A close friend of mine who I know reads the blog on a regular basis took me for 9 holes yesterday. He has placed a fairly challenging task at my door. For ages now he has been telling me that he can play golf but unfortunately he struggles with getting a good score and has never actually broken 100. So after seeing what I was up against I have agreed to help him break the three digit barrier.
Now this is a little more difficult than it sounds as he is a lefty and everything is backwards. However I have no doubt in my mind that I can help him and within a few months I will have him break 100.
The things I have noticed about his swing and his game are as follows:
Lack of confidence in his driver and his woods. A fantastic set of golf clubs in his bag but a mental block means he misses out on a lot of distance by not using his driver off the tee and his fairway woods on the fairway. The one time he did use his driver it went a very long way but very left of the target.
Inconsistent setup. This was something that I bit my lip on till we got back to the club house because I wanted to make sure I was right, the setup he has to the ball is good but there is a slight movement in his stance before he swings the club. This is causing the ball not to go as straight as he would like it to.
The grip it and rip it mentality. When getting himself into a position that he struggled to get a full swing or a clear line of sight at the target he would go for it anyway. This is something I learned a while back, that it is often a good thing to get out of trouble with one shot than get in even more trouble. I used to think “MUST GET CLOSER TO THE GREEN!” the problem was when if that shot got me closer to the green then I would be in even more trouble. Playing the game using your mind to work out shots, to play sensible golf will bring the score down.
So those are the three main areas that I will be working on with him over the next few months and the aim which I think is more than reasonable is to get his score below 100. I have advised him to check out the Golf Instruction Manual that I have used in the past to give him a good heads up on the things he will be needing to work on.
If you have ever watched Tiger Woods Swing a golf club then you have probably looked on like the rest of us in wonder at the practice and dedication that must have gone into polishing off the well known Tiger Woods Swing.
So what is so special about Tiger Woods Swing? Well basically everything is right about it but there is much more to it than just the swing. The video below was an advertising campaign by Nike. They pointed a military grade camera that takes photos at the rate of 4000 frames per second.
Apart from his setup watch his left arm through the whole back swing it is straight as he hits the ball it is still straight and through to around 85% completion it is still straight. This has more of an importance than most people seem to realize. This means he has incredible power through the core of his body. The strength of the back muscles, the abs and through to the back are all important to be able to swing a club this smoothly.
It is also important that you stretch out regular in order to get flexibility up to a maximum as well. In wanting to improve your swing or to make yours more like Tiger Woods Swing then it is important to think about your physical fitness and to maintain a regular practice routine. A good strong back will give you more of a spring in your swing that will give you an faster head speed and more distance from all of your clubs.
If you want to take a look at improving your fitness then Mike Pedersen has a very good book on golf fitness that can be giving you extra yards on your game in no time at all. We don’t like to recommend things that will not improve your game and this is no exception, getting fit and having a good stretching will get your swing and Tiger Woods Swing to be a closer match!
I somehow managed to get in a position on the course today where I had an audience approaching the 18th green. I think it was probably due to the fact that it was getting dark and the 4 holes behind us had given up and were following us up the 18th fairway. My shot was a long wedge towards the back of the green to come back towards a central pin position, this way I avoided the two horrible bunkers at the front of the green. I caught the shot perfectly and then the guy in the golf cart behind us said “Now how do I get backspin like that?”
I then had great pleasure in telling him to read this blog tomorrow morning as I would have posted a few tips on how to get backswing. So firstly Welcome to my new reader! Now lets get you some backspin. Many people think that to get good backspin you have to scoop the ball and get right under the ball in order to apply the spin. Not the case.
To get backspin you really need to strike the ball on the downward motion so you are striking down on the ball, this then allows the ball to roll up the club face, meaning the balls moving forward but with backspin on it. So some simple steps to achieve this:
Firstly you need to have your body slightly open to the target so you need to be aiming slightly to the left of where you want the ball to go.
Secondly when you strike the ball should be just to the right of center with the ball further back than normal in your stance with your hands in front of the ball. This helps get the ball struck on the downward arc.
Finally (and this was the bit that always used to catch me out) your back swing needs to be steeper and more upright than normal getting a good hinge in the writs. Take back straight then a little nick of the fairway taking slightly less then normal and you will see results.
As with all parts of the game the best thing you can do is practice until you are comfortable. Please don’t try it when it is vital to your round unless you have spent a few hours trying it out first.
I have just come in from a very good 18 holes with a friend of mine that has been working on his game very hard over the last 4 weeks. By very hard I mean he took 2 weeks off work and spent 10 hours in lessons and at least 5 hours a day on the course or the range getting his game trimmed for the start of the new season of competitions coming up in the new year.
Normally I wouldn’t advise going at this so deep but he has had a rough year personally and wanted to just be totally focused on one thing for a while so went for it. It really paid of dividends for him. Before he did this he was very much reliant on getting a massive straight drive off the tee which happened one in ten times. Today his swing was slower more controlled and the club head did all of the work off the tee. He probably dropped 10 yards off his furthest drive as it was 6 weeks ago but this time from 13 drives he hit 12 fairways!
His positioning on the course was second to none today getting a clear shot into every green and his control around the greens lead to a single handicap score for the day. Not bad when you consider he was a 23 handicap at the start of 2007!
This is what lead me to the title of this post, hitting the ball further is not always the answer. I have read so many articles from people who’s advice is to give the ball a good old slap to get it off down the fairway and when people try it they lose the ball or get the ball wet and even worse look like complete fools when they hurt their back! As I have said in the past slow it down get the control then think about the power, in many cases getting the control and getting the club to do the work will mean you can stop thinking about getting so much power because your game will be more controlled and less demanding on the physical aspect.
Of course I am not saying that being fit to play golf is a myth of course it helps a massive amount and helps prevent injury, but knowing the club is capable of doing most of the work is a great way to get ahead on the course.
Being physically fit for golf is one thing but one area of golf fitness that gets overlooked is getting the wrists nice and strong in order to control the club through the whole swing.
When you think about a professional golfer setting up for their swing on most occasions you will see them wave the club from one side to another, if you think that those clubs even though a little lighter than your average shaft it takes a fair amount of strength to perform this action. So how can you go about getting stronger wrists?
Here are a few tips on how you can strengthen your wrists without having to spend a fortune on weights and equipment.
Wrist Curls: Hold a tin of soup in the palm of your hand and with your palm pointing skywards and pull your wrist towards you. Do this ten times and then relax for 20 seconds and repeat 4 times.
Reverse Wrist Curls: As above but in reverse hold the tin in your hand with your palm facing down wrists pointing out and pull your wrists towards you. As before do this ten times and rest 20 seconds repeating 4 times.
Golf Club Cock: No its not rude, behave! Hold your arm by your side with a seven iron in your hand then using only your wrist lift the club towards the sky. do this ten times on one side then ten times on the next and repeat four times.
If you do these exercises a few times a week and you will start to see you have more control over the club head throughout your swing.
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