Get Back To Golf Swing Basics
The golf swing is a combination of your mind, body and golf club working together hopefully as one. This is what might be called the foundation of modelling golfing excellence. A golf swing has a series of processes or routines that need to come together from address, takeaway, backswing, downswing through the ball to your follow through.
On top of this considering your golf mental game is important such as when to think, what to think about, managing your emotions before, during and after the swing as well as being aware of your body throughout the swing. From your approach and setup to completion of the shot. Routines and good physical conditioning are a vital part of setting yourself up for success.
Focus on playing to the target as many golfers make a mistake of simply focussing on hitting the ball. Should be easy right? Smash the ball should make it go a greater distance, right? Only if you play true to your golf swing plane and it is on line with the line the ball needs to move along. Assuming of course you hit it square.
Many factors make this much harder for the average golfer.
Are you playing against yourself before you even get started? Here is just a few ways you might be making it harder than it needs to be.
- You are not fit, a bit or a lot out of shape, short muscles, tight joints so you are not physically capable of a full golf swing.
- You have not worked out your swing sequence so it is second nature. You are constantly trying to find your golf swing.
- You are thinking your way through every step of the golf swing completely distracted from playing to your target with a clear mind.
- Those golf clubs are simply wrong for you, the grip is too thin or fat. There is too much flex in the shaft or the clubs are too short which impacts your posture at address.
- Your golf ball is cold, it has lost shape or compression. A cold golf ball will always travel less distance.
As far as your golf swing goes get back to the basics. Here are a few things you can do.
Build a sequence you can follow like second nature without fail so it is repeatable. The simplest thing is to break your golf swing routine into 5 or so easy chunks you can master one at a time.
At the very least stretch and warm up before you play. Stretch and warm your muscles and joints, particularly hips, shoulders, wrists, elbows backs and legs. Practice a few shots with each club in your warm up too.
Start with a solid address of the ball with your feet aligned to the target, your club face square to the ball and line. You really want to have all of your decisions done with by the time you are over the ball and have your emotions in check too. Breathe to let go, relax, get into your body. Focus on your target and the shot you intend to play.
Build a backswing that works for you. You might shorten your swing to start with to play more accurate shots and then work on building your strength and power.
Notice how you start you backswing. You want your hands, arms, shoulders and chest to move as a triangle. A low and slow backswing with your arms out straight is best.
Build club head speed from the top of the backswing through the downswing. At the same time keep your timing, rhythm smooth throughout your swing. Your natural rhythm can be found through the breath. Breathe in on the backswing and out through the downswing through the ball to the target.
Your spine needs to be straight as this is the axis of rotation for the golf swing. Rotation is impeded if the spine is not straight and the result is often too much movement up and down or sideways of the arms, hands or head.
It takes time to learn the golf swing basics, take your time, learn in slow motion one piece at a time so your pre shot routine, your shot routine and golf swing is consistently the same each time. Remember your mind, body, clubs and swing all work together to create a result.