Camilo Villegas's Tip on Impact

Thursday, January 2, 2014

When Camilo Villegas was a little kid, he had a golf teacher. When Camilo is not playing well on tour, he still recalls what his teacher taught him. One of those things his teacher taught him was to keep his left wrist flat when he strikes the ball.

 

If your wrist is bent toward the back of your left hand at impact, that means you flipped your hands at impact or unhinged your wrist too early. You will hit a weak slice to the right from this position or pull it left. So try to keep your left wrist flat through impact, this will help you keep your clubface square.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/camilo-villegas.htm

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How to Turn Your Hands Over through Impact

Slicers fail to turn their hands over through impact. That's why they leave the clubface open at impact and hit a weak slice to the right. To fix this problem and hit a straight shot a little draw, you need to turn your hands over through impact. One of the causes why they fail to do is grip. Another cause is in the head movement during the golf swing.

 

Stand up straight and hold your club in front of you. Next, swing your club horizontally. Make sure to stand up straight. You don't need to bend your upper body for now. When I ask slicers to do this exercise, most players will successfully turn their hands over on the follow through. When your arms or the club passes your body or your head on the follow through, your hands will automatically turn over. If you feel like you can't turn your hands over, your body or your head might be moving forward through impact area.  That's why you find it hard to turn your hands over.

 

How to Stop Your Head from Moving Forward

The reverse point can cause your body to move forward on the downswing. Your grip or posture can be the cause as well. If you look up at impact, your head will move forward and cause you to hit the slice. You can also focus on the clubface at impact to stop your head from moving forward. If you can focus on your clubface or clubface angle at impact or through impact, your head will stay back as you strike the ball.

 

Because the clubhead is moving at a fast speed, you won't be able to see the ball at impact. But if you focus your mind on the clubface, you will naturally keep your head back at impact. But if you focus your mind on the clubface, you will naturally keep your head back at impact. This is how you can keep your head behind the ball.

 

So forget about follow through and focus on the clubface. When you see great putters, almost all of them try hard to focus on the putter face angle at impact. You don't have to try hard to turn your hands over. It just happens if you keep your head back.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-turn-hands-over.htm

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The Position of Your Hands at Address and Impact

There was the research done to see the difference in the positions of the hands at address and impact. Researchers analyzed 4 of the top tour pros in Japan to see the difference. By analyzing data researchers found that pros' hands at impact were closer to the target than they were at address. They found the same results in all four players. In other words, the hands' position at address at impact was not the same. They also found out that the pros' hands were about 4 inches higher at impact that they were at address.

 

Because of the centrifugal force, you will  be forced to uncock your wrist through impact. That's why hands were 4 inches higher at impact. And this is why you will see the toe down effect in golf swing.

 

Anyway, because the toe of the clubhead drops at impact (toe down effect), you want the toe to be little off the ground at address to catch the ball solid.

 

Fixing Push Slice

The push slice often happens with longer clubs such as a driver. I see golfers trying to swing the club so that the clubhead will beat their hands at impact. They are trying to fix or avoid push slice. But like we talked about, pros have their hands closer to the target than they were at address. If your clubhead wins the race against your hands, you won't put a lot of power on the ball, or you will tend to pull the shot.

 

To fix your push slice with a driver, you want your hands to be little forward of the ball and feel like the palm of your right hand is facing towards the ground at impact. When you see your shots going to the right and curving even more to the right, I understand that you want to position your ball more forward in your stance.

 

But you will pull every shot by positioning your ball too far forward. So you will aim right in order to hit it straight. Your shot might go straight, but it's really a pull because you are aiming right. The problem with this shot is that it gives you hard time hitting a draw that goes long off the tee.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/position-of-your-hands.htm

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The Best Impact Drills

Whatever you do to change your golf swing, you have to understand what it does to the face angle at impact. Here are impact drills to help you hit more solid shots with your irons and woods.

1. Stop at Impact Drill

This is the drill that was used by Johnny Miller who won the U.S Open in 1972 and The Open Championship in 1976. He said that this is the best drill that he knows for improving your golf swing. Here is how you can try his drill. You don't need to hit a ball with this drill.

• Swing back to the top using your 7 iron
• Start your downswing and stop at impact
• You don't need to take a follow through

When you stop at impact, try to 1) close the clubface a bit, 2) open your clubface a bit, 3) make it square at impact on purpose. If you are slicer, try to close your clubface a bit impact when you do this drill. If you hit lots of hooks, try to open your clubface at impact and stop there.

If you can get good at this impact drill, it might become hard to hit a bad shot. There are lots of drills and golf tips out there, but they don't always help your game. When you feel like you don't know which drill or golf tip will help your game, try Johnny Miller's impact drill.

2. Impact Bag

Another good impact drill is to use the impact bag. You can purchase one of those impact bags at the golf shop. When you practice with your impact bag, try to hit the impact bag and stop there. You don't need to take any follow through at all. You just hit the bag and stop there. This drill will teach you to keep your head back at impact. If your head moves forward, you won't be able to put all your power into the bag. If you have an old tire that you don't use anymore in your garage, you can use it as well.

You can put your tire on the ground and try to hit it with your 7 iron. When you strike the tire, try not to hit it hard so that you don't hurt yourself. Instead, you should do it in slow motion and stop as you touch the tire with your 7 iron.

3. Hit it and Stop at Impact

After practicing with your impact for a while, try hitting some balls. As you hit your balls, try to hit the ball and stop as soon as you hit your ball. This is similar to the Johnny Miller's impact drill, but since you actually hit the ball, it is more like a practical-type of drill that you can work on. You won't be able to stop at impact completely, but that's ok. Try to limit your folloe through. This is a good way to prevent you from looking up too early. Especially if you are hitting a weak slice to the right or hitting push-slice, this drill will help you hit a straighter shot.

 

4. Push Something Heavy

You can also try to push something heavy with your iron. You can try pushing your golf bag using your 7 iron. When you are on the golf course, you can use the tire of the golf cart. Push the tire with the clubface of your 7 iron. This drill will teach you the ideal position of your hands, arms and other parts of your body at impact so that you can put all your power into the ball.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/impact-drills.htm

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Stop Reverse C Finish

Sunday, December 29, 2013

When I started playing golf, lots of golfers had a reverse c finish because Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and other great players had reverse c finish. But nowadays, with the new technology in golf clubs, you don't really need to finish in a reverse c position. This type of finish may hurt back also. SO at the finish, try to move more than 90% of your weight to the front and make sure to raise your back foot so that your right foot will expose all parts of the shoe sole.

 

This will prevent you from finishing in a reverse c position. At this position, your right shoulder should be little lower than left. If you fade the ball, your right shoulder should be little lower than that. If you draw it, it should be little higher than normal.

 

Raise Your Right Heel

On the downswing, your right heel starts to rise as you swing down. If you try to keep it on the ground through impact, it might force you to block the shot to the right. At the finish, your right foot should be on its toe showing tthe shoe sole. This is a sign of complete weight transfer.

 

Follow through is just the result of what happened

Your follow through is a result of what has happened before. So I really don't ask golfer to check solutions in finish unless I think it's necessary for some reason. Some teachers might tell you how you should position your arms, legs, clubs and so on. But I don't recommend you to do that.

 

Like I said, follow through is just the result of what happened during the swing. So even if you fix your positions at the finish, you won't solve the real problem. The follow through positions will only tell you that you might have problems in either address, backswing or downswing. On the golf course, I don't care wether you have a pretty finish or not as long as you are hitting it well.

 

When I started golf, I read books that explained golf swing positions. I tried to copy those positions. As a result, I lost lots of distance which used to be my strength. By trying to copy positions, I lost all my power during the golf swing. Often times, positions are just the outcome. Your root problem or cause is somewhere else. It took more than 5 years for me to figure out. I don't want you to waste your time like me.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/reverse-c.htm

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How to Fold Your Left Arm during the Follow Through

Lots of teachers will tell you to fold your left arm after impact. It's important to fold your left arm to increase clubhead speed. If you can't fold your left arm, that means you are leaving the clubface open during the impact. The root cause for this problem might be in your grip, ball position or posture. If you can't fix it even if you change your grip or ball position, you might be using your lower body too much during the swing.

 

If you feel like you have too much foot work, that might be the cause. Too much foot work will restrict the free movement of your arms. It also decreases the clubhead speed and makes it harder to turn the face over through impact.

 

Here is a simple drill to fix that problem. Grab a 7 iron. Take a wider stance than usual. The stance width for this drill should be more than a shoulder width. The wider stance will restrict your lower body movement during the swing. Now, take lots of practice swings in this stance. This drill will teach you to swing your arms. It will also give you the feeling of folding the left arm after impact.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/fold-left-arm.htm

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How to Fix the Golf Swing Plane

There are lots of theories for swing plane. One plane, two plane, flat, upright and so on. I sued to have very glat swing plane on the half way of the backswing. At that time, I was struggling with a slice. So I had to swing more upright going back. I tried to do that for more than 1 year but never was able to do so. The more I tried to fix my swing plane, the more distance I lost with all clubs in my bag. So I finally quit trying yo fix my swing plane. But today, I think I have the correct swing plane that's described by most teachers.

 

The first thing I did was to change my ggrip. I had a neutral grip because I copied tour players grip. But I was slicing it. So the neutral grip was too weak for me. I changed it to a stronger grip with 3 knuckles of my left hand showing when I looke down at address. I rotated my right hand to match my left hand as well. I used to my position ball too far forward. So I moved it back in my stance.

 

Then I tried to face the palm of my right hand toward the ground at impact. All these changes made me to draw the ball instead of a weak slice. At that time, I still had errors in my swing plane, but I didn't try to fix the position itself. Instead, I check my alignment. I was aligning too far right. So I tried to keep my shoulders, waist knees and feet all parallel to the target line.

 

By the time I noticed, my swing plane was naturally fixed. This is a proof that the swing plane is just the outcome of your address positions such as grip, ball position, posture and alignment. Try not to fix your swing plane itself. But try to find what's causing you to have wrong swing plane. Every effect has its cause.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-fix-swing-plane.htm

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Fixing the Handsy Golf Swing

 Some golfers have less rotation of their body and swing too much with their arms. When you do that, you'll have less weight shift. You won't hit it very far from there. The reason why you forget to turn your body and shift weight may be different from person to person. Some golfers have too much tension in their grip. Some golfers get too quick at the start of their takeaway. To prevent you to use too much hands during the backswing, you can try what Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman were doing.

 

Hover the Club

At address, Jack and Greg were not resting their clubhead on the ground. They were holding it just above the ground. Greg Norman said there are two reasons why he was using this technique. First, it kept his grip pressure constant. If you rest your clubhead on the ground, you tend to regrip the club. But holding it above the ground will prevent you from doing it. Second, this technique was letting him to promote very smooth takeaway. By hovering the club,it will let you rotate your body in connection with your arms.

 

So if you feel like you have handsy golf swing, try this technique. It should help you rotate your body. At address, you should think about "Turning your body" instead of swinging your arms. If you correctly rotate your body on the backswing, you will have a plentry of room to swing your arms on the downswing.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/index.htm

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Practice Swing and Real Swing

Do you take a practice swing before hitting a shot? Why do you take practice swings? Are there any benefits for it?

 

Tiger Woods was Wasting Practice Swings

Tiger Woods said he was wasting  his practice swings even after he turned pro. He said he didn't realize the importance of it and thought that his practice swings were mostly wasted motion. There are 2 benefits for taking a practice swing. First, it makes you relax before the real shot. Second, it's a good rehearsal for the real swing. I think Tiger wasn't treating it as a rehearsal.

 

Tiger said that lots of players make practice swings that don't fit the intended shot. He wanted to point out that if you try to hit a draw, your practice swing has to be the one that lets you hit a draw. If you treat your practice swing as a rehearsal, you can focus on the shot and not worrying about the swing. I can tell what kind of problems they have if I see their practice swings. So treat your practice swings like a real swing. If you don't think anything during the practice swing, you are rehearsing your weakness or just wasting your time.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/practice-swing-real-swing.htm

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How to Hit it 300 Yards like Adam Scott

Adam Scott is often compared to Tiger Woods. Their golf swings are alike. Like Tiger, Adam has a very flexible body and big turn on the backswing. Adam has a little stronger grip than Tiger. Adam also positions his ball little more forward. At one time, he was averaging 299 yards off the tee. Let's see how he hits it 300 yards.

Adam's Secret for Distance

To hit it further, Adams said that he widens his stance which allows him to go at the ball little harder without losing control. He also said that wider stance will tilt his spine more at address, which helps him stay behind the ball at impact. If your spine tilts more to the right at address, it will position your head further away from the ball at address. This will make it much easier to stay behind the ball at impact for more power.

 

Do You Care How Your Golf Swing Looks like?

Most of golfers probably care how their golf swings look like. Have you ever checked your swing in a mirror? But Adam really doesn't care how it looks but worries about how it works instead. I know lots of golfers who tried to copy their idol's swing. But that didn't help them improve. It's not a bad thing to copy tour players' golf swing. But I want you to make sure it suits your body type. When you do copy someone's swing, make sure you have the same grip, ball position, posture and alignment. Without them, you will just waste your time.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/adam-scott.htm

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Golf Swing Plane Drill

Take a look at your grip, ball position, posture and alignment first before trying to change swing plane.

 

Here is a good swing plane drill.

1. Grab 7 iron and grip it as usual
2. Take your right hand off and grip down the shaft
3. Take practice swings

When you grip down with your right hand, grip down more than 10 inches with your right hand. Keep your left hand at its original position. By separating your hands like this and swinging it, it will teach you how your swing plane should look like.

 

Because  your right hand is much lower than your left, it makes it easier to swing with your right hand on a correct plane. Whether you are using too much or not using enough of your right hand, this drill will help you use your right hand correctly during the swing.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/golf-swing-plane-drill.htm

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Which Club Should a Beginner Use for Practice

If you are a beginner or high handicapper, which club should you use for a practice? To learn the basics of golf swing, I think you should use 6 or 7 iron for a practice.

 

4 Reasons to Use 6 or 7 Iron for Practice

 

1. You can use the same swing with other clubs

Basically, you should have one swing for all clubs. But with your wedge and short irons, you will hit it more with descending blow. With your fairway woods and utilities, you should sweep the ball. With middle irons, you still want to hit it with a slight descending blow but the swing is not different than the one you make with your driver.

 

2. Build your game around your 7 iron

If you have a confidence in certain club, you can build your game around it. Middle irons are used often on the course especially for beginners and high handicappers. On a par 5, your second shot should be with your middle irons and not with your fairways woods.

 

3. You will improve faster with 7 iron

You need to have fun if you want to improve. Instead of using longer clubs (including driver), try to hit ball with clubs  that are easy to hit. You need to take one step at a time. It's critical improvement.

 

4. Short irons won't tell you the ball flight

Short irons will put lots of back spin on the ball and less side spin. So it's easy to hit it straight. Some golfers hit it really straight with their short irons but slice a lot with longer clubs. They start to think what they are doing different with longer clubs.

 

In fact, their swing is basically the same. But longer clubs have less loft and puts lots of side spin. That's why you slice more with longer clubs. Short iron hides the real problem. So I don't recommend beginners or high handicappers to use short irons for practice. Of course, it's important to practice with all clubs you have. But when learning the basics golf, you may want to stick with your 6 or 7 iron.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/beginner.htm

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Why Golf Swing Sequence Pictures won't Help You

I know lots of average golfers who always check golf swing sequence pictures or videos of pros but don't improve much. I think it's a good idea to copy tour player's golf swing. But there is a rule to follow when copying golf swing. I probably have read more magazines and books about golf than anybody else in college. I was checking tour players' golf swing sequence closely. I spent a lot of time studying their swing. I tried to copy good players' swings but didn't go well at all. The reason is because you have to copy their grip first before copying swing positions. I failed to do so. I never cared for their grip because it's hard to copy someone's grip by looking at the picture. But for instance, if you like to swing like Tiger Woods, you need to have the same grip.

 

Before Copying Golf Swing

So make sure you copy grip first. Generally, most teachers will tell you to copy the swing of a player who has similar body structure. If you are tall, try to copy the taller player's swing. But I think that the ideal golf swing differs from person to person. I told you to copy the grip first. But even if you do that, it might not suit you.

 

David Duval is known to have a very strong grip. His father was also a professional golfer and David's only coach. He didn't try to fix David's very strong grip. David Duval came on tour with that grip and started to win. His very strong grip was a neutral grip for him. So copying is a good thing, but you need to find what suits you at the end.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/golf-swing-sequence-picture.htm

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Difference in Weight Shift between Pros and Amateurs

As you know, correct weight transfer is necessary to hit the ball far. If you are lacking distance, you may have incorrect weight shift during the swing. When you look at pros and amateurs, there is a big difference in weight shift. The study done by the researchers from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center shows a big differenve between pros and amateurs.

 

1. At the top of the backswing

Pros: 90% of the weight is on their right foot

Amateurs: Only 50% of weight is on the right foot

 

2. At the start of the downswing

Pros: 110% of weight is on left foot

Amateurs: 65% of weight is on left foot

 

3. At impact

Pros: 25% of weight is on both feet

Amateurs: 50% of weight is on both feet

 

At the top of the backswing, pros have 90% of the weight on their back foot. But the amateurs only have 50% of their weight on the back foot. So this means that the amateurs have lots of potential for more distance because they are not taking advantage of their weight shift. At impact, you will notice that the pros only have 25% of weight on both feet. Where did the rest of their weight go? Pros were using 75% of their weight to add power to the ball. That's a secret to more distance. Pros can hit it much further than amateurs because they have correct weight transfer. To check your weight transfer, try to lift your left foot completely off the ground at the top of your swing. If you can't do this easily, you are not shifting your weigh to your right foot.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/weight-shift-pros-amateurs.htm

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The Secret of the Correct Golf Swing

Hitting it high

For instance, if  you want to get the ball airborne, lots of golfers try to swing up or scoop the ball  to help the ball in the air. But if you do this, you are going to top the ball. To hit it high in the air, you have to take advantage of the loft and hit down on it to add backspin.

 

Slicing

If you slice the ball, the shot will go right of the target. So most average golfers try to swing left to avoid right side. However, this move will cause golfers to swing from outside in. They will cut across the ball and add slice spin on the ball. So the more you try to avoid right side, the further right you are going to hit the ball. That's really ironic.

 

More Distance

If golfers want more distance, what do they do? On a long par 5's, you want more distance off the tee and get tense. When you get tense, you will intuitively grip the club tightly. But this will make your muscles in your arms, hands and the rest of your body to get tense as well. When your muscles get tense, it won't move as fast as loose muscle. So you end up swinging even slower.

 

Do the opposite

Sometimes you have to do the opposite of your instinct in golf. If you want to hit it higher, you need to hit down on it. If you want to fix your slice, you need to swing inside out. If you need more distance, you have to relax your muscles. All these things may not feel right at the start but will help you get over your problems.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/correct-golf-swing.htm

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How to Fix Coming Over the Top with the Drill

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Coming over the top or hitting from the top is a common mistake for a beginner or high handicapper. When you come over the top, you will cut across the ball and pull it or slice the ball. You won't hit it very far with this type of swing at all. I see this move among low handicappers as well. If you don't hit your longer club such as utilities, fairy woods and driver well, you might be coming over the top. If you come over the top, you might be forced to hit a slice, pull, fat shot, shank and so on.

 

The Drill to Fix it

Here is a drill to fix you problem. But before trying this drill, change your grip to a stronger grip. Rotate both of your hands toward right until you see 3 knuckles of your left hand at address.

 

Have someone help you for this drill.

1. Ask your friend to hold the old shaft or club horizontally about 15 inches off the ground.
2. Try to swing a club so that the clubhead goes under the shaft that your friend is holding.

As you swing through, try to watch the clubhead going under the old shaft that your friend is holding. This will help you not slide toward left on the downswing and keep your head back through impact. You don't have to hit the ball with this drill. Just take 20 practice swings. Do 5 sets. If you wear a watch on your left hand, make sure that your watch will face toward the ground through impact. This will help you hit the ball long and straight.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-fix-hitting-over-the-top.htm

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How to Choose Proper Shaft Flex

The shaft flex can influence your ball flight.

 

How will it Influence Your Shots

 

Flex is not stiff enough for you:

If the shaft flex is too soft for you, the shots will go too high. You will also hook it or block it to the right with this type of shaft.

 

Flex is too stiff

Golfers tend to slice the ball with the flex that is too stiff for them. It makes it harder to increase clubhead speed, so they might try to overswing to compensate.

 

Generally, if you have faster clubhead speed, you should use stiff shaft rather than regular shaft. But it really depends on your swing type. Jack Nicklaus had a fast clubhead speed but didn't like extra stiff shaft. He said he never was able to play well with extra stiff shaft. When he won the US open, he was using that is between stiff and regular flex. He said if the shaft is too stiff, you couldn't feel the clubhead and would start to swing only with his arms and hands. Of course, the technology is a lot different nowadays, but we can learn a lot from it. If you pick a regular shaft, you might feel like you admitted having slower swing speed than other golfers.

 

But by choosing the correct shaft flex, you might gain more cluhead speed. I don't prefer the shaft that's too stiff for me either. Like Jack Nicklaus said, the flex that's too stiff will not let me feel the weight of my clubhead. So I try to avoid having shaft that's too stiff for me.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-choose-shaft-flex.htm

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Control Distance by Controlling Arm Speed

It may sound hard to control arm speed and control distance that you hit with each iron. Tiger Woods sometimes practices hitting different clubs to the same distance. First, he picks 150-yard marker as his target. For him, it's a hard 9-iron. So he hits balls with his 9-iron to the target. Next, he uses 8-iron and hits it to the same target (150-yard marker). He works up to his 2-iron hitting balls to the same target. He said this drill is good for controlling distance by controlling arm speed.

 

With this drill, you should take the club to the top with each club and hit balls. You just habe to slow down your swing speed. You don't have to use 150-yard marker. You can use 120-yard or 100-yard marker as your target for this drill. I sometimes practice hitting the driver to 100-yard marker. This is also a very good drill. You are going to swing real slow to hit your driver. By swinging real slow, you will feel your clubhead and clubface during the swing. This drill will help you when you are not hitting it on the sweet spot.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/same-distance-different-club.htm

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Inside-out and Outside-in Golf Swing

You may already know that if your golf swing is outside-in, you will hit a weak slice to the right. If you have outside-in swing, it means you are cutting across the ball. This will put slice spin on the ball. On the other hand, if your clubhead approaches the ball from the inside the target line,  your swing is either inside-in or insdie-out. Ideally, you want to swing inside-in for straighter shots.

 

How the Clubhead Path affects the Distance

Taylor Made once tested golfers to see how their clubheads approach the ball at impact. They found out that most of golfers' clubheads were coming into impact about 11 degrees out to in. This means most amateurs are cutting across the ball. If your swing was perfectly inside to in, that's neutral or 0 degree. On the other hand, most of tour players' swing path was neutral to 3 degrees inside coming into impact. This means tour pros are swinging from inside-in or a bit inside-out. Golf laboratories Inc. used the robot to see how the swing path affected distance and other aspects. They programmed the robot to swing from inside-in (0 degree), inside-out (9 degrees in to out) and outside-in (9 degrees out to in).

 

Here are the results.

• Ball Speed. Not much difference in ball speed.
• Launch angle. The more you swing from the inside, the higher the launch angle.
• Backspin. Outside-in path had the largest number of backspin per degree of launch angle.
• Distance. Inside-out swing path produced more distance than other types of swing path such as inside-in or outside-in. But there were not so much difference between inside-out path and inside-in path. In terms of distance, the shot with inside-out swing went 40 yards farther than the shot with outside-in swing. So by swinging from outside, you could easily lose 40 yards on your drives.

To hit it far with your driver, you want to increase the launch angle and limit the number of backspin. However, the robot was programmed to swing 9 degrees from inside to out. So you don't want to swing extremely from inside. If  you do, you will hit lots of push shots.

 

Hitting lots of Pust Shots?

You might read golf tips on the magazine about hitting it from the inside and try them on the course. And you end up hitting lots of push shots and push-slice. You may wonder why this happens. If you are hitting and try to swing from inside-out, you will end up hitting push slice for sure. The ball flight is not only determined by the swing path or the path of the clubhead through impact. The clubface angle also affects the ball flight.

 

To hit a draw, you want to close your clubface in relation with the clubhead path. For example, if your swing path is inside-out the clubface is looking right of the target at impact, you will hit a push shot.

 

In this case, you want to have your clubface looking at the target to hit the shot that starts right of the target and come back to the target. So if you try to fix your swing path, you need to pay attention to the things such as grip, posture, alignment and ball position that affect the clubface angle at impact as well.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/inside-out-outside-in.htm

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What to think during the Golf Swing

Some golfers think about keeping their head down. Others think about shifting their weight on the backswing. I get this kind of question from the readers of this site once in a while. Ideally, I would like to just hit the ball without thinking during my golf swing. When you are in the zone, this may become easy. However, it's really hard to swing your golf club without thinking. Most golfers have some king of swing thoughts to think about during the swing. But you certainly don't want to think too much during the swing. If you have more than 2 swing thoughts you should narrow it down to 1.

 

I have 3 patterns. But I don't use more than 2 images or swing thoughts. Here the images or swing thoughts I use.

 

1. Image of hitting it in the middle of the clubface

When I swing, I usually try to re-create the image of the best shot I hit in my mind. When I'm successful of forming that image, I usually hit a good shot. Especially on the downswing, I try to focus on that image. You can also focus on the feeling of solid impact or sound of solid contact with the ball as you swing down.

 

2. Clubface Angle

 On the downswing, I try to focus on the clubface angle. Especially at impact, I try hard to direct my attention to the clubface angle.

 

3. Clubhead path

When I'm hitting specail type of shots like a draw or fade, I focus on the clubhead path. I may align my feet right of target and swing along my feet line to hit a draw. In this case, I focus on the clubhead path and avoid my  tendency to swing to the target (from outside in this case).

 

One of the things I try to avoid thinking about during my swing is the swing mechanics. For instance, I don't think about keeping my right knee flex during my swing. I may work on keeping my right knee flex in practice. But I don't think about it while hitting the actual shot on the course.

 

I don't recommend having a swing thought that has nothing to do with the clubface (or clubface angle) at impact. I have  tested this for many years, but thinking about swing mechanics during the swing produced more bad shots than good shots. Even if it worked, it won't last a long time. But if you must think about swing mechanics, try to keep it down to 1.

 

I don't think too much during my golf swing, but I do pay lots of attention to my grip, ball positions, alignment and posture. And I do that during my routine before the shot. If you have to think about something when hitting shots, pay more attention to the things you can check before pulling the trigger. It will give you much better results.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/what-to-swing-during-golf-swing.htm

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