5 Must Know Tips to Improve Your Golf Swing and Score

By: D Matheson

If you're a weekend golfer then I'm sure you're not a scratch golfer. Of course we play the game for fun not competition though right. Seriously all jokes aside, I'm sure you struggle with swing troubles from time to time. You can stand up in the first tee box and whack a 220 yard drive only to sail one into the woods on the 3rd hole. The good news is all is not lost, the down side is rarely do we know what is causing these troubles in our swing. Most times it's lack of instruction or understanding but this can be fixed. This article is meant to be a primer for 5 basic tips to follow for your full swing, there will be a link at the end to visit our site for more information and videos to help understand these tips even better.

The Grip

Most of you likely think there is nothing wrong with your grip. I'm not here to tell you that you're holding the club all wrong how ever I do want to point out two changes you should make if you're not doing them now to help reduce the chance of slicing and gain control over your shots. The first point is the position of your hands on the club. Grab your driver or a long iron and stand as you would when you address the ball before a shot. Now look down at your hands, can you see three knuckles on your top hand? Or is your hand turned outwards so much that you can only see the knuckle on your index finger? If you can't see three knuckles turn your hand in towards you, and adjust your lower hand so that the palms are facing each other. This will allow the club face to close faster in the down swing, helping the club face come square to the ball at impact. This is known as a strong grip.

The second tip about the grip is to do with the pressure you apply to the club. A lot of us feel that if we don't hold onto the club for dear life it may just fly out of our hands when we swing/ This isn't normally the case and most of us could stand to lighten up a bit. Next time out and you make the first adjustment I mentioned above consider this one as well. Hold the club firmly enough that you don't feel it's going to slip from your hands, but grip it as you would something fragile, strong yet softly.

Weight shift and distribution

All golfers who have a repeatable swing have got the concept of weight distribution down pact. Here's a quick overview. Standing with your feet about shoulder width apart you should have even weight distribution of 50/50 on your front and back feet. As you bring the club back for your back swing you should move your weight to the inside of your back foot making for a 75/25 weight distribution. Now this is where the power comes from, as you bring the club down you transfer your weight to your front foot, but there is a common mistake many amateur golfers make at this point that ruins the shot. We begin to lean forwards with our front hip, almost curing our selves. Rather then doing this transfer the weight to your front foot, turn your leading up back wards away from the ball, so that when you've completed your swing your belt buckle is aiming towards the target.

Better Aim

How's your aim? I know I struggle with this a lot and when I don't keep this particular tip in mind I tend to always be left or right of my target. I'll assume you have an understanding of how to address the ball and aim your shot. The difficult part comes when you're trying to aim your shot at something 175 yards away. So here's the fix that will allow you to better hit your target each time. Before you address the ball stand behind it and locate something a couple of feet in front of your ball on the fairway or tee box that is in line with your target. Now approach the ball and rather then aiming at the target way down the fairway aim at the spot you located in front of your ball. The benefit to this technique is that spot is in your field of vision without having to look away from the ball when swinging. Try that and I'm sure you'll experience far better accuracy.

Posture and Correct Head Movement

Do you struggle topping the ball? If so then chances are your lifting your body as you swing. Everyone always tells you to keep your head down, and to an extent they are correct how ever they leave out the other important factor and that is your posture through the swing. When you address the ball correctly you should be bent over slightly at the hips, how ever your back should be straight. Think of your spine being the axis for your swing. Now as you take the club back for your back swing you should keep the same posture, as well as through the down swing. After the club has made impact with the ball you should now begin to straighten up in the follow through. Also your head should begin to come up and finish looking straight ahead at the target. This point goes hand in hand with the weight distribution, and finish position of your belt buckle pointing towards the target.

Something quick to mention is that some people will suggest you keep your head down through out the entire swing, be careful how low you keep your head. Often times it will restrict the movement of your shoulders in the back swing and down swing reducing your accuracy and power you can get out of each shot. Over emphasize keeping your head down the next time your at the driving range and you'll see what I mean about restricting movement.

Golf Swing Speed

Now this one you've also likely heard before possibly during the same round someone told you to keep your head down. It's the old saying 'slow it down'. This isn't something that just amateur golfers struggle with, we all try to swing at the ball a little to hard sometimes. The thing is if we have trouble being consistent when we're swinging slower, what makes us think we'll do better when we swing harder? Exactly, we won't!

Next time you're at the driving range slow your swing down. Grab a long iron or wood and swing at 50-75% of your normal swing speed, don't worry how far the ball goes but notice the consistency you have with the shots. There are a lot of things going on during the golf swing, and if you try to murder the ball each time there's a fat chance you're going to hit it well and straight. Most times something will go wrong and you'll lose a shot, and what's better a shot that went 40 yards shorter but is playable, or one that's in the woods and you have to take a penalty stroke for.

Article Source: http://www.bettergolfarticles.com

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