Archive for the ‘Golf Tips’ Category

Simple steps to creating power in your golf swing

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

A common swing fault many average golfers have is that they mistakenly try to emulate a Tour Pro’s back-swing. Seeing Tiger Woods wind himself up to pull the golf club back and around so that the club is in a parallel position at the top of the back-swing and then unwind in a powerful downswing unleashing a massive 310 yard drive is truely inspiring but may be misplaced if you’re trying to replicate it.
First off, most golfers don’t have the flexibility of a Tiger Woods. Nor do they have the strength. Nor do they have any sort of proper swing mechanics to bring the club head back into position for a square hit. In order to compensate for these ‘don’t-haves’, but still wanting to emulate the full back-swing of a Tour Pro, the average golfer ends up ‘faking’ a back-swing.
What I mean by this is that, lacking the flexibility of a Tour-Pro, the average golfer can only turn his (or her) shoulders slightly to try to generate coil, then continues on in the back-swng by lifting their arms as far as they can go and then, this not being good enough, continue on to fold, or collapse their arms in the final attempt to get the club head back as far as it will possibly go. All this does is to sap power from the golf swing and is a poor imitation of a proper, power inducing swing.
Instead, the average golfer should focus on two things in the back-swing.
1. When your shoulders stop turning, that’s as far back as you should go because that’s probably as far back as you can go! Don’t continue lifting your arms up after your shoulders stop turning thinking this will generate power or a proper swing. All this will do is suck power out of your swing and create more problems with your swing because you’ll tend to spin out or fall back.
2. Once you’ve hit the ‘top’ of your back-swing (wherever the ‘top’ may be for you), your right arm (for righties), rather than folding back onto itself with your hands close behind your head (like you’re scratching your head), should form an ‘L’ at the top with plenty of space between your head and your hands with your right elbow pointing down toward the ground rather than flared out towards the horizon.
Both of these things should be easy to do and will provide you with a more powerful and consistent swing.
So instead of trying to emulate a Tiger Woods swing, the average golfer should maybe look to Fred Funk or Rocco Mediate. Fred Funk is 52; 5 foot 8 inches tall and 165 pounds. He ranks second in Driving Accuracy (77%); 200th in Driving Distance (a paltry 267 yards); and last year won $1.239 Million dollars on the tour.


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All Golf Shafts are not Created Equal

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
A golf shaft is a golf shaft is a golf shaft right? Just give me a driver off the rack with an ‘R’ flex and let me loose. Unfortunately, that’s what most high handicap golfers tend to believe. The problem with this is there are no real standards for what constitutes a particular flex, or relative stiffness, in a golf shaft. One manufacturer’s Stiff flex is another manufacturer’s Regular flex. That’s why if you’ve ever borrowed a friend’s driver on the golf course and decided that’s the driver for you, you may be disappointed after you purchase it. You may find that you can’t hit it because it comes in a different shaft. They just aren’t the same.
This issue is compounded by other important factors for golf shafts that include shaft material and weight, the particular bend or ‘kick’ point (where the shaft bends most during the swing) of the golf shaft and the golf shaft’s torque or resistance to twisting during the downswing. On top of this, club length affects the shaft flex as well unless adjustments are made. A longer club will feel more flexible. A shorter club will feel stiffer.
With all of these variables at play in selecting a proper golf shaft for your swing one thing is sure – the chances of getting the right shaft off the rack are negligible. A shaft that works for one golfer will be the completely wrong choice for another golfer even if they both require the same flex golf shaft.

To complicate things even further, price is no determinant either! A $12.00 graphite shaft may be a far better choice for you over an $80.00 shaft because it has the particular specifications you need over and above the $80.00 shaft. Go figure…

The reason high handicappers can benefit greatly from custom fit golf clubs is that each of these variables in the golf shaft can be considered in light of that player’s abilities and particular playing characteristics.

Each of these variables affects the playability of the shaft in 5 important ways:

 1. Trajectory
 2. Solidness of feel
 3. Consistency of hit
 4. Directional control
 5. Clubhead speed or distance

The key factor in determining the appropriate shaft flex for a particular golfer is their swing speed which correlates to how far they can hit the golf ball. Swing speed for the average golfer is around 84 -87mph. Golfers with lower swing speeds require a shaft that is more flexible but getting a shaft that is too soft will find that golfer spraying his drives all over the golf course and spending more time looking for golf balls than playing golf. A shaft that is too stiff will cause a lower than normal ball trajectory with subsequent loss of distance, consistent pushing the ball to the right or slicing and will tend to feel like a board in the hands of a golfer with a sub-95mph swing speed.

The lighter a shaft is the faster swing speed can be attained (and greater distance) but too light a shaft will cause problems. Golfers with smooth swing tempo’s can benefit from lighter golf shafts. Golfers who tend to have quicker swing tempo need more weight (and stiffness).

The ‘bend‘ point of a golf shaft helps to determine ball trajectory and directional control. A low bend point (towards the clubhead) provides for a higher trajectory and softer ‘feel’ but may cause some directional problems with faster swings.

A golf shaft’s ‘torque’ is an important consideration in terms of feel. This is only a consideration for graphite shafts. Golfers with high swing speeds require shafts with low torque to reduce twisting. Golfers with slower swing speeds would look for higher torque to get a better feel for the golf club.

So, not all golf shafts are created equal. Each golf shaft has particular characteristics that impact playability and shafts between manufacturers are not consistent with respect to key factors such as flex with price having little to do with either quality or suitability for a golfer.

That being said, there is a high degree of flexibility by a custom golf fitter to fit the appropriate shaft to a golfer so that they can hit the ball with a normal trajectory, good consistency and directional control while providing a solid feeling for the golfer.


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Set Up to Hit the Ball on the Center of the Face

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Most golfers set their driver on the ground at address. This results in a high percentage of driver shots being hit on the heel-side of the face, especially when we tee the ball higher. Test yourself this way: The next time you are at the range and set up to hit your driver, once in the address position stretch your arms out and move the club up to the ball’s height. Notice where the ball is going to contact the face of your driver? On the heel side – or possibly the hosel – of your driver.

This is a very common problem for golfers – and it’s an awkward adjustment. The solution is very simple, however. Instead of setting your driver behind the ball such that the center of the face is aligned with the ball, move backwards a couple of inches (towards your back) such that the toe of your driver is aligned with the ball. Now do the test again. Stretch out your arms and pick the club up to the ball’s height. Is the ball aligned with the center of the driver face? If so, put the club back down and fire! If not, keep moving back until it is.

Don’t worry that once you set the driver down it doesn’t align with the ball. The ball isn’t on the ground – it’s three inches above the ground!


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Swing Speed: Why swinging harder gets you less

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Swing speed, coupled with solid contact is everything as it relates to hitting the golf ball farther. For the average golfer, this usually equates to trying to swing harder in order generate more swing speed. But for the average golfer, swinging harder always gets you less on the golf course – less swing speed and less distance.

To hit the ball farther, the average golfer focuses his efforts on delivering the golf club to the ball with as much effort as can be mustered to build power in the swing. The result is a teeth grinding, muscle tensing, massive and violent lunge at the ball. This type of swing would generally move the ball to just about where the red tees are and leave the golfer red faced by the effort.

Generating swing speed by trying to swing harder just doesn’t work because this type of ‘power’ is completely misapplied as it relates to the golf swing. The golf swing, and swing speed, is all about rhythm, tempo and timing applied with proper swing mechanics to get the golf club smoothly, efficiently and squarely to the ball. It’s about understanding the physics of a golf swing and using that to accomplish the task versus brute strength. The reason a good swing looks effortless is because it is! One can look to Lorena Ochoa at 5’ 6”, 120 pounds and an average driving distance of 283 yards to understand how true this is.

Proper swing mechanics effectively applies energy through the right sequence to the golf club to maximize club head speed. Your body physiology and skill level of course determine how effectively and how often this may occur during a round.

Notice I didn’t say ‘maximize club head speed so you could hit the ball as far as Tiger Woods’.

Trying to swing harder to generate swing speed creates several problems for the average golfer. First, swinging harder will exacerbate any and all swing faults the golfer may have. Swinging harder will generally:

• Cause you to over swing throwing you completely off balance
• Cause power sapping tension throughout your entire body but particularly in your arms and hands
• Completely throw any timing and rhythm you may have had out the window
• Rarely, if ever, bring the golf club into solid contact with the ball
• Slow your swing speed

Swinging harder at the golf ball fails to effectively leverage the laws of physics to swing the golf club so you have to do all the work instead of letting the golf club do the work. The wrong muscles are used in the wrong sequence. The swing becomes all ‘arms’.

To fix this, there are two simple things that the average golfer can do to get more distance out of their drives.

First, rather than concentrating on trying to hit the ball harder to get more distance, the average golfer should concentrate on hitting the ball more squarely. Bringing the golf club into square contact with the golf ball will have immediate and positive results with respect to distance, accuracy and consistency. A squarer hit transfers more energy from the golf club to the ball with less sidespin.

Second, less will generally bring you more. Most high handicap golfers would be far better off taking a three-quarter swing rather than taking a full swing. Why? The average golfer just doesn’t have the proper flexibility to take advantage of a full swing and so creates unwanted, power sapping tension in their bodies and the strong possibility of introducing a myriad of swing flaws from this position.

The three-quarter swing will result in more consistent, square hits because:

• The average golfer, starting from a solid foundation, will have much better balance through the golf swing
• The golf swing will be tension free resulting in a smooth easy swing
• In a three quarter swing, the golf club essentially starts on-plane and stays on-plane through the swing resulting in far more consistent shots. Gone are the over-the-top, slice generating, golf swings that produce nothing but frustration and lost golf balls.

The result of a three-quarter golf swing is a more solid, square hit producing greater distance and more drives landing in the middle of the fairway.

So, if you want to maximize swing speed and send the ball farther down the fairway, don’t try and send the ball into orbit by swinging as hard as you can. Instead, play within yourself and skill level. Focus on hitting the ball more squarely and take a shorter swing to improve your swing mechanics. You’ll be amazed at how easily you’ll be able to generate real power and swing speed.


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