10 Tips To Improve Your Golf Swing
There isn’t a golfer in the world who doesn’t spend a little time working on his or her swing. Even the pros are constantly working on improving, and those who want to get better during casual weekend games need to do the same. Whether you do your golfing out on the links or at the range, there are things that you can do to improve your golf swing. Finding the right way to accomplish this, though, tends to be the tough part. Luckily, there are solutions out there for you. If you’re looking at how to fix your golf swing in a hurry, it’s vital that you take a look at the ten tips below.
1. Look at Your Grip
A good swing always starts with a good grip. The best way to ensure that you reduce the height of your shot and control where it is going is to keep your hands low. This is going to help you to better control your club and have an impact on how you swing, so take some time to get used to the process. Once you get used to keeping your hands low, you should notice that your shots benefit from the added forward power and that each shot feels a lot less random.
2. Pay Attention to Weight Distribution
Your stance is also going to have an impact on the way you swing. Stop for a moment and consider how you are distributing your weight as you get ready to swing the club. If you notice that you are standing on your heels, you’re actually robbing yourself of the ability to turn your foot on the backswing. Instead, take some time to make sure that you are evenly distributing your weight and that you are standing on the balls of your feet – this makes it easier to pivot and to twist your body through your shot.
3. Swing from the Body
Good golfers know that the power from your shot has very little to do with your arms and almost everything to do with your body. As such, it’s important that you rotate your body into the shot instead of trying to chop at the ball with your arms. Doing so is going to allow you to leverage all the power of your body and will, in turn, lead to much stronger drivers. Swinging with your body also allows for a greater degree of control, which will help you put those longer drives exactly where they need to go.
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4. Keep Your Head Down!
One of the first things that anyone will tell you when you look at how to fix your golf swing is to keep your head down. Popping your head up is entirely natural – after all, you really want to see where the ball is going. If you hit the ball right, though, you’ll have plenty of time to watch the ball go exactly where you want it to go. Fight the urge to get your head up so that you can keep the proper form and so that you’ll be able to stop yourself from jerking your upper body at the last moment.
5. Be a Hinge
Hinging your wrists is the key to a good shot with your irons, but it’s something with which many new players struggle. If you want to ensure that you’re getting the shot off right, you need to think of your body as a hinge during the shot. You’ll want the club at a roughly forty-five-degree angle on the backswing. You’ll end up with the club roughly parallel to the ground when you’re at the apex of the swing, and the positioning of your wrists and your arms will allow you to be more precise with your shots.
6. Deal with Your Elbow
Do you tend to slice your shots? If so, you’ve probably been hit with two contradictory pieces of information. Some tell you that you need to keep your elbow tucked in, and some tell you that it’s fine to let your elbow fly out. While there are pros who can do either, most amateurs need to concentrate on keeping your elbow in tight. This not only tends to help you with control, but it also tends to help you stop jerking your shoulder up as you swing. If you want to eliminate a slice, you need to keep that elbow under control.
7. Don’t Hold Your Breath
This is an odd tip because it relies not necessarily on controlling your body, but on paying attention to what tends to be an unconscious habit. Many players tend to unknowingly hold their breath during the downswing, which actually reduces the amount of power that’s available to you. If you want to get a few more yards out of your swing, then, it’s a good idea to keep breathing. This is a tough habit to break, of course, but doing so can have a huge impact on your long game.
8. Think About Ball Position
Typically speaking, you do have a little bit of wiggle room in terms of where you position your ball during your stance. Though there are many golfers who feel strongly about just adapting themselves to the position of the ball, it’s actually quite helpful to do things the other way around. Make sure to keep your ball near the middle of your stance when you are using your irons and near your front foot when you are using a driver in order to get the most power and the most control from your shots.
9. Follow Through
It’s also incredibly important to remember that a good golf swing absolutely does not stop when you hit the ball. Follow through is important for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact at attempting to stop your shot too early can throw off your swing and cause your ball to go out of your control. If you’re really concerned with making sure that your ball is hit properly, you’ll need to follow through on all of your shots. Don’t be afraid to keep swinging – it’s just part of hitting the ball.
10. Train Tracks
This is a tool used by the pros, and it’s one that can work exceptionally well for amateurs as well. Instead of focusing exactly what your body is doing, you need to do a little bit of visualization. Pretend that you are standing on train tracks, with your body on one rail and the ball on the other. You need to be moving your body in a way that allows you to knock the ball straight down those tracks. The way you position yourself is going to determine where the tracks go, so always stand in a way that will encourage you to visualize a straight shot.
Getting control of your swing is largely a matter of practicing over and over again until you get it right. Though there are certainly ways to improve your golf swing quickly, the best advice will always be to take your time and keep up the effort until you get it right. There are few feelings in this world that are as satisfying as nailing a good drive, so give yourself permission to keep trying until you perfect your swing. It may take time, but doing so is absolutely worth the effort.
