Is your golf swing letting you down on the course? If so, rather than over-analysing your swing and beating yourself up, take it back to basics and work from the ground up.
There is no such thing as the perfect golf swing. There are only good and bad ones, with each player having his or her technique they have developed over years of playing. While you can gain valuable tips from watching other players’ swings, you will only master yours by working on it.
Any part of your game can be improved by taking it back to the basics and the same can be said with your golf swing. Here, we have listed three basics that, should you master them, will dramatically improve your game.
Set-Up
How you set up your shot begins with your grip and, if this isn’t correct, then it doesn’t matter what you do afterwards. An incorrect grip can be the reason why you are hooking your shots one way or another.
Practice how you grip your club (you can use any club) by holding the club at a 45-degree angle in front of you. This allows for the club to naturally run through your hands in the way that you want it to. Ensure that you place the thumb of your lead hand (left if you are right-handed and vice versa) is on top of the handle of the club as you close your grip. Your trail hand is then placed over your lead thumb and experiment with a grip that is comfortable for you.
Once you are happy with your grip, practice your ready position – this forms part of your pre-shot routine. This should start with your feet shoulder-width apart with your toes flared out at a slight angle and a slight bend in the knees and tilt at the hip. In this position, your hands should reach just above your kneecaps when your arms are down in front of you.
In this position, your lead foot should be taking a little more than half of the weight of the body. This allows you to move into the trailside, transferring the weight of your body onto the opposite foot, with ease, making for a smoother swing.
Club-Face Control
Understanding and controlling the direction in which your club faces will make all the difference between hitting and missing your target. Therefore your hands must be gripping the club correctly as, with the correct grip, the back of your leading hand will be in line with the face of the club.
Using the back of your leading hand works as a good reference point. If the back of your leading hand is pointing up towards the sky, then so, too, will the face of your club. One tip that some golfers use is to place a tee on the back of their glove so that it points clearly in the direction in which the back of the hand is facing. In your ready position, point the tee in the direction of your target.
As you move through the movement of the swing, the tee/back of your lead hand will move along with it. Practice so that your reference point is pointing in the direction of the target at the start swing and again at the moment the club-face makes contact with the ball.
This is where many golfers slip up. While their club is suitably positioned at the beginning of the swing, rotation of the hands and club in the motion of it means that by the time contact is made with the ball, the club is facing in a different direction than the one started with.
Pivot
The pivot is the moment that weight is transferred from one foot to another, as mentioned briefly in the set-up. A mistake made by many amateur golfers is losing balance going through the range of motion in the swing as their feet either destabilise or leave the ground completely. If this is happening in your swing, then you are not pivoting correctly.
A good pivot sees around 60% of the weight pressure placed into the leading foot (this will be your left if you are a right-handed golfer, and vice-versa) at the start of the swing. Early in the backswing, this transfers into the trailing leg as the body gently bumps from one direction to another.
As the swing advances more into the backswing, the body turns, and the weight is then transferred into the heel of the trailing foot. From the top of the backswing, this action is reversed with the weight of the body transferred from the trailing foot to the leading foot in one smooth motion. Mastering the pivot takes practice, naturally, and will ensure that your body remains balanced throughout the swing and that your otherwise flawless technique is not in vain.
Mastering these three basics will improve your swing, increasing its consistency and lowering your score around the course, putting you into contention for winning golf trophies at whatever level it is you play.
