Golf – A Few Clever Drills To Improve Your Swing
November 3rd, 2007 | by Naimp | Posted in Recreation, Sports | No Comments »There are literally hundreds of drills that you can run through to help improve your golf swing and here are just some thoughts to help get the beginner up and running.
Let’s start with your stance and the position of the ball. In general, your heals should be about shoulder width apart, unless you are using short irons in which case they should be slightly closer together, or long irons and which case they should be spread a little farther apart. The club should be aimed directly at the target and on a straight line running between the ball and the target. Your body should be parallel to the target line and your shoulders should be at right angles to the club face.
Your grip on the club should be firm but not to tense. Control is the essence here and not muscle power. The position of your wrists is also essential for creating the maximum impact on the ball at the correct angle and this will do a great deal more for the distance that you achieve than putting power into your shots will.
One of the most common mistakes that golfers make is to allow the lead wrist to collapse on impact with the ball. To help firm up your wrists a good exercise is to keep your arms at your side and practice raising and lowering the club using just the wrist. Each time you raise the club point the toe so that it is parallel with the ground and hold it in that position for five seconds. You should repeat this exercise several times using first one hand and then the other until your forearm begins to become sore but is not strained. You can also try taking a few swings using just one hand. This of course improve your swing by itself, but it will help you to develop control.
Next, take up a normal stance addressing the ball. Now take a club and hold it behind your head and across your shoulders. With a partner to help you, turn as if you were taking a back-swing and ask your partner to look along the line of the club. If you’re turning correctly for your back-swing the line of the club should be pointing four feet or more beyond the position of the ball.
A golf swing is essentially a rotational movement and the key to that movement is to ensure that both your back-swing and your down-swing are both in the same plane. Imagine playing with a round-topped table in front of you, tipped up on its edge and standing on the ball. The rim of the table then forms the arc that your club should follow throughout your swing.
Practice your back-swing and down-swing to the point at which you would normally contact the ball. Look carefully at the club face. Is it square to, and pointing along, the line to the target or have you opened the club face? If you have, then you are rotating your forearm too much.
Take half a dozen golf tees and place them in the ground a few inches apart in a straight line in front of you. Address the first tee as if it were a golf ball and take a swing at it, before moving forward to the next one and so on. With practice you should be able to consistently clip the middle of each tee while remaining within your swing plane.
The final important element of your golf swing is that of rhythm and balance. You’ll find that the two go together and the good rhythm requires good balance while good balance also requires a good sense of rhythm.
With your weight evenly distributed between your feet and with your spine tilted away from the target as you address the ball, take a smooth pull back and an easy swing down. Continue to practice a few swings and, as you do so, have a partner gently push your shoulder blades, your lower back and each shoulder in turn. In all cases you should remain standing firmly and, if there is any tendency to fall, then you’re not in balance as you swing.
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