All golfers could use a golf swing tip or two when they are faced with a risky shot.

The best approach to successfully playing these gambling shots is two fold;

1. Take the shot which offers the best calculated risk

AND

2. Find within yourself the confidence, whether imagined or real, that the shot is within your golfing ability and skill.

For more insight into this topic, take an expert golf swing tip from the book, “The Winning Touch in Golf, A Psychological Approach” by author Peter G. Cranford Ph.D.

In the book Cranford writes;

“All golfers are faced with situations in which they feel a risky shot should be tried.

Assuming that the need for the gambling shot is clear—the so-called “calculated risk”—what then can be done to give it the best chance of being pulled off?

First, the chances are much better than average if the shot is preceded by what might be called “the surge of confidence.” With this, one experiences an almost overwhelming feeling that a given shot can be made. I have experienced this myself a number of times in various sports. It is followed by success that defies the law of averages and seems to approach the impossible.

How this feeling develops, I am not sure, but one thing I know. There isn’t a trace of anxiety or fear in it. No extraneous muscles will jerk at the wrong time when this feeling exists, and the ball has the best possible chance of receiving a maximum effort. At these times, if the gamble is indicated, fire away. You’ll probably make it if the shot is in your bag at all.

If the feeling is not there and the shot still has to be played, be deliberate and think the shot through. Even though you must gamble, try the shot which has the most chance of success. This eliminates experimental shots. A well-thought-out shot can inspire confidence, for if you settle down properly to the ball you will suddenly feel right; right feelings accompany right action. This “feeling right” helps to insure a successful gamble.

There are major and minor gambling shots. One of the minor (although cumulatively important) ones involves the decision of when one may permit oneself to aim for the flag and when one should aim for the green. As a general rule, it is best to aim precisely where you wish to go. Your ball has a better statistical chance of going where you are aiming than to any other spot.

In golf, if the problem is simply a question of “win or lose” there is no option. The pin must be shot for. However, there are many situations when the question is strictly statistical. Often the problem can be solved by asking yourself, “Are my chances of gaining a stroke equally as good as my chances of losing one?” If a four can be made by hitting the green in two on a par five, and if a six will be made by missing it, nothing will be lost or gained over the long pull by always shooting for it. This, however, presupposes a knowledge of the pattern of one’s shots, since the golfer would need to know if they could hit such a target half the time. For this reason, it is wise in practice to leave the practice balls on the ground periodically after hitting them, to obtain some knowledge of how well grouped the balls are around the target. Knowing your normal pattern of shots, simply place it over the target point, in the mind’s eye. Then, if your chances of gain¬ing a stroke are about the same as those of losing one, shoot for it. This is a general rule that can be applied to many situations, but would need to be modified at times by other circumstances…

On those occasions when, because of hazards, one cannot safely shoot at the flag, the target must be an artificial one in the center of our superimposed pattern, but even in this case aiming should be precise. The ability to aim can only be developed by aiming.

There are persons who become tense if the target is very precise. Such persons may come up with an abnormal swing because of anxiety, and hence would do well at the moment to have a less precise target. However, psychologically we would have to consider this a weakness, and the ambitious golfer would be obliged to work to remove it.

A great danger in the gambling shot is that it tends to set up a state of anxiety. Much depends on the result, and this preoccupation with the result will generally destroy the golfer’s ability to execute the shot. If you are using a putter in a trap, you are anxious to see if it will run up the bank and are apt to half-top it. If you must shoot through a narrow opening in trees, you will be tempted to pull your head up prematurely to see where the ball is going. On a delicate chip, you may not complete the swing. Hence, to insure a higher percentage of success, a marked effort at self-control is required.
Deliberately complete the shot before you examine the results.”

All golfers can use a golf swing tip when faced with a risky shot.

Try using Cranford’s golf swing tip and advice when deciding the strategy of your next difficult shot.

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Teaching golf students the fundamentals of golf swing mechanics is a very challenging task.

A great deal of the instructor’s advice is misunderstood by their students.

Golf students could better translate their instruction on golf swing mechanics if they attach and associate imagery to the words.

In his book, “Golf Can be An Easy Game”, author Joe Novak illustrates the power and value of using imagery methodology in golf swing instruction. In the book Novak brilliantly uses imagery to better explain the golf swing mechanics of the backswing. He reduces all the complicated instruction to one simple image – the motion of a “ferris wheel”.

Novak writes;

“What actually happens in the properly executed golf shot is that the body produces or goes into a distinctive, diagonal stretch action—on the upswing and again on the downswing and follow through. This stretch action keeps the player centered on the ball at all times, whereas, a turning action takes the player off the ball on the upswing and throws them out and over the ball on the downswing. No wonder there are so many balls struck with the neck of the club (causing bad shots and broken clubs).

I think I can make myself clear on this subject of stretching versus turning by utilizing a comment made by one of my pupils. The pupil in question had a pretty good sense of footwork, but he had an excessive action with his left side on the upswing—in fact, he turned so much that he actually turned his back on the ball as he took the club away on the backswing. Such an action tended to swing the club low and around his waistline leaving him in a very difficult position from which to hit the ball.

I call his attention to this excessive turn. I pointed out the very low around the waistline position to which he was taking the club, and I also indicated his inclination to swing out and over the ball as he came through. I suggested that instead of turning he should use his body in a diagonal stretch action, which would come quite naturally on the backswing if he would learn to use his right, rather than his left, side. If he did this, the club would travel to a much more upright position and would then be higher and over and around his neck rather than low and around his hips.

Almost before I had completed my explanation, he said, “I see, I see—you want me to get off the merry-go-round and get on the ferris wheel.”

“Yes,” I answered, “that is a very good way to explain the difference between a turning action of the body as compared to a stretching action.”

Yes, the action of the body in a golf shot is a stretch, not a turn. The action of the body on the backswing originates in the right hip. As that hip is drawn back, it involves the entire right side from hip to shoulder and it bends and contracts the right arm. At the same time it kicks and throws the left knee straight forward towards the ball. Much instruction has suggested bending the left knee sideways so that it points sideways toward a spot in front of the right toe, but that is an error and is what happens when one turns too much.”

Teaching golf swing mechanics can be just as difficult as learning golf swing mechanics! A great deal of instruction can get lost in translation.

Try using your own imagery methodology and techniques to get more out of your next golf lesson!

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To improve golf swing performance golfers must understand what it means to swing the golf club “in-to-out’.

Swinging the golf club “in-to-out” however, is a concept most golfers fail to grasp.

The fact is, until a golfer learns to swing their golf club “in-to-out” they will have a very difficult time trying to improve golf swing performance.

In the book, “On Learning Golf”, author Percy Boomer offers valuable instruction to help golfers better understand why and how to swing their golf club “in-to-out”.

Boomer writes;

“Firstly what is this “in-to-out”? It is the feeling of swinging the club head not directly down the line of flight, but from inside this line as the ball is approached to outside the line in the follow through. The feeling that this is the path taken by the club head is essential to a good swing. Therefore the fact that scientific analysis can prove that at the impact the club head does actually follow the line of flight exactly can be ignored. You play golf by feeling, not by scientific analysis…

From the first time we see golf played to the first time we take a club in our hands, we have instinctively formed a false conception of the movement. We visualize the club head going up and over our shoulder and down onto the ball. You need only take any neophyte to see how they immediately take the club up and down. Their conviction that this is the correct movement is strengthened by the fact that they see the ball soaring into the air and concludes that it must have been hit with an upward motion. So to make matters worse, they bring their hands into play also to assist the up-down-up movement—and is fully equipped for a career of scooping.

Now here are two devastatingly false impressions, and it is astonishing how long in many golfers’ lives they remain. We must not try to lift either the club head or the ball, and we shall never be good golfers until we can feel that we pull the club head along as we swing, along not up and down.

Let us put this in another way. If I were to ask you to:

(1) Drive a wedge under a door

and

(2) Drive a nail into the floor you would visualize two entirely different directions of hammer-head travel. Driving the wedge under the door is the direction we must feel at golf. The force must go along through the length of the wedge, along through the length of the ball.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that in swinging, the weight of the club head should be brought along from behind the ball, not from above it. This is what we call the wide swing, wide not high: a wide sweep that brings the club head in from behind the back of the ball.“

Improve golf swing performance by learning to better swing your club “in-to-out”.

Try following Percy Boomer’s advice next time you’re practicing your golf swing.

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Beginner golf swing instruction programs understand having the right tools makes learning and playing golf much more enjoyable.

It is a fact that student golfers can get more out of their beginner golf swing instruction if they are taught using correctly fitted clubs.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs offer their students some general advice and direction on purchasing a proper set of clubs. However, to learn what golf clubs provide the best personal choice and fit, student golfers need to perform further research.

Although an entire how to book could be written on proper club selection, fitting and purchase, a little information from an expert can go a long way in guiding you through your next golf club investment.

In the book, “How to Master the Irons, An Illustrated Guide to Better Golf”, authors Gene Littler and Don Collett offer valuable advice on how to go about choosing a proper set of golf clubs.

They write;

“Selecting the proper equipment is a big step toward playing better golf. This phase of golf is so often overlooked that I feel impelled to discuss it here at length, not only to clear up certain misconceptions concerning golf clubs, but to point out how important it is to have clubs that fit you and your swing.

There Is A Difference In Clubs

To the layperson, a golf club is a golf club. They all look alike. This is true to a point, but don’t let this similarity of appearance fool you. As any experienced golfer will tell you, there is a difference in golf clubs, just as there is a physical difference in the individuals who swing them.

Since no two golfers swing alike, it might seem that almost all players would require clubs made to order, to compensate for these individual differences. This, of course, is not true. What is necessary is a good, balanced set of clubs that have been selected by the golfer with the help and counsel of an experienced professional.

Always remember, it is entirely possible to have good equipment and still not have a correct, fitting set of clubs. You must fit the golf clubs to you and your swing, not yourself to the clubs.

So many golfers in their haste to get out and play make a hasty purchase and then, upon learning more about the game and the importance of having properly fitted clubs, find they must buy another set.

Find A Set To Fit You

MEASURING UP. The golf clubs of today are far different from what they were some 30 years ago. Improved club design, which have given clubs better balance and feel, are among the major reasons for the improved play of all golfers, particularly the professsionals.

Factory-made clubs are now fairly standardized and are designed to fit almost every golfer. Unless you are extremely tall or short, a factory set should suit your needs, for clubs don’t vary too much from standard specifications. In any case, don’t purchase a new set of clubs haphazardly.

SHAFT FLEXIBILITY AND SWING WEIGHT. The speed of your swing will determine the flexibility of your shaft and the swing weight of the clubhead.

If you are rather strong, the shaft should be on the stiff side with the swing weight a little heavier than medium. Conversely, if you are not so strong, it would be best to use a more flexible shaft with a lighter swing weight. Shafts come in several different flexes and different weights.

Generally, the dividing point for swing weight is D-3. Anything under that is getting on the light side, and anything over D-3 becomes correspondingly heavier as the number increases. In other words, a driver that has a swing weight of D-7 would be too heavy for the average golfer. It would be better for them to use a medium-stiff shaft with a swing weight between DO and D-4.

Women’s clubs are usually swing-weighted from C-5 to D-0. The shafts in their clubs are more flexible than men’s, and they are also lighter. The medium swing weight for them would be C-7 to C-8.

The swing weight is not as important as the shaft and the over-all dead weight of the club. To prove this, all you have to do is perform the following test: Take two one-dollar bills (or any other denomination), and, after putting your club on the swing-weight instrument in your pro shop, fold the bills over the shaft near the clubhead. The weight of these two paper bills will change the swing weight approximately one point!

If the weight of two paper bills can change the swing weight of a club, you shouldn’t concern yourself too much about swing weights. Instead, make sure you have the right shaft in your clubs. A good, matched set of clubs, according to manufacturers, can vary up to three or four points and still be a good set.

LENGTH AND LIE OF CLUBS. Golf clubs are usually made up in three different lies: flat, medium, and upright. The standard-length driver is 43 inches, and the two-iron, the longest iron club, is 382 inches long. The length and lie of clubs are determined by the distance the hands are from the ground. This hands-to-ground measurement will usually not vary more than 2 or 3 inches from a tall to a short person. Thus, it is not uncommon to have a golfer of medium height using the same length and lie as a taller player because their hands-to-ground measurements are the same.

Generally speaking, the great majority of golfers can use standard-length clubs with a medium lie. If you are a rather short or tall person, you may require a special set. Here again, it would be wise to consult an experienced professional. You will find it to be time well spent in the long run.”

Beginner golf swing instruction programs should teach their students how to go about finding and purchasing a correctly fitted set of golf clubs.

Although volumes of information on purchasing golf clubs can be found in books and on-line, following the expert advice of Littler and Collett could make your next golf club investment your best yet!

Check back soon for more beginner golf swing instruction tips and posts!

There’s a golf swing tip or two floating around every golf course and club house.

Some tips are quite valuable and vital to shaping a successful golf swing yet other tips are just worthless and unnecessary.

Take for instance a golf swing tip on the waggle or the forward press.

Some golfers perform both acts as a prelude to their backswing, other golfers just one and still other neither!

So what is the official consensus on this golf swing tip?

In the book, “The Master Key to Success at Golf” author Leslie King provides professional advice on the importance and usefulness these two actions play in performing a successful backswing.

King writes;

“You are now properly set up alongside the ball in a position from which to commence the first operation in swinging the club (in this instance a driver, although when giving personal instruction I like to start a pupil with a five iron.)

Obviously if you are gripping the club correctly and standing ideally to the ball you are giving yourself a real chance at the outset to shape a sound backswing.

And there are two further preliminaries to be considered before coming to the actual backswing. These are the waggle and the forward press, both of them largely matters of individuality, neither of them to be overdone.

In modern times the waggle has become something of a misnomer among the top players. Fewer and fewer nowadays waggle the club head in the manner of their predecessors of the hickory shaft age.

The object of the waggle is to ensure flexibility in the wrists, get the feel of the club head, make the hands active, and break down tension. Overdone it can have entirely the reverse effect in each case.

Two or three smooth unhurried passes to and from the ball along the intended line of flight with the left hand and wrist in control is all that is usually necessary.

Now for the forward press. This is a slight thrust forward of the right knee and the hands immediately before the commencement of the backswing. If it is natural and instinctive, I say by all means carry on.

However, I never try to build a forward press into the action of a pupil who does not do it instinctively. For one thing to do so would be to introduce another movement and one, moreover, which entails a change of direction when the club is drawn back. We are compelled to change direction when we reach the top of the swing and that is a difficult enough operation for many players.

In any event the main value of the forward press is that it brings the flexed right knee forward and in towards the ball, something you have already done in taking up the position at address which I have outlined.

My advice on these two preliminaries is this. Waggle simply and smoothly and not for too long. Do not worry about the forward press unless it is an action which comes naturally.”

The above professional golf swing tip offers great insight into whether you should perform the waggle and forward press prior to commencing your backswing.

Try incorporating King’s advice in your next swing practice session.

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Golfers can spend countless hours on the practice course trying to improve golf swing performance.

For all the time, energy, and effort a golfer invests in their practice sessions, what’s produced is usually a relatively low ROI.

To truly improve golf swing performance golfers must involve themselves in a more objective and intelligently designed practice routine – stepping outside their comfort zone.

In the book, ‘The Winning Touch in Golf, A Psychological Approach”, author Peter G. Cranford, Ph.D. offers some tips on redesigning your practice routine to better leverage your efforts and improve golf swing performance.

Cranford writes;

“There are a number of errors of practice which lead to inefficiency. A common one occurs when a golfer practices the very shot with which they have the greatest skill.

How could such an apparently obvious mistake be prevalent? Here are a few reasons:

1. Because a golfer can make a given shot, they derive more pleasure from practicing it than a shot which continually causes
them anguish.

2. They may not have the courage to make a public display of their weak shots.

3. The good shot they are practicing may have been a weak shot at one time, and they have allowed a good idea to become a somewhat unreasonable fixed idea through simple habit.

4. Poor form can force a golfer to practice strengths excessively and incorrectly. It is possible for a person to get good results by excessive practice of a weak technique. I saw an example of this by a player who was very successful in using lofted clubs close to the green, when a less lofted club was indicated. Although they did very well with their shot, they attained this by excessive practice which could have been better apportioned to their putting, which was only fair.

Practice alone is insufficient. It is inextricably tied to form. If the form is poor, practice will hopelessly fixate that form. Each form has its upper limits beyond which practice runs into a disproportionately low improvement for a given amount of time.

It is vital, therefore, that the golfer undertake a ceaseless quest for good form, and get it as early in their instruction as they can.

5. They may make the error of not understanding the law of diminishing returns. This simply means that it can be dangerous
to try to become “too good” with any given club. There comes a point in every shot at which additional practice does not produce an equivalent improvement in the score.

A concrete example of the application of this is the following: The problem to be solved is that when you are off the green you are taking three and four to get down instead of two. There are several solutions. With the first, you can practice putting until you learn to get down in one. With the second, you can practice chipping until you are so accurate that it always leaves a “gimme.” The third, which is the most efficient, would be to practice chipping and putting together until you could reasonably be expected to go down in two. The first two “solutions” would require excessive practice.

Many professional golfers have drawn big dividends from a selective investment of practice time by concentrating on their short game. However, this does
not mean that the short game should be practiced ad infinitum. After a good short game has been stabilized, an analysis of your play may well show diminishing returns from such practice, and the time will then have come to attack other weaknesses that are revealed to be more costly.

6. Still another common error, which we have indicated previously by implication, is that a person is not practicing their true weakness. They may be practicing what is only apparently a weakness. To establish the weakness with the first priority on their time, it is necessary for them to analyze their records.”

To improve golf swing performance, try being more objective and “selective” when structuring your practice sessions.

Try using Cranford’s tips to help redesign your practice routine.

Check back soon for more articles and posts to improve golf swing performance.

The following is a horrible golf swing tip – “The best way to learn the golf swing is on the golf course”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This is analogous to first learning poker using real money in a real game. It’s simply not a good idea.

A better golf swing tip is this – “Don’t step on the course until you have developed a ‘reasonable’ swing pattern.”

But how do we know when a swing becomes a reasonable swing? We all know the word “reasonable” means different things to different people – so what do you do?

In the book, “Golf Can Be an Easy Game” author Joe Novak offers some simple and objective guidelines to help golfers determine what actually constitutes a “reasonable” golf swing. Following Novak’s advice will keep golfers from prematurely stepping on to the golf course until they are truly ready, saving them from unneeded frustration and unnecessary embarrassment – the best golf swing tip ever!

Novak writes;

“On numerous occasions pupils express a desire to be taken on the golf course where they feel they will learn more quickly.

This is a snare and a delusion. It is absolutely essential that a reasonably good swing be developed before the pupil be permitted on the golf course. A natural question at this point would be “what is meant by a reasonably good swing?” It simply means that the pupil should be well grounded in the three fundamental actions that constitute a golf swing.

The pupil should be able:

(a) to handle their weight so they can properly balance themselves on their right foot, from which point the upswing is made. They should be able to rebalance themselves on their left foot so that they can make the downswing and follow through.

(b) they should have a thorough understanding of how to cock or set the club into any of the three positions; in other words, they should have a sense of how the two hands work together to accomplish this important matter of club position, which is the basis of directional control in golf shots.

(c) the player should have the sense and ability of utilizing their body as the swing medium—using their body in that natural self-centering action—that two-way stretch which never takes one off the ball and gives the player the ability to make long powerful drives or short delicate chip shots and putts.

These three fundamental actions can only be developed by practice. The practice must be systematic and positive, and have a definite plan that will be stuck to without experiment or change.

Practice this plan—repeat it over and over until (a) footwork, (b) hand action, and (c) body action are synchronized into a smooth continuous action—an action in which you will have a definite idea of (a) where the club is, and (b) how forcibly or how delicately it is being applied to the ball.

Once a degree of proficiency is developed there is no club or department of the game that can give you any problems; golf can be an easy game because you will be the master in control of the club as you swing it.

Then and only then are you ready to go out on the course to play. Just as it takes practice to develop, create and establish a swing, it will require added practice to maintain and retain a satisfactory performance.”

Here is a golf swing tip worth following!

Review your golf swing using Novak’s guidelines. His advice could be the difference between you enjoying your golf game or not!

Check back soon for more golf swing tip articles and posts!