2016 June

Are you starting your swing from a dead stop and expecting your body to instantly jump into the right mode?  You really should “Get Your Motor Running” to wake-up your muscles for a more consistent swing. Watching the US Open, I couldn’t help but see Dustin Johnson re-grip his club and tap it on the ground 3 to 5 times before he pre-set his wrists forward and starts his back swing. Sure did work for the US Open Champion.

Following is a video of Dustin Johnson borrowed from YouTube.  It shows his preshot routine for both face-on and up the line.  Watch for his gripping and tapping waggle as well as his wrist pre-set.   This is also an amazing golf swing.  It’s a must see.

Recreational golfers tend to move up to the ball and look at it as if we are memorizing the way to keep our head down through impact. The longer we stand frozen, addressing the ball, the tighter our muscles get. Our minds start to wander or focus on a screeching bird or our muttering golf partners.  Do this and it will kill your game.

As it turns out most PGA Professionals have their personal way to get their motor running.

Hank Haney does a single back waggle and a little hand shift forward before he swings.

Martin Chuck pre-sets his hands slightly forward as part of his swing but he never talks about it or suggests that his students should do the same when he presents a lesson.

Jason Dufner almost completes a dance routine with his hands before he swings.

Rickie Fowler, Mike Weir and Michelle Wie all complete a quarter back swing waggle. All are rehearsing their flat wrist takeaway (great solution using GOLFSTR+ ) or direction of their preferred takeaway to overcome a historic problem.

Andy Anderson (Golf Swing Secrets blogger) sold a golf swing training program where you bend your wrist back (in the direction of your backswing) before you start your takeaway. It actually creates your bowed leading wrist at the top of your backswing the way Dustin Johnson does it.

As Advertised in GOLF TIPS Magazine

For heaven sake, whatever you do, don’t take an eternity looking up at your target and adjusting your feet for a minute like the idiot who golfed in front of us today. Look up your target line from behind the ball, take your stance and then do your favourite hand and shoulder and bum routine to wiggle or waggle but DON’T STAND FROZEN OVER YOUR BALL before you swing.

You should always practice your line-up and waggle routing on the driving range when you practice. Improve your practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn the perfect swing with a straight leading arm, flat leading wrist and a proper lag for 6 swing fixes.  Get your motor running and buy one today  at www.golfstr.com

Recreational golfers are frustrated when they aim for a point and the ball decides to draw or fade. Your swing path and the setup of the face of your club dictate where your ball is going. Even a slight change in the swing path or club face position will cause a new direction for your ball. Why not use your BRAIN and start to take control of your BALL (and your game).

Hank Haney commented that one of his early instructors said: “golf IS what the ball DOES”. Club path creates the trajectory and the club face creates the curve (draw or fade) at the point of impact. If 50% of your shots are landing off the fairway in the rough or bushes, you need to plan for your ball flight.

Use your BRAIN to plan the shape of your shot. Turn your random hits into a CONTROLLED draw or a fade. Don’t leave it to chance. NOTE: It’s not easy.  In the US Open in the closing holes, you may have seen, Dustin Johnson turn his planned fade into a duck hook which landed in the deep grass. The pros were definitely choosing a draw or fade to hit every one of those narrow fairways at Oakmont Country Club.  A straight shot was their preference but they had to plan their draw or fade to land in the fairway.

1/ Grip Pressure: You may not realize that your club head can change direction if you increase your grip pressure as you waggle or start your take away. When you setup your hands and apply a medium grip, make sure you are not increasing your grip pressure and changing your club face direction.

2/ Compensate for Tilt of the Ground: When you setup, your hands should be hanging directly down from your shoulders. The front edge of your club should be resting flat on the ground and square to your target line. (When your feet are below the ball, grip down and line up to compensate for a draw. When your feet are above the ball, use more bend in your knees and line up to compensate for a fade.)

For a DRAW: Swing your club from inside to the outside your target line and flight your ball back to your target with a closed club face.

3/ Plan for a Draw or Fade: If your club face is “open” by a few degrees (pointing to the right from your swing path for right handed clubs), your ball will slice to the right because your ball is spinning with a side spin to the right. If your club face is “closed” by a few degrees from your swing path, your ball will spin left for a draw.

4/ Swing Path: The direction of your swing path creates the initial direction of the ball. In the US Open you saw pros choose their preferred natural draw or fade as long as they were confident where it would land.. For a draw, Hank Haney suggests that you set your club face 1 degrees to the left and swing from the inside to the outside by a few degrees. Yes, these are minor changes and that’s why your ball decides to go randomly left or right when you don’t plan for it.

5/ Control Your Swing Path: If you are swinging “over the top” and fading or pulling every shot, setup with the imaginary line across your toes parallel to your target line and then move your trailing foot away from that imaginary line by a few inches.

Small changes in your swing direction and your club face alignment can make the difference in hitting your next shot from the fairway or from the rough. Sort this out on the practice range and use your GOLFSTR+ to eliminate or control angles on your arm or wrist. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

I never thought of it this way until I heard 3 comments from 3 different Pros. Your leading hand (the one you wear your golf glove on) can be a great reminder for the 3 key check points in your swing. You can see or feel these points: setup, takeaway and point of impact.

I was playing golf with a friend who said that his 12 year old son just took up golf and he has a natural swing. From the first time he picked up a club, he has hit straight long drives almost every time he swings a club. Swinging a golf club is quite different from swinging a baseball bat so most of us need ONE thought in our head to generate a consistent golf swing.

The wonderful thing about the following 3 check points is that you can actually see all 3 check points. The golf swing happens in 1 or 2 seconds so you may be wondering how you can easily see any check points. Only the third check point happens during your swing.

1/ Setup: When you setup, you are calm and relaxed so you should have no problem resting your club on the ground, squaring the club with your target line and gripping with your left hand (for right handed golfers) so that you can see 3 knuckles on the back of your glove. By gripping this way the back of your hand will be pointing up your target line. It should also be parallel with the leading edge of your club.

2/ Backswing: Keep the back of your hand flat with your arm in your backswing. Golfers like Rickie Fowler waggle with a limited takeaway as a reminder to keep their wrist flat. As you waggle, you can see that you are not CUPPING or BOWING your wrist in the back swing. You can also use GOLFSTR+ to learn to keep your wrist flat. If you can’t swing without keeping it flat loosen your trailing hand grip and pull your flat leading wrist sideways for lag. [Believe me, I had this problem and it really works. It also allows you to swing from inside to out.]

Note: Hank Haney advised that you should keep your trailing wrist flat in your backswing to avoid angles which create inconsistent hits. Dustin Johnson is one of the few very strong golfers who can get away with bowing his leading wrist in the back swing.

Arnold Palmer threw the back of his leading hand up the target line in a strange lung to finish his swing. It worked for him.

3/ Point of Impact: As your club hits the ball you should FEEL your leading wrist pointing up the target line. Arnold Palmer almost threw his hands up his target line to avoid any wrist rotation during impact with the ball.

Of course it’s difficult to see the point of impact and the relationship of your hands at that instant (as you are busy looking at your ball). However, this is the only swing thought that you need when you are looking for a consistent hit up your target line. [Next week’s Swing Tip will turn your straight hits into a CONTROLLED draw or a fade. Don’t leave it to chance.]

REMEMBER to Check the 3 Points: Setup with the back of your hand facing your target and waggle with a flat wrist. Your third and ONLY thought during your SWING is to point the back of your wrist up the target line at the point of impact. Everything else in your swing needs to be on automatic pilot so you should practice for straight arm, flat wrist and lag with GOLFSTR+. Buy yours today at www.golfstr.com

Is there really a perfect golf swing? We all try to improve our game by taking lessons and watching the pros perform their magic on TV. In general, every golf instructor presents the same golf swing with a standard setup, a controlled back swing, a weight shift downswing and a balanced finish. Have you ever asked why you should conform? Have you ever considered that your body and brain can perform better shots when you try to step out of the box?

If you watch the pros long enough on TV you will recognize them by their size and walk and even their different swings. Yes, they ALL have a different swing.

Jack Nicklaus, the most accomplished player in golf has a stooped putting stance (which Michelle Wie exaggerates) and he also lifted the heal on his leading foot in his backswing for ease of rotation and timing.

Arnold Palmer used more upper body bend at the waist than others and he had a lunging finish to his swing as if he was throwing his body into the finish of his swing..

Jordon Spieth rolls his ankles. John Daly has a crazy over swing in his backswing. Phil Michelson has another version of an exaggerated backswing. Nick Price’s back swing was almost as fast as his forward swing. Ernie Els is so graceful until this gentle giant unloads.

Each of the great players adapted to something that worked for them. You should experiment to find your trigger or your relaxed mind or your body rotation to generate a consistent swing with a wonderful result every time.

Example of My Breakthrough
One of Arnold Palmer’s swing tips was to grip your club with both hands and don’t lose contact throughout the swing. Finally I realized that I was swinging with a very loose grip on the practice range for wonderful results. Unfortunately Arnold’s tip about a firm grip with both hands took hold of my mind as I played most rounds of golf. I could never understand why my relaxed days of golf were my best rounds of golf. It was all cause by my loose grip.

Experiment to find your breakthrough. Loosen your trailing hand to allow your leading hand to control your swing.

A few years ago I learned that old injuries to my body were limiting my rotation and flexibility. Stretch exercises were helping my game but I finally recognized that I need to break Arnold’s rule to always maintain full contract with the grip of both hands throughout the swing.

Bingo, Breakthrough, Wakeup Call, New Beginning and Hallelujah. I broke the grip rule.

I now golf with a firm leading hand grip and a very loose grip with my trailing hand. [So loose that only my fingers are wrapped around the club and the base of my thumb is separated from my leading hand. This allows me to keep my leading arm straight in the backswing, hold my lag in the downswing and whip my club through impact with more power AND BETTER DIRECTIONAL CONTROL.

Break the swing rules to find your magic swing fix. My trailing arm was killing my swing. This may help you too but I hope it has inspired you to experiment to find what causes your amazing shots. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to understand the impact of a straight arm, straight wrist and lag in your backswing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

These are the words that David Leadbetter uses to describe his current theory to improve your golf swing. He seems to be talking about using rhythm in your swing to help you accelerate though the ball. To do this properly you need relaxed hands, arms, hips and legs. For today’s Swing Tip I found a few examples of different golfers using rhythm and power but NOT brute force the way an amateur golfer tries to muscle his way through a shot.

Ernie Els: I found it interesting to see that David Leadbetter is currently instructing the Big Easy, Ernie Els, one of the game’s smoothest swingers. He’s a great role model for a golf swing: wide takeaway, smooth transition, powerful whipping action through the ball and a balanced finish. It’s surprising that even Ernie is trying to put more swing in his swing by taking lessons from Leadbetter (take note for all of you want-to-be golfers).

Martin Chuck: He is the inventor of Tour Striker which is a very unforgiving club with a rounded leading edge which forces you to lead your swing with your hands as your club lifts your ball. The surprising thing about Martin’s swing is that he starts the rhythm of his swing with a slight forward press using his hands and hips. He NEVER comments about this motion but it helps him get into the sway and rhythm of his swing. His body rhythm must be saying 1, 2, 3 (1 is the press, 2 is the back swing and 3 is the impact)

Albert Einstein: As legend has it, Albert Einstein once gave golf a try, “but I gave it up,” he said because it was “too complicated.” While one of history’s greatest geniuses created the equation for energy, he couldn’t figure out how to organize his expenditure of energy into the makings of a good golf swing.  Intensive mechanical and scientific planning for your swing does not pay-off.  You gotta have rhythm too!

Jamie Sadlowski: He is a recent two-time REMAX World Long Drive Championship winner. This year he also won a US Open qualifier with Gary McCord on the bag in Scottsdale AZ. The surprise here is that he is only 5 foot 11 inches tall (the same height as John Daly) but about half John’s weight at 170 pounds. Jamie can crush a golf ball more than 400 yards and also demolished a swing simulator projector screen with his first shot at the Golf Channel’s studio. Strength is important but rhythm and timing make all the difference even for a short and slight guy.

Timing and rhythm are important but your effort is wasted if you can’t keep you arm or wrist straight or flat for more consistent controlled hits.  GOLFSTR+ is a training aid with 6 swing fixes that will help you lower your scores.

We would all like to hit 300 yard drives down the center of every fairway. Learning the right relaxed grip, timing and swing rhythm are all important for more consistent and longer drives. Why not practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn your wide straight arm takeaway and to hold lag with a 90 degree bend in your trailing arm to generate power as you whip your club through impact.

Buy one today at www.golfstr.com