Alignment - Is It Important? Part # 1

By: Ben Throckmorton

When I sat down and began to brainstorm about writing and filming "How To Break 90 in 3 Easy Lessons", I tried to think of a couple of sticking points that a majority of all my students over the years had struggled with in order that I might use these common threads as the foundation for my new interactive golf training system.

After considerable thought, I came up with three problematic areas that virtually every student I've ever taught has struggled with at one time or another.

These three areas are grip, alignment, and posture.

I'm going to talk a bit about alignment today and try to impress upon you why alignment is so important. I'll address grip and posture in subsequent articles.

The reason I'm starting with alignment is because I played on Saturday with 3 guys who have the athletic ability and talent to shoot in the 70's. Each of them failed to break 90 and the biggest reason why was, you guessed it, improper, inconsistent alignment.

Two of the three players set up well to the right of their intended target-line and then came over the top in varying degrees with various degrees of success in an effort to find the target. Some of their shots were very good but their misses were all over the park. Some sliced wildly to the right, some were pulled wildly left, and some were even, dare I say it, shanks. The other gentleman simply couldn't decide whether or not he was going to set up right of the target, left of the target, or at the target rendering his swing ineffective because he was constantly trying to find the target line from different alignment positions. These alignment difficulties caused most of the problems for the three players and ultimately cost them all a really good score.

Remember, these are good players, players who hit long solid shots. They hit balls regularly. They have expensive equipment. They play regularly. Why haven't they taken the time to master this necessary fundamental?

Now I know that working on your alignment is not as exciting as the "How To Hit It 400 Yards DVD" but I guarantee that working on your alignment will yield lower scores and you just might realize that your swing is better than you thought.

The ability to find the target line over and over is absolutely essential. This is not optional folks. Consistently good alignment is a must if you are to shoot good scores on a consistent basis.

There are very few certainties in golf and the many uncertainties are probably what attract so many people to this crazy game. There are multiple challenges on each and every shot and no two shots are exactly the same.
There are numerous variables throughout the game of golf that we cannot control including the wind, the layout of the hole, distance to the target, and other elements that can all change from shot to shot and hole to hole.
With so many variables changing on each shot, it's extremely important that we maximize our consistency and take complete charge of the variables we can control, variables like our alignment.

You MUST master this fundamental if you hope to consistently shoot low scores. There is no substitute for solid fundamentals regardless of what the TV swing gurus and gadget-hawks tell you. The better your alignment and the more consistent it is, the easier it will be for you to hit good golf shots on a regular basis. Take this concept to heart and master the fundamentals of great alignment.

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

Ben Throckmorton is a 20 year veteran of golf instruction. He is the author of the very successful "How To Break 90 in 3 Easy Lessons" golf instruction series and also the author of "The Golf Swing Secret.". Ben's groundbreaking multi-media series have helped golfers around the world in their quest to shoot lower scores. Check out the "How to Break 90 in 3 Easy Lessons" Golf Training system and also The Golf Swing Secret now to see how Ben can get you on the fast track to lower scores.

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