|
Start your
 search here |
|
Time to get back to the basics!
The BasicsThis is probably the most important part of learning the sport of golf. The basics. Too many people are in such a rush to get out on the course and start whacking at the ball that they forget they need to learn how to hit the ball. Otherwise, you are just wasting time, money, and other golfer's patience.It is very important to learn how to hit the ball effectively so that you will have an enjoyable outing and your not just getting frustrated and frustrating the other players. Let's break it down into digestable parts. EquipmentYou are allowed 14 clubs in your bag. That includes your putter (its a club too you know).You will probably have a driver, 1 or 2 woods, a set of irons, 2 or 3 wedges and a putter. Each of these plays a roll in your game. You will probably use just about every club in the bag during a round of golf. If you didn't use them all then you are just carrying around extra weight, right? Most drivers today are oversized. That is the club face is much larger than drivers in the past. You only want to use this club off the tee. I know you can use this club from anywhere in those golfing video games, but avoid that on the course. Using the driver in the rough or fairway could damage the club. The woods can be used in the fairways and off of the tee. You would want to use a wood off the tee for one of two reasons. One: you are not having any luck with your driver. If this is the case, leave the driver in the bag and use a more lofted club like a wood or even an iron. These clubs are much easier to hit than the driver. Irons are good for distances of 100 yards and further. How far these go depends on you. Practice with them and find your distance for each club. This will prove invaluable to you on the course. These clubs are used in the fairways and roughs. Wedges are used typically, within 100 yards of the green. These clubs are probably some of the most handy clubs you have in your bag. Learning their proper use will help you in lowering your scores as well as impress other golfers. You can find out more about this under the wedges page. The putter. Probably the most important club in your bag. Why? Because about half of the strokes you make are made with your putter. Learning its proper use is crucial to your game. Spend lots of time on the practice greens. It will pay dividends on the course. The GripThere are three basic grips that you might use to grip the club. They are the interlocking grip, the overlapping grip, or the baseball grip. Any one of these will work, but in my opinion, the interlocking grip should work the best for you. However, you should use the one that is most comfortable for you.For the longest time I held off using the interlocking grip, because it didn't feel natural. After golfing for some time I decided to try it again and I have not gone back. The difference in these grips is the positioning of the index finger on the forward hand (forward being the hand closest to your target, that is down the fairway I hope) and the pinky finger on the trailing hand. The interlocking grip puts the index finger of the forward hand in between the ring and pinky fingers of the trailing hand. The overlapping grip simply overlaps these two fingers. And the baseball grip has the two fingers next to each other. On the top side of the club, the trailing hand slightly covers the thumb of the forward hand. The v's in your hand need to point to your right shoulder.........Say what? I've seen this dozens of times and for the longest time, I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Then one day it hit me. So if I had the question, then I am sure that some of you have the question as well. You will notice when you grip the club that your thumb comes to rest against the index finger side of your hand. The v is formed by the bones of your thumb and the side of your hand leading down to your index finger. The crack in between them should form a line and that line should be pointing toward your right shoulder for right handed golfers. So the v's in both hands should be pointing to your trailing shoulder. If they are not then you may have too strong or too weak of a grip. A strong grip has the thumbs of each hand toward the back of the club, as if they were going to push the club through the swing path. A weak grip has the thumbs forward of the center line as if you were trying to pull the club through its swing path. When done properly, the club handle will be pointing at your belt buckle. The StanceI have seen some very interesting stances. There is probably one for every golfer out there. However, understanding the proper stance will aid you in getting some consistency in your golf swing. Consistency means lower scores.First of all your feet should be perpendicular to the path you want the ball to travel. They should be about shoulder width apart. The farther apart your feet, the less ability you have to turn toward your target in the follow through. The closer together they are, the futher you are from the ball and the more difficult it is to hit. Keeping them shoulder width gives you the best of both worlds. If you find that you are slicing the ball (large curve away from you), you might try widening your stance a bit. Keep your back straight. Your swing path is going to rotate around your spine and keeping it straight will give you a much smoother motion and less variation in each swing you make. This is a very important aspect of the stance. Don't skimp on it. Keep your chin up. You still want to be able to see the ball, but if you have your head down too much then you start slumping, or arching your back. Chin up will help you rotate on your spine. Your feet, hips and shoulders should be parallel to the flight path of the ball at address. The BackswingThis is where you are taking the club back away from the ball. The path that the club travels is crucial. Remember that you want to rotate on your spine while keeping your eyes fixed on the ball.Think of it this way. If you were to take a ball attached to the end of a string and start twirling it around, the point that the ball is spinning the fastest becomes a flat plane or 90° to your arm. Imagine your spine is your arm and the string and ball are your arms and club. Your club is swinging its fastest when it rotates 90° to your spine. Remember that the more club head speed, the more distance. As a beginning golfer, I would suggest a backswing where your forward arm comes back to where it is parallel to the ground and the club is 90° to that arm. The farther back your backswing, the more room for error. Keeping it simple in the beginning will gain you more accuracy. Once you have some accuracy then you should work on your distance. If more distance is taking away from your accuracy then you should back it off a bit. Accuracy is much more important than distance. After getting some accuracy, try flexing your wrists a little more so that the club comes back farther but keep your forward arm parallel to the ground at the end of your backswing. This will help you get more club head speed while keeping your accuracy. The trailing shoulder should also come up slightly in your back swing. If you don't do this your swing path will not follow the the 90° angle to your spine and throw off your downswing and follow through. So it is important to hold that angle. The DownswingStart to straighten your trailing arm as soon as you can when you start the downswing. Do not cunfuse muscling the club through the ball as having good club head speed. There are a lot of less than muscular people that can get some great distance. It has nothing to do with muscle and everything to do with technique.Let the club do the work. This is another phrase I have heard a lot, but did not quite know what it meant until I could feel the weight of the club increasing the club head speed. When this happens for you, you will see a dramatic difference in the distance your ball will travel for every club in your bag, at least for the driver through irons. Keep the swing path at 90° to your spine and keep you spine straight as you start your downswing. The downswing reall starts with your forward leg. That knee will start moving forward and then the spine starts rotating. Remember to use the weight of the club to get more club head speed. Closing the face of the club at impact will get the proper spin on the ball to get a slight right to left curve on the ball and extra roll when it lands. Your forward hip needs to start its rotation as well so that your facing your target after the followthrough. The FollowthroughKeep your forward arm close to your body on the followthrough. This will help keep that 90° angle to your spine. Continue turning toward your target and finish by facing the target. Your hips should be perpendicular to the target at finish.This concludes the basics section. We will go into more detail on the other pages dealing with clubs and drawing the ball. |
 This no nonsense book gives you all the right stuff to dramatically drop your score. Get the tips that will get you on track to break 80 quickly. Simply practice what Jack Moorehouse demonstrates and you too will be showing off your scorecard. Comes with a weekly newsletter filled with professional quality tips. Guaranteed to cut strokes from your game. |
 Having troubles with your putting? Get the tips to unlock your hidden putting potential in Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed. Scott Meyers shows you how to get your distance down and how to read the greens with incredible accuracy. |
 Golfers are spending hundreds of dollars on lessons, only to be more confused than ever... and not being able to hit the ball at all! With this scenario, what's left? Do you take more lessons? Do you hit more balls? I'll bet you've already done that. Did it help? Be honest. I'm a straight shooter... and fessing up is the first step to ending the frustration and getting on the right track quickly. What the pros won't tell you is it's your BODY that's keeping you from an astonishingly high level of performance. |
 Take This Simple, 2 Minute Golf Swing Test To See If You Have This Serious Swing Fault Or Not |
© 2007 Buckboard Software
