Golf is a game that is easy to understand, but difficult to master. So great goes on during a golf swing, it’s hard to know what to do, and what not to do. People expend lots of money on new clubs, gadgets that promise you you’ll lose 5 strokes, in order to better understand the golf swing, but they’re really just confusing them selves further. What these people don’t understand, is that some of these devices can help you, but without your swing being good, they aren’t going to help that much. If you try to work around a faulty swing, then as soon as you fix one problem, you suddenly have two more to fix, and the circle continues. It is pretty hard to improve this way, and only leaves you frustrated. It’s best to learn the swing from the ground up.
Learn your fundamentals. Fundamentals are the first thing that you learn when you first start playing golf. The fundamentals are: Grip, alignment, stance, and posture. I like to reflect of it as G.A.S.P. That’s an easy way to remember it, so don’t forget it.
Grip, is how you grip the club. There are three grip styles: The Interlocking grip, which is the most popular. The Overlap or Vardon grip, which is the second most current, and the least accepted is the Ten Finger, or Baseball grip. There is also two more aspects to the grip as well. There is a Strong grip, a Neutral grip, and a Weak grip. There is also grip pressure to grasp into account.
I’ll start with the interlock grip. With the interlock grip, the pinkie on the right hand interlocks with the pointer finger of the left hand, and then the fingers curl around the grip. Try that, without a club in your hand. Both thumbs should more or less, be pointing downwards. I think this has more power potential, due to the enhanced stability you get with this over the other two grip styles.
The Overlap(Vardon)grip, is almost the same as the interlock, except the pinkie on the right hand overlaps the index finger of the left hand, instead of interlocking with it. To practice this, make a fist with your left hand. Then lay the pinkie on your right hand over the index finger on your left hand. This is the overlap. I’m not loyal astronomical on it, cause I feel that it doesn’t make your hands “one piece” like the interlock does.. However if you like it, go with it. This grip is great for players with large hands.
the last grip typs is the Baseball(10 finger) grip. To do this, compose a fist on both hands, and then bring the pinkie on the right hand, together with the index finger on the left hand. Nothing should be interlocked, or overlapped with this grip. This grip is best used for players with shrimp hands
The second aspect to the grip, is a Strong Grip, a Weak Grip, and a Neutral grip. A Strong grip means your hands are turned more to the left on the grip, and a Traditional grip is turned to the correct more. A Neutral grip, is a grip that is not turned to the left or the correct, it is in the middle, neutral. Hold it or not, this makes a huge difference to where your ball will end up. A Strong grip, will encourage the ball to Hook, while a Faded grip, and Neutral grip, will encourage a straight, or Slice ball flight. You must play around with all three, to score out what works best for you. Yes, you can use a different one for your irons, wedges, or woods. I use a Neutral grip for irons, and a Strong grip for my woods. Go with what makes you feel comfortable.
When using a wood or driver, I recommend that you employ a Strong grip. The Strong grip allows you to release your wrists completely, through impact. It is the natural region that your hands want to be in. To reveal this, grab a bat, and swing it as hard as you can at a tree or something. Now look at your hands. They have turned to the left, so that you can deliver the most powerful possible blow to the ball. The reason slack this, is that when you are trying to deliver a powerful blow to something, the butt of your left hand naturally wants to be leading. It’s the same with the golf swing. When using the Strong grip, the thumb on your right hand, should be pointing in the 11 o’clock position, on the grip. Imagine that there’s a clock on the top of the grip. Point your thumb at 11 o’ clock.
The placement of the left thumb is also significant. How you place your thumb on the grip, can affect where your ball goes. Whenever you grip the club, your instinct is to place the thumb on top of the grip near your index finger. It feels tighter on the shaft, but it really isn’t. It will encorage cupping of the left wrist, and the dreaded slices! The correct placement of the left thumb is just slightly to the side away from the knuckle of the index finger. The reason for this is because it acts as the primary pressure point that the left hand has on the back end of the shaft. When you get to impact, you want the pressure you are applying to be late the shaft pushing forward, not on top of the shaft pushing down
If you just invent a backhand motion with your thumb on top of the shaft, your shots will be weak, and you won’t be able to control the club. Now your natural inclination is to rotate your forearm so that the thumb is behind the club at impact. That opens up your club face, and causes push slices. It is a mistake, i see all to often, and scosts you strokes around the course.
You can look at your backswing for more proof too. If you just grip the club with your left hand, and put your thumb on top of the grip, and bring the shaft straight up, over your right shoulder, you’ll peruse that your forearm is at an angle, and your thumb doesn’t support the club. This leads to you cupping your left wrist at the top, and an open club face at impact.
The last aspect to the grip is grip pressure. You want to hold the club just tight enough, so that you won’t throw it, but loose enough, so that it’s comfortable. Think of it as holding a valuable artifact. You don’t want to hold it so hard, it breaks, but you don’t want to enjoy it so loose, that you drop it, and it shatters. Same thing here. You really want your whole body to be loose, nothing should be strained.
It’s also very important to keep the pressure the same, throughout the whole swing. You are naturally going to tighten up a little more, on the downswing, but originate sure you’re loose everywhere else. The reason you want to hold the club loosely, is so you can hinge, and unhinge your wrists completely, and quickly. So many people think that by holding the club tightly, it makes the ball go further. This is absolutely false. Loose muscles are hasty muscles. Any tension in your body will do nothing but rob you of power, accuracy, and distance. Be loose, be in control
Alignment is also very important. When you address the ball to hit it, your shoulders, hips, knees and feet should all be pointing parallel to your target. That means beside it, not at it. Being crooked or a limited twisted, will cause inconsistency, and that’s not good at all, is it? Make sure that your feet are pointing parallel to your target, and that you hips, and shoulders are level, and also parallel to your target. Also check that your club face is pointing at your target. An exception to this, is when you are trying to hit a Hook or Slice.
A cool alignment tool, you can use, is divots, left behind by other golfers. To aim using a divot, get behind the divot, and spy where it’s aiming to. Once you find one that aims where you want the ball to go, you just line up with the divot, and swing away. This works because it is much simpler to line up with a target that is three inches away, than a target that is 150 yards away. So you are making it much easier on yourself by aiming this design. This will also work from some fairway shots too, but understand, that there won’t always be divots to help you.. More than once, I have gone through a whole round of golf, without ever once seeing a usable alignment divot, so it’s good to know how to align the traditional way as well. Keep this in mind, however, because you never know when you will be able to use it.
The stance is something your going to have to experiment with, because regardless of what Mr. Joe Pro golfer told you, there is no situation width. People come in all shapes and sizes, and so do stances. Shoulder width is as far as you want to go. Having a stance any wider, will limit your shoulder turn, and rob you of power. However, the wider you are, the more stable you are. Having a narrower stance than that, allows you to turn more, but it makes it harder to remain balanced, and can cause other problems as well.. So both are really a double- edged sword, and this is why you must experiment to see what works best for you.
The Posture is how you look at address to the ball. You should have your knees bent comfortably, your back straight, a bend at the hips, weight balanced between both feet. Also, If you watch PGA events on TV, you’ll notice the players stick their butts out pretty far. The reason they do this, is because it helps keep their help straight, and helps keep them stable. Your larger players do this more than skinnier ones. To get a proper posture, first check that your grip, alignment, and stance are right. Then stick your butt out, and bend straight from the hips. Resist the urge to bend your back upwards a bit more. This causes your back to be not straight, and may cause a nasty result when you hit the ball. Now bend your knees a little bit. Put most of your weight on your heels. You should now have good posture. Check yourself in the mirror to make sure that you look right, and your befriend is straight.
The Short Game is the game from 100 yards in, and it’s the zone where strokes are saved or lost. It consists of chipping, pitching, or flopping onto the green, and then putting the ball into the hole. Sounds easy, but it isn’t.. This takes time to master. The best thing to do here, is to spend a few hours a week at the chipping range, and practice chipping, and pitching from long distances, and short distances as well. It is also important to learn to control how much spin you put on the ball. Spin can also be used to bring the ball closer to the hole. Being able to conclude the ball immediately, or assist it up a bit, is a principal skill to learn. The only way to learn this skill though, is to practice.
Also spend a few hours working on your putting as well. Practice putting from different distances, and different lies. Try putting off the fringe too, as you till find yourself in that situation eventually. When putting from 20 feet or more, perform it your goal to accept the ball within a 4 foot circle of the pin. Don’t aim for the pin, aim for an area. That makes aligning mighty easier, and you won’t feel so much pressure. Unless your lie if bad, if your within 20 feet, I try to get it in the hole, but be sure that your balls misses safely, and doesn’t roll off the back of the green.
I’ve known so many people, who played with standard length clubs, even though they were clearly to long. Now see, here is what angers me about this.. The average person has not gotten taller over the last 20 years,but yet, clubs keep getting longer, and longer.. 20 years ago, the average length for the driver was 42″ long. These days, standard can mean 45″ or more in length! In the case of Taylormade, or Nike clubs, it can be as much as 47″! Now, we got irons that are too long, and people who try to hit them!
Many people maintain that a longer club means longer distance.. Well, that’s sort of lawful.. Only if you hit the club in the sweet spot, every time, will you see a difference in distance. The gain is only about 3 yards for every 1 inch.. So is it really worth it? Would you rather be 300 yards, in the woods, or 280 yards in the fairway? That’s what getting a shorter club does for you. You may lose a little distance, but you salvage accuracy, and that is key to good golf. Accuracy, not distance. Distance is fair a bonus. Chances are, that you will pick up some yards, since you are now hitting the sweet location more often. So, pick up fitted, and help yourself out in the long run.
The best advice I can give you, is to get a few lessons. Getting lessons doesn’t mean your a beginner, even the pros have swing coaches! A good pro can show you proper fundamentals, and can record your swing, so that you can better understand what your doing wrong, and how you can fix it. Lessons are good for understand the basics of the swing. Once you have those down, everything else becomes much easier to learn. I have explained most of this stuff to you in this article, but nothing can compare with seeing it for yourself, and having someone note you the right steps. Getting lessons are a bit expensive, but they pay for themsleves in the long run. Just think of the money you’ll save, when you no longer hit balls into the water hazards, or crop them out of bounds.
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