Golf Swing Instruction
The Simple Golf Swing…The Proper Golf Swing
| Golf Swing Fundamentals | |||
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The fundamentals of the proper golf swing are straight forward and easily understood. Most golfers will benefit from using a mirror at home to check swing positions and setup positions as part of the golf improvement plan. You body type will in most cases dictate what swing technique you are capable of adopting. If you are a 50 year old man with a 38 inch waist and lacking core strength, attempting the stack and tilt swing is going to be difficult. Unless you have tremendous flexibility in your back, shoulders, and legs, attempting to swing like Tiger will be virtually impossible. Many of the authors of online golf instruction never address this point. The fascination we have with investing $30 and swinging like Tiger is irresitable. This is one of the primary factors keeping golfers stuck in their current performance rut. Trying to find a quick fix or swing fad outside of your body’s capabilities is wasted effort. Regardless of the swing technique adopted, there are some universal body positions and angles that you must strive to adhere to as close as possible. This discussion deals with these in an introductory fashion for your consideration. A comprehensive discussion of all of the body positions, swing positions, and setup fundamentals is beyond the scope of this webpage. Your PGA Professional will be very helpful in helping you better understand these positions for your unique golf swing. We also discuss these items in much greater detail in our Ebooks and golf instructional videos. |
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| Golf Swing Analysis | |||
| For purposes of this discussion we are going to analyze some of the important elements of the proper golf swing. We used video analysis software to create the lines that serve as critical reference points. | |||
| Shaft Plane Angle | |||
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Your golf shots will be powerful and more consistent if during your back swing, down swing, and follow thru, the club head, golf shaft, and your arms track along this angle thru out the swing. At all times during the swing, the closer you can get to having the club head touching this angle or your arms and golf shaft parallel to this angle, the more consistent you will be at getting the club back to the ideal impact position. At the top of the back swing the club moves away from the angle and points towards the target, however, the left arm is parallel to and above this shaft plane angle. At the finish of the swing in the follow thru position the club is pointing away from the angle, however, the right arm is parallel to and above the shaft plane line. |
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| Spine Angle | |||
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| Maintaining your spine angle is one of the most important things the golfer must do to hit repeatable, powerful, and consistent golf shots. If the golfer tends to lift his body out of this angle on the back swing then major compensations must be made during the down swing to get the club head back into the same position it started at the beginning of the swing. If the golfer tends to lower his body positon during the back swing like Charles Barkley, then major compensations must be made to get back into the correct position. Ideally the shoulders turn around this angle in a 90 degree rotational movement. Its like a large spike was driven into the ground at this angle and the golfer backs into the spike and attaches himself to it. Notice the 90 degree position to the spine angle across the shoulders. At the top of the back swing the shoulders and the left arm will be an extension of this line and parallel to the shaft plane line we discussed earlier. | |||
| Knee Line | |||
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| We call this the knee line. It is probably called a number of different things depending upon the instructor. During the swing it is important that neither of the knees go out beyond this line. During the down swing, if the right knee were to extend out beyond this line the spine angle we discussed earlier would be altered. The left knee works away from the target and inside this line on the back swing. On the down swing the right knee works towards the target and inside this line. If you analyze the swing sequence photos of a Tour player looking down the line at the target you will see this is a universal movement…all of them keep their knees inside this line throughout the swing. | |||
| The Wall | |||
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During the swing the player should keep his or her weight back and away from the target line. This does not mean the player should have all of his weight on the heels. The weight distribution is an athletic position with the weight evenly distributed and on the balls of the feet. The wall position works hand in hand with the knee line. During the swing you want to sense that one or the other of your pant pockets is touching this line. Actually the line is slightly behind the player to start the swing. On the back swing the right rear pant pocket rotates away from the target line and touches the wall line. On the down swing the inital movement is a slightly forward slide towards the target where both pockets are touching and then the hips continue to rotate to the left which causes the left pocket to move away from the target line and the left pocket touches the wall line. |
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| The Anchored Position | |||
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The anchored position has several keys points that are very critical to your success as a golfer. To start with you can see the classic setup fundamentals. His weight is distributed between his feet with 60% of his weight on the left foot. The spine is angled slightly away from the target. His knees are slightly flexed with the ball position in the middle of his stance. The camera angle and the fact that he in on down slope make the ball position look farther back than it is. Tim is swinging a 7 iron in this photo. The club is an extension of his left arm. The center point of his head indicated by the red line is slightly behind the ball. A couple of very important positions to maintain during the swing are indicated in the anchored photo:
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| If the hips rotate as they should, and the spine angle is maintained, and the club head, arms, and shaft follow the shaft plane line; the finished position will ultimately look like this. The left line outside his foot extends vertically from his shoe laces. Tim’s left hip has rotated inside the left line with 95% of his weight on the left foot. If we were looking at Tim from a camera angle that was between Tim and the target we would notice that the left line extending vertically would be touching his pants to the right of his zipper. The closer you can get to having this point touch your right pocket the better, however, you will need some flexibility and great hip rotation to get to that position. |
