you have this one swing fault it could be costing us up to 50 yards in distance.

Ouch!

You could have ONE swing fault that is stopping you from ball striking consistency and success.

Luckily for you, now you can take a simple 2 minute test to see if you have this swing fault or not.

If you don’t have this swing fault, that’s great. But if you do have this swing fault you’ll want to know about it because it WILL be costing you….

* Distance (could be up to 50 yards)
* Accuracy, and
* Consistency

So to find out whether you have this swing fault or not go here and take this simple 2 minute golf swing test:

www.yourgolfswingtest.com It will take you less than 2 minutes to take this test and it may just be the most valuable 2 minutes you’ll ever spend….as far as your golf swing is concerned. So go and take this test right now.

If you suffer from an over the top problem or your divots point left of the target then you need to go and take this test now!

www.yourgolfswingtest.com

Tags: Golf Swing by Golfer Dude
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