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Loss of Swing Plane? Faulty Clubface Angle at Impact? Use Posture to Improve Golf Swing Performance and Be Head and Neck Above the Rest!

June 12, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

As we discussed before in the post, Improve Golf Swing – Improve Golf Swing! – Every Golfer’s Mantra!, restoring and optimizing posture can improve golf swing performance.

A large component of golf swing performance is dictated by our ability to fully rotate. There exists a direct causal link between our capacity to rotate our body and our ability to produce greater swing power, swing speed and swing mechanics.

Paul Chek writes in his book, The Golf Biomechanic’s Manual – Whole in One Golf Conditioning, that, “to golf at full potential, the golfer must possess the ability to rotate almost every joint in the body to its functional capacity” and to improve golf swing performance one “must be able to rotate efficiently and explosively, repeatedly!”

That’s all well and good but, at what joint, does one start with to improve golf swing performance and mechanics? There are many joints involved in producing a golf swing pattern. I always like to start at the top, so, today’s post will quickly explore just one impact the head and neck have on golf swing mechanics.

Improve Golf Swing Mechanics – The Head and Neck and Keeping your Eyes on the Ball

The golf ball itself is small. It’s certainly smaller than balls used in other sports like basketball, softball, and baseball. Understanding this one can appreciate the old expression “you need to see the ball to hit the ball”.

The ability to maintain target acquisition (keeping your eye on the ball) throughout the golf swing is limited by the necks rotational capacity. Poor posture will produce improper length/tension relationships among the muscles comprising the neck complex and result in less than optimal rotational capacity.

Wow, that sounds interesting, but really, what does that mean to the golfer?

Let’s keep it simple. In his book Paul Chek does a terrific job of explaining to a golfer that, “if you are restricted in neck rotation, you most likely have to take your eyes off the ball momentarily during the back swing. This may result in loss of swing plane and/or faulty clubface angle at impact”.

Loss of Swing Plane?
Faulty Clubface Angle at Impact?

Golfer’s cringe when they hear these terms describe their golf swing mechanics and swing patterns.

These two mechanical defects will certainly ruin your golf game. Each could be attributed to postural deviations of the head and neck. If these are affecting your golf game improving the postural alignment of the head and neck may be the answer. Check back to view our posts on postural exercises for the head, neck and entire body to improve golf swing performance!

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips, featured Tagged With: fix slice, Golf Swing, golf swing tips, improve golf swing

A Golf Lesson on Plane Angles Shifts (Part II)

June 11, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

More tips to improve golf swing performance with the second half of yesterday’s article by Jack Moorehouse.

This is the second part of a two-part article about the role of plane angle shifts in your swing. Last week we talked about the four different plane angles. This week we discuss plane angel shift models. Every golfer—no matter what his golf handicap—must go from the backswing to the downswing. Making this transition, as you know from reading my golf tips newsletter or attending my golf instruction sessions, is critical. Make a poor transition and it costs you. Golfers use different methods to make the transition. These plane angle shifts all work, but they require different adjustments. To develop a swing that helps chop strokes off your golf handicap, you must master one of these plane angle shifts. These shifts involve the four planes—the clubshaft plane, the right elbow plane, the squared shoulder plane, and the turning shoulder plane. These four planes show where the clubshaft can go in your swing and determine the actions the shaft must take on the way down to the ball. Most players shift planes to execute a smooth transition from backswing to downswing. In our golf lessons and written golf tips, we like to refer to the different ways to make the shifts as models.

The Single Shift

This model encourages a single shift from the shaft plane at address to a vertical plane during transition. Think of it as an “out and over” move. It’s commonly seen in players who hit a fade. The danger with this shift model is that it can easily turn into an uncontrolled, over-the-top motion that causes mis-hits, especially when the tempo is off.

The Double Shift

This is the most common shift model. Taught in individual golf lessons and multi-player golf instruction sessions, it starts with the clubshaft plane at address, moves into a more upright position into the backstroke, and then falls back to the clubshaft through the ball. This is a good motion—provided you can keep the clubshaft from lifting too much into the last part of the backswing. This model requires a lot of flexibility.

The Triple Shift

This is the classic in-up-and-over move. Basically, the club moves to the inside of the shaft plane on the back swing, then above it on the downswing. If you use this plane angle shift, you must control your release or you’ll hit left-to-left shots (right-to-right shots if you’re left-handed).

The Reverse Shift

This shift model includes lifting the club steeply to the top with a high right shoulder and then re-routing the club back to the clubshaft plane established at address. This shift model requires powerful lateral and rotary hip motions to aid the reversing action.

The Reverse Loop

Players using this shift model lift the club to the top slightly; yet have shoulder turns level or perpendicular to the spine’s axis. These players have no need to re-route the arms and shoulders, but only need to re-route the shaft back to the clubshaft plane on the downswing.

The Pivot Motion

Another key move that players must master is the pivot motion. Not quite as critical as the plane shift, this move is still important. When the club is in a manageable delivery position, you’ll find that the club is either trailing the hands slightly or slightly out in front of the hands, but not by much in either position. From here all you have to do is let your weight continue to move in the forward foot as your torso rotates. The best way to learn the correct pivot motion is to hit belt-high pitch shots, feeling your weight move through as you rotate into the finish. The ball should go straight and you should feel little or no hand action through the ball. Every golfer no matter what his/her golf handicap must master the pivot motion and one of the plane angle shift models. When combined correctly, these actions help you hit the ball straighter and longer, and chop strokes off your golf handicap. If you master both the pivot motion and a plane angle shift, you’ll develop a graceful yet powerful swing.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “ How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros .” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

See the rest here:
How To Break 80

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips Tagged With: golf instruction, golf swing tips, improve golf swing, swing guide

A Golf Lesson on Plane Angles Shifts (Part I)

June 10, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

Article By Jack Moorehouse

This is the first part of a two-part article discussing the role of plane angle shifts. This week we discuss the four different plane angles in your swing. Next week we’ll discuss plane angel shift models. Every golfer no matter what his golf handicap must transition from the backswing to the downswing at the top of his swing. If you’ve read my golf tips newsletter or attended any of my golf instruction sessions, you know how important this is. Mess up here and you’re done for. Put another way, making a smooth transition at the top of the swing is one key to a great swing. It’s often the difference between belting a bomb right down the middle of the fairway and shanking a pop up off to the side of the tee box. Different players use different methods to make the transition. PGA pro Craig Parry uses one type of shift and Jim Furyk, also a PGA pro, uses a different one. Both methods work. But each requires compensations that can be difficult to make consistently. Each also requires good timing. Parry and Furyk have mastered the plane angle shift that fits their swings. If you’re going to develop a swing that’s helps you chop strokes off your golf handicap, you must do the same. But first we need to discuss the role of plane angles in your swing.

Four Plane Angles In Your Swing

Basically, four plane angles exist—the clubshaft plane, the right elbow plane, the squared shoulder plane, and the turning shoulder plane. These four plane angles show where the clubshaft can go in your swing and determines the actions the shaft must take on the way down to the ball. The four plane angles are described below: The clubshaft plane is the most common plane angle. It’s seen as a line drawn up the clubshaft through the beltline at address. This line shows how the club moves from nine o’clock to three o’clock, or from setup to waist high in the backswing and downswing. The right elbow plane is a second plane angle. It’s seen as a line drawn from the club’s right hosel through the left elbow. This line shows how the clubshaft should work from belt high to chest high in the backswing and forward swing. This angle is slightly more upright than the clubshaft plane. The square shoulder plane is the most critical plane angle. It’s seen as a line drawn from the club’s hosel to the midpoint of the right deltoid for a right-handed golfer. This line shows how the clubshaft works for most players from chest high to the top of the swing during the backswing. The turning shoulder plane is the upper most plane angle. It’s seen as a line drawn from the club’s hosel through the top of the right deltoid as the club reaches the top. From here, the club should drop to the elbow then to the original shaft plane and on to impact. Most players need to shift planes to execute a smooth transition from backswing to downswing. Some players use one shift to make the transition. Others use two or three shifts. In our golf lessons and written golf tips, we like to refer to the different ways to make the transitions as models. So there’s the single shift model, the double shift model, and so on. All shift models require some sort of “compensation” to ensure a smooth transition to delivery. Making compensations is where golfers get in trouble.

No Shift Model

In addition to the different shift models discussed above, there’s the no shift approach. Players adopting this model make no plane shift when make the transition to delivery. They maintain the original plane angle established at address throughout their swing. This approach is both efficient and repeatable. But it doesn’t generate as much clubhead speed and distance as the shift models do. Knowing your swing and working within its limitations is the key to controlling your clubshaft and its transition to delivery. Once you understand what type of transition or shift best suits your swing and abilities, you’re on your way to developing a powerful, repeatable swing that will help you cut strokes from your golf handicap. But before you can master the mechanics of a shift model, you need to understand how it works. Next week we’ll discuss the different plane angle shift models.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book, How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips , golf lessons and golf instruction.

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips Tagged With: Golf Swing, Golf Tips, improve golf swing

Four Secrets To Launching It

June 9, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

More valuable tips to help improve golf swing performance in the following article by Jack Moorehouse.

If you’re serious about getting more yards from your drives—and shaving strokes from your golf handicap—work on launching the ball. It’s a golf tip not always covered in golf lessons. The higher you hit the ball, with the right amount of spin, the father it goes. Take Hank Kuehne. He’s among the PGA’s longest hitters. He uses a driver with nine degrees of loft. Most PGA players use seven or eight degrees. Weekend players couldn’t hit a driver with these lofts. For them, a good loft for a driver is 10.5 degrees or above. Keep in mind that golf has no uniform equipment standards. So determining driver loft accurately is tricky. When measured the same way, most drivers come within a degree of the loft printed on the club. Driver loft performance stems from several factors. Only ball flight can tell you a club’s true dynamic loft —a function of measured loft, center of gravity, moment of inertia, and face roll. An adjustment to your stance and swing will helps generate more loft and more yards off the tee. Below are four golf tips on generating more lofts:

Flare Your Forward Foot

In golf instruction sessions you’re taught to flare your left foot (right foot for left-handers) about 45 degrees on your drives. It’s a good golf tip. It increases the speed at which the hips unwind during the swing. Kuehne, however, turns his toes in. That’s because his hips unwind too quickly. Turning his toes in restricts hip movement during his downswing. Weekend golfers usually need to speed their hips up, so they need to flare the front foot. This in turn lets them swing the club faster.

Hit A Fade, Not A Draw

You may have told during a golf lessons to hit a draw off the tee. A draw often generates more yards because of the roll. But you can also hit a fade for distance. Jack Nicklaus did. Hitting a fade let’s you swing the club hard without having to worry about hooking it out of bounds. Weakening your grip helps when hitting a fade. To do that lay the thumb of your gloved hand on the shaft so that the thumb and forefinger points more toward your chin rather than your right shoulder (left shoulder for left-handed golfers.)

Sweep The Ball Off The Tee

The easiest way to get more distance off the tee is to change your angle of approach into the ball. In other words, hit up on the ball, not down. If you have an over-sized driver use longer tees. This gives you the optimum angle to launch the ball. For weekend golfers, optimum launch angle is anywhere from 10.5 to 14 degrees. To sweep the ball off the tee, set your spine angle at address so your front shoulder is higher than your back shoulder.

Pause At The Top

Pausing at the top is the last of the four golf tips. Start by taking the club all the way back. Then, pause at the top for a split second before committing to the downswing. Many weekend golfers get out of sync by making a sloppy transition to the downswing. Some golfers start their downswing before they’ve even completed their backswing. That’s not good. Also, if you pause at the top, you can swing as hard as you want on the downswing and still stay in rhythm. To generate more power, golfers often try to swing the club harder than normal. That doesn’t always work. If you really want to get more distance off the tee, use loft to launch the ball. To help do that, flare your forward foot, sweep the ball off the tee, and pause at the top of your swing. Also, hitting a power fade can get you more distance, if hit correctly. Incorporating these golf tips into your swing will help you get more yards off the tee and, hopefully, help whittle down your golf handicap.

Go here to see the original:
How To Break 80

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips Tagged With: Golf Tips, improve golf swing

Get Fit And Go Low

June 8, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

This article below, authored by Jack Moorehouse, is a perfect follow up to yesterday’s post Improve Golf Swing – Improve Golf Swing! – Every Golfer’s Mantra! It’s a great read!

Today’s professional golfers are better than ever. They’re also fitter than ever. Look at players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. They’re in great shape. Annika Sorenstam also was in great shape when she played. Good players know that as their fitness level increases, their play improves—all things being equal. They also know that improvements in strength, flexibility, and endurance are often the difference in lowering your golf handicap two, three, or even four strokes. Unfortunately, many weekend golfers can’t hit the gym as often as they’d like. They’re too pressed for time. If they’re not ferrying the kids around, they’re doing home improvement projects. Or, they’re completing a work report a colleague needed yesterday. These activities place a huge demand on their time, making it hard to find the time to exercise. But even if you’re short on time you can improve your strength, flexibility, and endurance with a little forethought and good planning.

Limber Up and Loosen Up

New golfers realize very quickly that the golf swing requires movements that they don’t normally make. Ingraining these motions is among the biggest problems weekend golfers face, especially if they have sedentary jobs. Golf lessons and golf tips don’t do much good if a golfer’s body isn’t pliable. Stretching is a good way to make you pliable. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it can be built into your daily routine. You can do simple stretches at work or before you start a round. The key is using the time you have wisely. For example, if you’re taking a golf cart during your round, loosen your shoulders and back with this exercise: Stand next to the canopy post, your feet shoulder-width apart. Grab the post with both hands, keeping your arms fully extended and pull away from the post. Hold that position for one long breadth, and then repeat facing the opposite direction. Do this exercise while your playing partners hit their drives. Stretch also while changing in the clubhouse as well.

Strength And Flexibility

To lower your golf handicap, it helps to improve both your strength and flexibility. Improving these two things can help greatly in your quest to go low. But you don’t have to start pumping iron for two or three hours a day to increase your strength. Instead, buy some basic fitness equipment to use at home. Then when you’re home, look for opportunities to use them, like between commercials of a basketball game or your favorite TV show. For example, an inflatable stretch ball ($20 to $60 in most sporting goods stores) is a good low-tech piece of exercise equipment. The stretch ball provides you the added benefit of maintaining your balance while performing different exercises. Also, you can grab a five-pound dumbbell or whatever is handy, and do sit-ups using the ball. Extended your arms with the weight while doing the sit up. This exercise improves the strength and flexibility of your shoulders, arms, and abdomen.

Develop A Plan

If you’ve read my golf tips newsletter, you know I recommend using a pre-shot routine to insure consistency. Consistency should also be a key component of your fitness regimen. If you really want to start chopping strokes off your game, develop a fitness routine with help from either a trainer or your own research and stick to it religiously. It will work wonders for your game. One final tip: Try to incorporate compound exercises in your program. They work on two or more parts of your body at the same time. Here’s an example of one: Lie flat on the floor, grab one arm, and pull it across your body. Now rotate your hips so your belly button is pointing in the opposite direction of the extended arm. Bend your legs at the same time so your knees are touching the ground. Hold this position without lifting your shoulders for several seconds. Relax and repeat. You can even do this exercise in bed before getting up. The key to benefiting from any exercise program is consistency. But you must exercise regularly. If you can get to a health club, that’s great. Do it. If you can’t get to a club regularly, develop an exercise program that you can do at home when the opportunity occurs. It can be yoga, Pilates, or whatever, just as long as it focuses on increasing your strength and flexibility. The better shape you’re in, the easier it is to chop strokes off your golf handicap.

Read the rest here:
How To Break 80

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips Tagged With: Golf Swing, Golf Tips

Improve Golf Swing – Improve Golf Swing! Every Golfer’s Mantra!

June 7, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment
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Improve Golf Swing! – Improve Golf Swing!

This is every golfer’s mantra.  Every golfer seems to be looking for a way to improve golf swing performance.  Some golfer’s look to improve golf swing performance by investing money in golf swing aids, professional golf swing instruction and golf swing videos.  Each one of these methods are certainly a necessary and fantastic way to improve golf swing skill development but, is that truly all golf is – just a game of skill like chess or checkers?

To improve golf swing performance golfers need to recognize that golf is an athletic sport and like all sports it demands both skill development and physical conditioning.  In his book, The Golf Biomechanics Manual – “Whole in One Golf Conditioning”, Paul Chek, an internationally respected corrective high performance exercise kinesiologist, puts the physical demands of golf into perspective.  He presents some interesting facts:

  • “The head of a golf club can travel over 100 mph, an effort comparable to pitching a baseball.”
  • “Amateur golfers achieve 90% of their peak muscle activity when driving a golf ball…the same intensity as picking up a weight that can only be lifted four times before total fatigue.”
  • “Golfers…strike the ball an average of 30-40 times a game with comparable intensity! This level of exertion and muscle activation equates with such sports as football, hockey and martial arts.”

Pretty amazing comparisons, but wait, it gets even better!

In the book Paul Chek points out that “the average golfer tends to take up the game at an age when he or she is no longer racing around a sports field, nor actively participating in other energetic, competitive or other physically demanding sports.”  Talk about impeccable timing…could there be a worse period or stage in our lives to pick up a club!

Chek goes on to say, and we all could agree, that the “common misperception” that golf is not an athletic event “all too often results in injury and/or premature performance plateaus.”  Does that sound like anyone you know?

Who has the time to travel on the road of performance plateaus and injuries during their relentless pursuit to find the answer to improve golf swing performance – hitting that little ball, better, farther and more accurate each time they swing.  So what is the answer?

All golfers must take a two pronged approach to improve golf swing performance – practice skill and improve physical conditioning.  Most golfer’s put much more time and effort into the former and very little thought to the latter.  But what exercises have the greatest carryover to improve golf swing performance?  Postural alignment exercises!

How do exercises to improve posture alignment translate into improved golf swings?  Posture is a key component to proper golf swing mechanics – bringing joints into balance, optimizing joint range of motion and improving rotational capacity.  The better ones postural alignment is:

  • The greater rotational torque one can generate resulting in longer drives
  • The tighter ones swing axis will be resulting in less power leakage and producing a more fluid swing expression
  • The greater chance one will have the proper clubface angle at impact resulting in less slices and shanks at the tee and shave strokes off your short game around the green

This article is the first of a series we want post on this site to help optimize your posture to improve your golf swing.   Investing some time in postural alignment exercises could pay huge dividends, providing amazing returns to improve your golf swing, improve your golf game and improve your daily living!

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips, featured Tagged With: Golf Swing, golf swing tips, improve golf swing

Shaking Off The Shanks

June 6, 2010 By Eagle Leave a Comment

What’s the most frustrating shot in golf? Some say it’s the pop-up after a great drive. Others say it’s hitting a dribbler on an easy approach shot. Then there are those who say that topping the ball from a great fairway lie is the most frustrating shot. Those mis-hits certainly hurt. But for our money the shank is by far the most frustrating shot in golf. It’s also among the most dreaded. Once you start shanking the ball, it’s often hard to stop—even with golf lessons. If you’re among golfers who’ve started shanking the ball and can’t stop, you’re not alone. Plenty of golfers have suddenly had this problem. Many were unable to stop, even if their lives depended on it. As with most mis-hits in golf, specific reasons exist for shanking a shot. There are also fixes that can help you shake off the shanks. These fixes are simple to execute and apply, and can really benefit your game. With their help, you can rid yourself of the shanks, keeping your golf handicap in check.   A shank can happen many ways. One way is by swinging the club from outside the target line to inside the target line. When you swing outside in, you risk hitting the ball with the clubhead’s neck and hosel. If you’re really good at finding the clubface before impact (or your clubface is closed at impact), you probably won’t shank. If you’re not good at making hand adjustments—and most golfers are not—you’ll shank the shot. The key to stopping this cause of shanks is to swing the club more from the inside out. In other words, start your takeaway inside the target line, and initiate the downswing with the body to prevent coming over the top and swinging across the ball. Some teachers refer to this as “dropping the club in the slot.” Do this and rotate through to the finish and you’ll shank your shots a lot less. Hands Not Releasing Another – cause for shanking is not releasing your hands through impact or releasing them too slowly through impact. The hands must release the club through the impact zone square to the face before contacting the ball. If they don’t, the club makes contact with the neck of the iron first, boosting your chances of shanking the shot. To fix this problem, loosen your hands. Then take a few short swings while focusing on releasing the hands well before you reach the ball. This type of release is unusual, but it helps greatly when it’s time to make a full swing. At that point, your hands will be ready to release right over the golf ball, the way they should. Open Face And Body A third cause of shanking is an overactive body turn. If you’ve read my golf tips newsletter, you know how important body turn is. If the body slides or rotates too much and the arms don’t have time to catch up, the clubface reaches the target wide open, increasing your chances of hitting the ball with the club’s neck. In fact, anytime your body and arms disconnect, you risk shanking your shot. To overcome this swing flaw, try this simple drill that I use in my golf lessons: Align your stance so your front foot is closest to the target and is about a foot in front of your other foot. Your other foot should be behind you. At this point, you should be standing so that it looks like you’re walking forward. Now hit some balls from this stance. The drill teaches you to maintain your turn away from the ball. It also allows your arms to swing from the proper path and release the clubhead on time. It’s a great drill to get your swing coming from the inside out and for limiting excess body rotation through impact—both of which lead to a mis-hit. Shanking is among the most frustrating shots in golf. Once you start, you can’t always stop. Shanking affects golfers at anytime and at any level. Even veteran golfers with low golf handicaps sometimes have a bout of the shanks. Swinging the club from the outside in instead of inside out can cause you to shank. But learning to swing from the inside out will help prevent the dreaded shanks from occurring and your golf handicap from rising.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of this article and best-selling book “ How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros .” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips , golf lessons and golf instruction .

Original post:
How To Break 80

Filed Under: Golf Swing, Golf Tips, featured
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