YOUR Swing Support Center

Golf-Info-Guide by Thomas Golf  has provided a lot of the inspiration for many of our blogs. We hope that this condensed version of their Top 10 Tips will help you too.

1/ Take Your Time: The best golf swings are those where the speed develops gradually as the club accelerates from the transition down to the point of impact.

2/ Pick out a Specific Target: Whether you are driving or putting, focus on a specific target to let your eye trick your body into automatic pilot to hit that point.

3/ Relax Your Grip: Your grip should be relaxed (just enough to avoid throwing your club) to avoid tensing your muscles to promote club head speed for more distance.

4/ Quite Hands in the Takeaway: Your takeaway should be controlled by your shoulders without caulking your writs.

5/ Play to Your Strength: As you chose your club for each shot, build confidence in the outcome by deciding what works best for you.

6/ See the Club Hit Your Ball: Watch your club as it impacts the ball to generate the power and direction that you need to reach your target point.

7/ Stay Perfectly Still While You are Putting: Your knee caps never sway as your shoulders rock back and forth to swing your putter in a constant tempo.

8/ Don’t Slide: Your shoulders and hips need to rotate around the axis of your spine as you keep your pressure on the inside of your trailing foot through impact.

9/ Finish the Swing: Complete your swing by accelerating through impact to a balance finish for control of consistent hits.

10: Have Fun: Golf is fun if you enjoy your successes and understand your mistakes to make improvement every time you play. Find the joy in every part of your game.

If you see these tips as a check list to improve your game, you are on the right track. [Suggest you print this list to read as calming reminders before you play!]   You have the right mental attitude for GOLF. You are trying to make improvements every time your play this wonderful challenging game. That’s why we play this game so don’t lose sight of it when your game starts to go sideways.

Life is a challenge.  The game of golf is a mental exercise to build confidence for your future personal success. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to improve your success and make your game more fun. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Think of your arms as having 2 different functions during your golf swing.  Your straight leading arm provides the power and your trailing arm provides the direction control.  If you don’t understand what is happening during your swing, you will never take control of your game.

Your leading arm should be straight throughout the backswing and downswing.  As long as you are only rotating your hips and shoulders (around your spine axis) with a minor hip press up your target line, you will consistently connect with the ball.

 

Your mind only has time to think about 2 thoughts:

1. The direction of your straight arm takeaway as your trailing arm pulls to create lag (90 degree bent leading wrist) at the top of your swing.
2. Your down swing initiates as the instep of your trailing foot presses your hip forward and your arms release from the inside to up your target line.

 

Here are a number of  great slow motion examples of the golf swing. 

Each pro does it a little differently but the basics are always the same.

 

If you let your trailing arm create the PROPER plane for your swing, you can avoid those nasty hooks and slices:

1/ Your trailing hand grip on the club should be lighter than your leading hand or it will dominate the rotational release of your club at impact.  Your leading wrist needs to be relaxed to whip through the release for more power and distance.

2/ Your trailing hand grips the handle below your leading hand so that you automatically tilt your shoulders. You want this natural shoulder tilt to launch and power your drives up.

3/ Your takeaway should be initiated with your shoulders (no wrist action) straight back on a high plane.

4/ Lag is caused by the bend of your trailing elbow as you pull your leading wrist up to the top of your backswing.

5/ As your powerful leading arm starts your downswing, your trailing arm and shoulder should pull your club in a slight loop to swing from the inside to outside across your ball.  Think of your trailing elbow almost grazing your ribs as you swing from the slot: inside to outside.

These are exaggerated comments to help you visualize how your trailing arm controls the swing plan and direction of your hit.  Your hips lead the downswing but your swing will happen naturally if you let your trailing arm control your inside to outside path.

Master this motion to avoid slicing your ball and get a lot more power up your target line.  Practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game.  Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

We swing a golf club in a circular path to hit a golf ball straight. This should be an easy task considering that the ball is not moving (as it is in baseball). We are only faced with 2 issues: Club Face Direction and the Swing Path Direction. Unfortunately in golf the impact has to be perfect every time. If you don’t learn what causes the shape of your shots, you will never lower your scores.

Golf-Info-Guide.com by Thomas Golf recently provided a nice summary to understand the cause of ball flight and a great solution to shape our shots. It’s easier to plan for a draw or a fade than it is to hit a ball perfectly straight. And of course the dreaded straight ball happens when you least expect it.

First you need to understand what causes the Duck Hook and the Push Fade. [All comments are described for right handed golf clubs.] Then you can master your swing.

Duck Hook:
Club Face direction is the cause for 85% of the ball direction at the start of the ball flight. If you are swinging with a violent in-to-out swing path (across the face of the ball at impact) and your club face is pointing to the left (at impact), your ball will start left of your target line and will curve further left. A closed stance, tight grip on your club and a powerful rotation of your trailing hand at impact are all contributing factors.   SOLUTION A square stance; a light, neutral grip and a relaxed swing are all required to avoid the Duck Hook.

Push Fade:
This problem is caused when your club face is open at impact and your swing path is crossing the ball on a right to left (out-to-in) direction. To avoid this swing:
-Don’t try to steer the face of your club up the target line. Your hand rotation needs to rotate the club face through the point of impact.
-Avoid the slice swing path. If your take-away is too far to the inside you will tend to loop your club up on a higher swing path for the downswing. At the transition you are most likely casting your club out, chopping down and hitting the ball on an outside-to-in swing path.

SOLUTION –The right swing path is to take your club back on a higher plane only using shoulder rotation (without bending your wrists). Then loop your club back at the top of your swing as you bump your hip forward; release from the inside “slot” and up your target line. Your club will be traveling on an inside-to-outside swing path at the point of impact. [Think of grazing your side with my trailing elbow as you swing from the inside.]

Practice Solution to Understand the Wrong and Right Swing Path
1/ Hit 5 Block (Push) Shots: Intentionally swing from the inside and PUSH each ball to the right by swinging from the inside-to-out with an open face on your club.
2/ Hit 5 Hook Shots: Swing with a in to out swing path and turn your right hand over your left hand to close the face of your club.
3/ Hit 5 Shaped Shots: Swing to create a 5 yard, left to right draw. Swing from the inside-to-out AVOIDING an aggressive finish as you roll your hands and finish in a balanced position.

Test your swing to create a draw or a fade at the driving range. As you learn to control the draw or fade you will learn to avoid the Duck Hook and Push Slice. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ for more power with your straight leading arm. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

It may have been Michael Breed (on the Golf Channel) that came up with this line and he was so right.  If you have a consistent drive, your approach shot is the most critical shot for every hole. You are faced with a 100 to 180 yard shot into the green on a par 5, 4 or 3.  If you can land that shot on the green and 2-putt every green, this game is easy.

The 2017 September issue of Golf Digest gave us some great tips to hit more greens in regulation.  Consistency, Distance and Direction are all critical issues.

Consistent Waist Bend for Consistent Contact:
If you keep the same bend at your waist throughout your swing, the distance from your neck to your ball will remain the same in your setup and at impact.  Rotate your shoulders around your spine during your swing without bobbing up and down during your back and down swing.  Lunging down at the ball during your downswing WILL create mishits.

High handicap golfers average a 25 degree angle across their shoulders (pointing down toward the ball) at the top of their backswing.  The shoulder slant for Pros is about 35 degrees because they don’t straighten up during their backswing.  They simply rotate around their spine by coiling and uncoiling.

Distance:
Know Your Club Distances: Every golfer has to learn the distance that they hit every club.  Wind and elevation changes will impact the distance for every hit and it is up to you to account for the impact.  Jack Nicklaus reminds us to use the average distance (not your best distance) that you expect for each club.  Swing at 85% and don’t expect the “hero shot” with every club.

Direction:
Every professional golfer has their own routine to control the direction of their irons.  Swinging a golf club in a circle makes it almost impossible to control the precise direction for every shot. Brooks Koepka is definitely a long ball hitter but his direction control with irons is critical for his success.  He uses these swing thoughts for his iron shots:

–Weak grip for his left hand (thumb V points up to his neck) and strong grip for his right hand
–Lineup with an open stance to create a fade. He finds it’s easier to control direction.
–Straight leading arm for a wide and high backswing to generate distance.
–A slightly bowed left wrist in his backswing helps him line up the direction of his impact.
–Hip bump toward the target to start his weight transfer during his transition.
–Good body rotation in the back swing and follow-through.
–Sidearm release of his trailing hand through impact for more power in his release. [I use some of these pointers, especially the straight arm, straight back swing with a slight loop at the top as I bump my hip and release from the inside as my trailing elbow grazes my side.  These  key swing movements have improved the consistency of my drives to 95% and length by 20 to 40 yards. ]

Your strength in each arm and leg will affect the way you swing your clubs.  Brooke Koepka is just an example from one professional to consider when you are trying to improve your direction control to hit more greens in regulation.  Sort out your direction control at the range or with a PGA Professional and practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game.  Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Does your swing stay exactly the same when you swing at the range, on the fairway or in the rough? Well your tempo should be the same. Unfortunately as our game gets in trouble, our mental state changes and we tend to take it out on the ball. In frustration, our golf swing may revert to a baseball swing. In our panic stricken mind, we are looking for every ounce of energy. Big mistake!

A. When your ball is nestled down in the rough do you rush your backswing which limits the length of your backswing? Big mistake!
B. When you see one of your playing partners pound a tremendously long shot, do you try to hit faster and harder. Big mistake!
C. When you have to get over water or trees or a distant sand trap, do you lose your tempo, avoid transferring your weight to your leading leg and top your ball? Big mistake!

SOLUTION: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MIND and maintain the same rhythm in your swing for every shot. A consistent swing routine is a good starting point but when the pressure is on and your mind is ticked off you need a way to SNAP OUT OF YOUR COMMITMENT TO KILL THAT BALL.

1/ When you recognize that you are getting out of control you need to mentally say words to calm yourself down and get back into a calm and relaxed rhythm. [The TRICK you must understand is that your mind can’t think bad thoughts when your mind says positive words. (You can’t do both at the same time.)]
2/ Say the word “STOP” to re-start your state of mind and stop whatever you are doing to allow time for a mental reset. Use the word “STOP” as a trigger to get back on track.
3/ Start your “CALMING PERFORMANCE”. Take a deep breath and exhale. Then say words to yourself that will lead you through your normal setup and swing. You should develop your own calming words. Practice saying them at the driving range and then repeat them when you recognize that you are out of control.

I start my calming process by using the words “Straight Arm” as I calmly use a shoulder rotation waggle with my straight leading arm (ensuring that my trailing elbow is out from my ribs).

To control my tempo I use the 3 words “SWEEP AND FINISH”: #1 SWEEP for full shoulder rotation, #2 AND for wrist lag and #3 FINISH for wrist release from the “slot” to a balanced finish.

NOTE: TAKE YOUR PENALTY: When your ball is deep in the rough, you should accept the fact that you need to pay for this penalty. Use a lofted iron that will dig down into the rough to hit it out with a lot less distance than it would normally achieve when hitting on “the short stuff”. Control your mind and decide to take the penalty shot to get your ball back in a perfect fairway position for your next shot. DON’T try for the miracle shot which may just put your ball back in the rough.

Practice your CALMING WORDS at the range and when your mind needs to be calm on the course. Practice with GOLFSTR+ for your straight arm swing AND 6 Swing Fixes. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Is your right arm taking over your swing? If you are right handed, you are most likely playing with right handed golf clubs. Unfortunately the extra strength in your right arm may be overpowering your swing. This may be the cause for your inconsistent swing problems.

The power for your swing comes from your straight left arm and wrist release at the point of impact. The key functions for your right arm are to create lag at the top of your swing and to keep your shoulders moving through your swing plane. If you allow your stronger right arm, wrist and hand to dominate your swing, you can lose control of your swing.

Swing Problems that your Stronger Right Arm Can Cause
• An early release or casting of the wrist at the top of your swing.
• An early turn of your shoulders preventing the swing from the inside slot.
• An early turn of your wrist release at the point of impact causes a duck hook.
• A death grip which kills the whipping action of your left wrist at the point of impact.
• Tight arm muscles which shorten your arms so that your impact is at the toe of your club.

Knowing that your stronger right arm may be the culprit that causes your inconsistent swing is the important starting point to improve the consistency of your swing.

SOLUTION: Use Your Practice Swing to Test for Swing Changes
At the practice range your muscles are loose and relaxed. Your mind and body may change when you start your round of golf. Use a full practice swing to compare the setup position of your club head with the impact point of your club head (as it whooshes through the impact point). This point may be changing as you stretch out or tighten your muscles during your round of golf.

First tee nerves; anger thinking about your last mishit; fear about hazards ahead and excitement caused by your last successful shot are all reasons why your body tightens or loosens throughout your round of golf. These changes are most likely the cause for your inconsistencies.

On Day #3 of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama both lost their driving accuracy. When the pressure is on, even the pros can lose control of their minds and bodies. They needed miraculous shots to stay in contention.
1/ Set up in a comfortable position with your hands hanging down directly below your shoulders.
2/ Take a full practice swing to see if your club head is traveling across your setup point.
3/ If your right arm is taking control of your swing, you may see that your club head swings inside or outside of your setup point. If this occurs, move up or back from your ball to compensate for the mishit distance in your practice swing. Then go ahead and make the perfect shot.

Your dominant trailing arm muscles are relaxing and tightening as you play your round of golf. Practice with GOLFSTR+ to learn to swing with a straight leading arm and avoid letting your trailing arm ruin the consistency of your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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I wish it was as easy as the title states!  I recently saw a blog by Rotary Swing that gave me a new perspective on the golf swing.  Hitting thousands of balls will never fix your swing if you don’t relax and incorporate the 4 key moves for a consistent, powerful swing. It’s as simple as Shoulder, Lag, Bump and Release. If you can’t learn these motions, it’s difficult to create a consistent, powerful golf swing.

The Haney Project was a TV series on the Golf Channel with many celebrities like Ray Romano, Charles Barkley and Rush Limbaugh. Hank Haney created some success with each individual by repetition and hitting 1000’s of golf balls. He worked on their swing path but never gave them the power and consistency that they were all hoping to find. The Rotary Swing Blog said that this series only highlighted the weakness of repetition when you are not focused on key body movements to create the right swing plane.

Create a Successful Swing
The simplified version of the golf swing is completed in 4 steps:
1/ takeaway with a shoulder rotation;
2/ pull your straight leading arm up with your bent trailing arm to create lag,
3/ weight transfer at the top with a hip bump during the transition and
4/ a whipping, wrist release at impact.

Upper body leads the takeaway and the lower body starts the down swing. Your hands are the last to release. For power and consistency you need to generate these 4 motions during your swing. Hideki Matsuyama has developed a “mechanical” swing that works.  The key to his swing is finding the right lag position and hip bump at the top.  This slow motion video shows it all.

To be a good golfer, you don’t have to look like you have the perfect swing. Last weekend when Hideki won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational against the 50 best golfers in the world, he proved that you can create a position at the top of your swing. He actually stops the motion of his swing at the top of his swing with a straight leading arm and wrist lag as he shifts his weight to his leading leg. He finds that  position and then pulls the trigger with amazing results.

Consider creating a great position at the top of your swing before you pull down and release. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to learn all 4 of your key motions for consistency in your swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

Our Swing Tip last week got an interesting cross-section of comments. First I need to clarify that a golf swing where you fall back with all of your weight on your trailing leg will result in mishits or topped balls. If you ever try to crush the ball and swing at a high speed using only your arms, you WILL fall backwards. Our tip last week was intended to help golfers who finish their swing falling back on their back foot to break out of that problem.

Larry Rinker’s Corrective Comments
I first must apologize to Larry Rinker as I misunderstood his comments. He was offering a DRILL to help golfers transfer their weight from the trailing leg to the leading leg during the swing. He clarified by telling me: “Setting up with 60-75% of your weight in your lead side, the way you would be positioned at impact, is a good DRILL to learn how to swing your arms, hands, and wrists correctly.” He was NOT recommending this as a proper setup position.

[I just found that HOLDING a 60% forward pressure from setup to impact is a great way to force your weight transfer to 100% on your leading foot at the end of your swing. Tommy Armour also setup with more pressure on the leading foot and the setup pressure on your leading foot should increases as you move to higher irons. If you find that you are able to transfer your weight during the swing, you may want to ignore this tip.]

Larry then went on to say: “The upper core player (not recreational player) will pivot around their lead leg on the back swing with the least amount of lateral motion. So in your case, if you are an upper core player, you are benefiting from not moving off of the ball on the back swing, which is what an upper core player does. This helps your contact at impact.”

NOTE: Each of the golfers who I see loading their weight on the front leg during the setup have strong upper cores. They avoid a reverse pivot in the downswing. To lock your head in one position throughout the backswing, try the Jack Nicklaus trick: Just turn your head back slightly so that you can focus on the ball with your left eye. It forces you to rotate my shoulders around your neck in a locked position the way most pros do (without swaying back or lifting up in your backswing)

Andy Schwebe’s Update
Andy is a low handicap golfer and has been setting up with his weight forward for years. He commented on last week’s swing tip with one further clarification: “Besides keeping 60% of your weight on your front foot, the other cheat that helps is to only put the rest of your weight on the inside edge of your back foot. Never let your weight go to the outside edge of that back foot.”

If your body is not allowing you to swing like Ben Hogan, why not try this pressure shift to get your body and ball moving in the right direction. Once you get the feel for swinging through the ball with your weight shifted forward it will start happening naturally and you will be swinging like Ben Hogan in no time. Remember to practice with GOLFSTR+ for every swing in your game. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

 

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Earlier this year I released a Swing Tip highlighting the most important tips that I learned at the Forum Stage in the PGA Merchandise Show January 2017. One of those tips has made all the difference in my game so I felt that I should highlight the way to cheat your body and mind to create weight shift.

Yes, I said cheat, because none of the pros need or want to do this. They all learned the proper way to incorporate weight shift from their trialing foot to their leading foot as a natural part of their swing. I see too many recreational players who panic in the middle of their backswing. Their practice swing (at 70% of their normal speed) has a perfect transfer of weight to their leading foot. That speed allows them to finish in a balanced pose on their leading foot. The problem happens when they setup to hit that little white ball.

At the PGA Forum I took notes from a panel of the top trainers in USA. Hank Haney, David Leadbetter, Jim McLean,  Michael Breed and Larry Rinker were all on the panel. I had never heard of Larry Rinker but he is the only one who provided a gutsy recommendation for the recreational golfer who really has a problem with timing the weight shift during their swing.

I said that Larry made a gutsy tip because it really is not ideal to start your drives and fairway shots with 60% of your weight on your leading foot according to most golf trainers. No-one refuted Larry’s comments so I have been using his tip when I find that my boding is not in sync with my game. In other words, when I start rushing my swing and topping the ball as I swing without shifting my weight to my leading foot.

I don’t know why this problem sometimes starts at the first tee or half way through my round but my mind just has a brain cramp where I lose the fluid motion of my swing. I just start swinging with my arms and forget to create the shift of my hip forward (for weight transfer) during the transition at the top of my swing. I end up with most of my weight still on my trailing leg at the point of impact.

THE TIP:
Larry Rinker suggested that recreational golfer have a problem transferring their weight to their leading foot during the downswing. He suggested setting up with 60% of your weight on your leading foot and holding your weight forward throughout your backswing and downswing so that you will finish with all of your weight on your leading foot.  [Just bend your leading knee a little more to tilt your body forward exactly the way you want it as you lean into your shot at impact.]

When your body and mind are relaxed (like the Pros who play with their mind IN THE ZONE) your rhythm will take care of the weight transfer. But it’s difficult to stay relaxed when the pressure is on for a perfect shot. Eventually you will learn to make the weight shift a natural part of your swing. It feels wonderful to finish your swing in balance on your leading foot and watching your ball land where you planned to have it land.

I can’t give all the credit for this tip to Larry Rinker as I first heard this tip when I met Andy Schwabe in the Blue Martini in Naples, FL. (He just happened to be one of the first 100 golfers who had purchased a GOLFSTR ). He showed me the same tip about 4 years ago.  Pros warn against too much pressure on your leading foot during your setup as you can lose power and direction control. So don’t put too much pressure on your leading foot to ensure that you get plenty of distance and consistent, straight drives and fairway shots.

Setup with 60% of your pressure on your leading foot and practice with a straight leading arm for more consistent, longer hits. Practice with GOLFSTR+ and buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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Whatever you do to create your swing it really appears that you need to start by getting your body and mind moving with a waggle. Starting your swing from a dead stop seems to hurt the consistency of any golfer’s swing. Just moving your hands and wrists may get your mojo running but you should consider the waggle that many of the pros are now using.

Jason Dufner seems to make his hands dance when he does his famous waggle. You don’t have to go to that extreme. You should consider what many pros are doing. A wrist or shoulder takeaway waggle may be just the thing you should be doing to create a more consistent swing. They are actually rehearsing the start of their swing.

Ever since I noticed Mike Weir (2003 Masters Champion) using his takeaway waggle, I wondered why he was using that unique type of waggle. Mike did a rehearsal of half of his backswing in slow motion. As I later learned in one of his articles he was just adding focus to the mechanics of taking his club back on his chosen plane.

Wrist Cock Waggle:
Now I’m noticing Michelle Wie and Daniel Im (US PGA pro playing in the Irish Open) are both completing a wrist waggle by cocking their wrist without rotating their shoulders or hips. They turn their wrists to point the toe of their club up to the sky (without any shoulders or hips movement). This is the exact move that they make to start their swing. Part 2 of their swing is to rotate their shoulders and hips as they lift their arms. This 2 part swing seems to give them excellent direction control.

Shoulder Waggle:
The shoulder and hip waggle (recently highlighted by the Rotary Swing Blog) is the waggle that Rickie Fowler and many others PGA Pros are using. Their waggle keeps both arms straight as they rotate their shoulders and hips as they start to cock their wrists. Their shoulders and arms stay in a TRIANGLE during their short waggle. It focuses on:
1. the shoulder rotation to generate power in your swing.
2. a wide arc by keep your leading arm straight.

I have been using the Fowler Waggle because it helps me slowdown my backswing and to avoid creating a rushed loop during my transition at the top.

Pete the pro on Golf-Info-Guide by Thomas Golf also points out that your leading arm should be straight (not rigid) throughout your backswing. Your trailing arm should be slightly bent during your setup as you are using your tailing arm to pull your leading FLAT wrist to create lag during your backswing.

The world of golf is moving from a wrist waggle to a shoulder rotation waggle to rehearse the start of their swing. That motion gets your mojo and brain locked into a consistent swing. Practice with your GOLFSTR+ to feel and learn the impact of your waggle. It will relax your swing and create a more consistent swing. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com

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