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Proper Golf Swing – The Left Fingers – Pointing You To Better Swing Performance!

September 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

A proper golf swing begins with the hands – more specifically the fingers!

The fingers play an immense role in creating a proper golf swing.

The fingers directly connect the golfer to the club. They are charged with the responsibility of providing the golfer with both club feel and control.

In this article we’ll point to the fingers of the left hand and explain their contribution in shaping the proper golf swing.

In the book, “The Master Key to Success at Golf” author Leslie King discusses the fingers of the left hand and their rightful place in executing a proper golf swing.

King writes;

“How tightly should the club be gripped? You hold it firmly enough to maintain control, firmly enough not to stifle the feel of the club head which you must acquire, firmly enough not to freeze or lock the wrists.

You must fight against what may be a natural tendency to apply a vice-like grip. I have already described how the left thumb is pressed with a “gentle firmness” on the shaft. That is the degree of pressure to be applied to the grip as a whole a “gentle firmness” in contrast to a vice-like seizure of the shaft. Too tight at address invariably means too slack at impact.

Now I return to the fingers of the left hand. You know now that the main pressure will be in the top two or three fingers of the left hand and the two middle fingers of the right.

My personal conviction is that many teachers and writers of text books on golf tend to over-emphasize the left little finger. The player is urged to concentrate on wrapping this left little finger round the shaft, but I prefer to put the emphasis on its next-door neighbor, the longer and stronger finger, for two reasons. In the case of the majority of people the little finger is very short and has limited strength because it is so rarely used in the various tasks which the hands perform in the general activities of life.

Secondly, too much applied pressure with the little finger of the left hand has a stiffening effect on the wrist. Take a club and try it for yourself. Do you not detect a definite tightening in the wrist?

Now switch your attention to the next finger, the third finger of the left hand which you will notice is quite a bit longer and undoubtedly stronger than the little one.

When you wrap this third finger firmly on the shaft the little finger will still fulfill its rightful task of augmenting the security of the left hand-grip, but you will feel (with the third finger dominant) that the wrist retains its suppleness and the power in the left hand-grip is concentrated more through the centre of the hand.

If any finger is the master finger in the left hand-grip it is the third finger, more suited by nature for the job.

I can cite the case of a scratch golfer to illustrate this fact. During the war this player had a mishap which deprived him of the use of the left little finger which remained permanently bent over. He thought this was the finish of golf for him. He could not even place the little finger on the shaft, but a year or two after the war he was persuaded to give it a try once more.

Almost at once he began to hit the ball well, resumed playing with a handicap of 3, was back to scratch in no time at all, and won his county championship and this with a useless little finger he could not even place on the club. His salvation was the third finger of which he had full use.

Until your hands have been strengthened and trained you may find the correct form of gripping in all the detail which I have described strange and uncomfortable. With this may come a tendency towards a vice-like grip and an urge to spread the hands on the shaft. Resist both these temptations. Instead, strengthen your hands. Train them to the point where the correct grip will give you a feeling of confidence and security throughout the swing“.

A proper golf swing begins with correctly using the fingers of the left hand to provide the right grip on the club!

Use King’s professional advice to help improve the feel and control in your swing pattern!

Check back soon for more articles and posts to help you achieve a proper golf swing!

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Improve Golf Swing – Building A Better Swing At Your Address!

September 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

To truly improve golf swing performance all golfers need to perform a close examination of their address.

The address reveals much about a golfer’s handicap and quality of movement – signaling to the world the level of golf they are capable of playing!

Golfer’s looking to improve golf swing performance need to fully understand that a correct address shapes the perfect swing pattern from beginning to end.

Shaping the perfect swing pattern is essential to improve golf swing performance. It is through this shaping that the golfer learns to feel their swing.

In his book, “On Learning Golf”, author Percy Boomer offers some expert advice to help golfers improve golf swing performance. He explains, in great detail, the address to the reader – helping them put feeling into their form.

Boomer writes;

“The experienced eye can make a very accurate guess at the handicap of a player after seeing them make a few practice swings, and as soon as their address is completed we can be sure of their quality.

Now at first glance it might seem that it would be simple enough for anyone to learn to stand correctly before the ball—to cultivate an impressive address. Yet there is this difference which enables the cognizant to recognize even the subtle variation between the good and the very good golfer before the ball has been struck.

It is an interesting point and one of some practical importance, because it is directly related to the true aim and purpose of the preparatory movements. We can recognize a golfer’s quality in these movements because they express both what they intend to do and how they intend to do it. The difference between the good and the ordinary golfer is that the good one feels their shot through their address.

Whether or not they have learned deliberately to play by feel, the good player feels, through their carriage and balance as they addresses the ball, the coming movement that will bring their club face squarely against the ball. Briefly to analyze the feeling of carriage and balance—they feel they are set inwards and behind the back of the ball and their legs, hips and shoulders are all braced, inside and behind the ball.

Now this is a point where I must ask you to stop and consider and analyze carefully exactly the meaning I want to convey by the word braced because this is most important to a realization of the correct feel of the body.

My dictionary defines a brace as “anything that draws together and holds tightly,” and I think that is clear and that it expresses the feeling we have when we are braced. But you may try it and promptly come back with the question, “But how can I feel braced and yet not become stiff?” A very pertinent question, and I will try and give you the answer.

When we take lessons in deportment we are told to walk with our hips pulled in, in other words to brace our hips. Yet we know that this does not make our carriage stiff; it makes it not stiff but firm and decisive.

So also, when I tell you as you address the ball to keep your elbows close together, you will immediately feel a sensation of drawing in your elbows the one towards the other. As a consequence your arms will not feel like two separate and independent arms but like a linked united pair of arms; yet they will not feel stiff. The “holding together” of your shoulder blades holds the top of your structure together and links up with the power from your hips. You will find your biceps being pulled into your thorax, your shoulders and arms being drawn together, and, if then the stomach is drawn inward, one definite (inward) direction of brace is set up.

The second direction in which we brace our bodies at the approach is upwards, yes upwards, towards the sky! The natural tendency as we stand to our ball is to droop from our hips and curve our backs. But if we are good golfers we resist this tendency by an upward brace—slightly bent over but pulled up to our full height and neither drooped nor curved.

Set like this we will feel our left side as straight as a poker, though not as stiff as one, and our left foot pushing down into the ground. Of course as the weight is equally divided between the feet, this pushing down is a feeling in the right foot also. The result is a highly desirable one; as a reaction to our upward brace, we feel ourselves standing firm as we address the ball—a thing we are frequently told to do but rarely told how to do!

So with our hips, shoulders, and arms braced and the body stretched upwards and braced, we no longer feel a loose, flabby, drooping figure but an upright and yet compact one. But we have one more direction of brace to add—this comes from the hips and I can best describe it as a twist forward which completes the bracing up of the whole body at the address.

As we stand to the ball our feet must not be too wide apart; the right foot should be at right angles to the line of flight, the left one pointed slightly out; a line across the toes of both feet should (like the line between the shoulders) be parallel to the line of flight. From this position, we twist our hips round (horizontally) to the left, not as far as they will go but as far as they can go in comfort, i.e., without pulling our hips out of shape. How far this is depends on how supple we are. Probably the degree of movement will be only slight, but the effect of this forward leftward twist is to tauten up the whole body without stiffening it.

Because we are anchored, first by our feet to the ground and secondly by our square-set shoulders held up against the forward pull of the hips, the right knee does not resist so we find our left side straight and our right side bowed inwards. And these, left side straight and right side bowed in, are very definite feels which come from (and can be used to check) correct bracing.

These three directions of brace should now make us feel a complete unit, which we can think of as “the set.” I think they are what makes the good golfer feel compact. They give the feeling that we can carry the club head back away from the ball by the body twist inwards and behind the back of the ball. In other words, if you are properly braced there will be no sensation of wanting to lift the club head up. This is important; we should never feel that we lift the club head, but that we carry it back around with the body and along the ground.

This feeling that the club head keeps down is equally necessary in the follow through, after we have sent the ball on its way. We must feel that we have dispatched the ball out and along but not up“.

Improve golf swing performance by examining where it all begins – at the address!

Try incorporating Boomer’s advice into your golf swing practice routine.

Check back soon for more posts and tips to improve golf swing performance!

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Beginner Golf Swing Instruction – 5 Easy Steps to Getting a Grasp on the Grip!

September 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Students in beginner golf swing instruction programs have a difficult time learning how to correctly grip the club.

With the right instruction however, knowing how to correctly grip the club can be easily understood.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs use different methods and techniques to help their students properly grasp the grip!

Some beginner golf swing instruction programs use check lists and check points to assist their students in properly gripping the club at the address.

In the book, “How to Master the Irons, an Illustrated Guide to Better Golf”, authors Gene Littler and Don Collett provide some beginner golf swing instruction to help guide student golfers through to the correct grip.

They write;

“…check points concerning the grip are:

1. The V formed by the thumb and forefinger of the right hand should be pointing toward your right shoulder.

2. Pressure points of the right hand are the two middle fingers. They are the gripping fingers, while the forefinger and thumb provide the finesse and feel of the grip.

3. Position the right forefinger (as noted above) so that it points directly toward the target and intended line of flight during address.

4. The right-thumb position is on the left side of the shaft—not straight down the shaft.

5. Do not allow more gripping pressure in the right thumb and forefinger than in the two middle fingers. The thumb and forefinger tend to “take over” too soon if they are in firm control of the swing during the backswing and early part of the downswing. They are the agents which help destroy your rhythm and timing, and they forcefully come into play only as the hands enter the hitting area.

All things considered, you must, create the feeling in molding a good grip that the hands are working as one. The closer you can come to this—and it“.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs use different methods and techniques to help their students get a grasp on the grip!

Use Littler and Collett’s checklist as a guide to help you properly grip the golf club.

Check back soon for more beginner golf swing instruction articles and posts to help quickly improve your golf swing and game!

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Beginner Golf Swing Instruction – Properly Addressing the Address!

September 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Beginner golf swing instruction programs teach their student golfers the importance of correctly addressing the ball.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs know the basic principle of swing mechanics – initiating a swing from an improper address position results in a faulty golf swing pattern.

Some student golfers struggle to learn the various stances of address and how/when to apply them properly.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs make a sincere effort to simplify this potentially confusing topic for their students.

In the book, “How to Master the Irons, an Illustrated Guide to Better Golf”, authors Gene Littler and Don Collett provide some beginner golf swing instruction on the address and its various stances.

They write;

“The more skilled a player becomes, the more they realize the importance of aligning themselves properly with the ball. This technique involves more than just stepping up to the ball and hitting it down the fairway or toward a distant green. It involves knowing how to address the ball and where to address it in relationship to the stance and the direction in which they are aiming. In the fundamental sense of the word, we refer to the basic body position over the ball as the address. Within the framework of the address come the basic stances, or foot positions, we use for hitting various shots.

The Address

Squaring up to the ball is an important feature of a good golfer’s swing, and it simply means your feet, hips, and shoulders should be square, or parallel to the line of flight. It is a basic tenet of golf that if you are out of position at the address you will be out of position during the swing. It is important, therefore, to practice setting up to the ball properly so that it becomes an automatic procedure. You will then be able to concentrate fully on hitting the shot without having to worry about where it is going.

The Stances

THE SQUARE STANCE. Although there are 14 different positions for the feet, or as many as there are clubs in the bag, there are only three basic stances: the square, open, and closed. In the square stance the feet are positioned on a line which should parallel the intended line of flight. The ball is between the feet and on a line slightly left of center. The weight is equally distributed. The hands are positioned ahead of the ball so that the shaft of the club and the inside line of the left arm form a straight line from the shoulder to the clubface.

The square position permits a free, full shoulder turn and is recommended for hitting the medium irons, the four, five, and six. The only modification I make in each iron is in the position of my right foot. For a five-iron, my feet are about the width of my shoulders. I widen my right foot for a four-iron about an inch, and narrow it an inch for the six-iron in relation to my five-iron stance.

Whatever stance you take, always remember to be comfortable, yet firmly set up over the ball.

THE CLOSED STANCE. This is the power stance used for hitting the long irons and wood shots. In this stance, the right foot is withdrawn from the line of flight, permitting a fuller body turn than the other stances. The ball is positioned about two inches inside the left heel, and the hands are directly over the ball. Weight is evenly distributed between the feet.

THE OPEN STANCE. In the open stance your left foot is withdrawn slightly from the line of flight. This tends to “open” the entire left side toward the hole, particularly the hips, which initiate the downswing. The weight is about 60 per cent on the left side and 40 per cent on the right side. This allows the weight to become more centered on the back-swing rather than on the right side as in fuller shots. Less physical effort is thus required in shifting the weight to the left side on the downswing. In setting up on the ball, position the hands so they are ahead of the ball, which is centered midway between the feet. This stance is recommended for the short irons and all pitch shots and chip shots“.

Beginner golf swing instruction programs know the important role a proper address plays in a winning swing pattern.

Try incorporating Littler and Collett’s expert advice on address positions and their various stances into your next practice session.

Check back soon for more beginner golf swing instruction articles and posts to help quickly improve your golf swing and game!

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The Proper Golf Swing – Your Road to the Proper Golf Swing Begins with a Correct Address!

August 31, 2010 by Leave a Comment

A proper golf swing is the direct result of how well a golfer positions themselves at address.

Many golfers, however, are blind to this obvious fact.

The proper golf swing is truly the culmination of all its preceding procedural steps.

To secure their best chances of executing a proper golf swing, the golfer must perform all the preliminary steps correctly, methodically and consistently. Failure to complete any one of these actions will dramatically reduce the golfer’s chances of swing success.

With some quick, professional instruction on how to correctly approach and address the golf ball, a proper golf swing is easily achievable.

In the book, “The Master Key to Success at Golf” author Leslie King offers some professional direction of his own. He explains the correct approach to addressing the golf ball – helping the golfer to effectively and continuously perform a proper golf swing.

King writes;

“Note what the first-class player does. They take the club from their caddie; mold their hands on the grip to induce the initial feel of the club head and square up the face to the grip before they address the ball. Only then do they sole the club behind the ball with grip and club-face still, of course, square to the intended line of flight.

The positioning of the feet, the actual taking up of the stance, comes LAST in this brief order of procedure in preparation for the playing of the stroke.

The average amateur reverses this procedure. They take their club out of the bag, takes up their stance with the club vaguely grounded behind the ball and then fiddles with the hands and club head in the course of adjusting their grip.

This blurs the mental picture of the intended stroke and frequently builds up tension. It is the reason why so many mediocre players vary their grip on the club from one shot to the next without even realizing it.

Get the club-face and grip squared up BEFORE you place the feet in position.

And having done this in the correct order you will set your feet (for a straightforward shot) parallel to the intended line of flight just wide enough to take the width of your shoulders when using the driver. The weight should run through from the soles to the heels of both feet.

Bend forward from the waist, don’t lean, slightly flexing both knees. A glance will enable you to check that the club-face is lined-up squarely and here I would raise a point about which many people have a wrong conception, especially where iron clubs are concerned.

The front bottom edge, or leading edge of the base of the iron club, is the one with which you line-up, not the top edge. This front bottom edge must be set at right-angles to the proposed line of flight. Do that and the blade will be properly squared up. Many players feel, quite wrongly, that in this position the face of the club is open. Nothing of the sort. It is square, the position you want. Make sure you get it, but NOT by turning your club head AFTER you have settled your grip. If necessary you must move away from the ball and reapply your grip so that with the bottom, or leading, edge squared to the intended line of flight your hands, too, are squared up with the two “V”s pointing to a spot between the chin and the right shoulder.

Your club is now properly set at the back of the ball.”

A proper golf swing is a direct result of a golfer’s positioning at address.

Use King’s advice to help you consistently swing like a pro!

Check back soon for more articles and posts to help you achieve a proper golf swing!

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Golf Swing Mechanics – The “Triple Duty” of the Left Hand

August 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Due to club design, the golfer’s left hand plays a major role in proper golf swing mechanics.

The left hand serves three important functions in the golf swing – positioning the club, maintaining the proper club position during the swing pattern and ensuring the correct clubface angle at impact.

From start to finish, the left hand’s “triple duty” is the key to successful golf swing mechanics.

Unfortunately, many golfers fail to fully understand and appreciate all three capacities of the left hand in successful golf swing mechanics.

In his book, “Golf Can Be an Easy Game”, author Joe Novak offers greater insight into the importance of the left hand in proper golf swing mechanics.

Novak writes;

“Golf clubs vary in length—from the 33-inch length of a putter shaft to the 43-inch length of the driver shaft. All clubs have handles on a graduated scale of lengths.

It is perfectly natural that the player should first place the club behind the ball, and from the placement of the club they will automatically know just where to stand, which is the second move.

However…let me call your attention to the fact that there is a certain peculiarity in the construction of golf clubs. The face of the club, the part that meets the ball, is not parallel with the shaft. It is “hooked in,” that is, it is angled so that it points off to the left a matter of two to five degrees. This exists in all properly designed clubs.

To those unfamiliar with this peculiarity, difficulties can be created at this very step.

However, understanding the hooked-in face construction of the golf club, the player can and will place the club properly to the ball.

The proper way to place a golf club to the ball is to tilt the handle of the club slightly in the direction of the shot. The shaft, in other words, is leaning or tilted slightly forward in the direction of the shot. Because of this forward tilt of the club handle the left hand will be directly over the ball and not over the club head.

Players who fail to understand this peculiarity of golf club construction place the club to the ball so that the shaft is perpendicular—that is, straight up and down, instead of being tilted or leaned forward slightly.

Obviously, only when the shaft is tilted forward slightly is the face of the club square with the line of the shot; and when the shaft is perpendicular, or straight up and down, the face of the club is aimed off to the left of the line of the shot.

In addition to this failure of incorrect aim, there is one other important reaction that arises from the way the club is placed to the ball, and that has to do with the way the left hand fits to the club. If there is any one thing that is important in a golf shot, it is the way in which the left hand works. As a matter of fact, it will be learned that the left hand action is the very crux of every golf shot. Actually, the left hand has a triple duty in a golf shot:

(1) Creating or determining the position of the club will be in during the swing.

(2) Keeping the club in the desired position.

(3) Bringing the club into and through the ball.

Now, the proper position of the left hand on the club is as follows: the hand is more or less on top of the shaft. When it is in the proper position, three knuckles of the left hand are in clear view when the player looks down at his hand and the left thumb is at a point more or less behind the shaft.

All this happens naturally, if the shaft of the club is tilted forward slightly when it is placed to the ball.

By comparison, if the shaft is placed incorrectly, that is, straight up and down, then the left hand will automatically shift to a point in front of the handle instead of on top. Only one knuckle, instead of three, will be in view and the thumb will be right on top of the shaft. This is a weak position of the left hand.

Carried to extremes, the correct position, with the left hand on top, would tend to produce hook shots, whereas, the incorrect position, with the left hand too far in front, would tend to produce slice shots.“

When evaluating your golf swing mechanics – remember the “triple duty” of the left hand.

Use Novak’s professional guidance to correctly position your left hand, helping execute proper golf swing mechanics and successfully swing the golf club!

Check back soon for more tips and posts to help improve your golf swing mechanics!

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Golf Swing Mechanics – A Simple 3 Step Analysis

August 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Examining the golf swing mechanics of a player requires a specific method of analysis.

Professional instructors use a trained eye to evaluate each component of their clients swing pattern and offer valuable feedback and advice.

Truth is – we can all perform a “self-review” of our own golf swing mechanics using a few simple steps. The three core areas of golf swing mechanics which a player should focus their assessment on are weight shift, body usage and footwork.

Many professional instructors consider these three departments of the swing pattern to be the essence of a successful golf swing. Mastering these three golf swing mechanics can be the key to a winning game!

In his book, “Golf Can Be an Easy Game”, author Joe Novak further expands upon these three aspects of golf swing mechanics using, as an example, one of his students he refers to as D.M.

Novak writes about D.M.;

“What brought his handicap from 13 to 3? What gave him the ability to shoot a 66, and ten years later shoot a 67? It was a simple case of synchronizing the two things every golfer must do if they want to play good golf.

First, there must be a basic ability to swing the club correctly, and the correct way to swing it is with a sense of body control. This ability to motivate or swing the club with the body is impossible unless the player has the proper footwork and a proper sense of balancing themselves, so that they have the full, free use of their body. It is from the body that the power flows, so that the distance aspect of a golf shot depends on just how the body is being used.

Second, the player must be able to keep the club in position throughout the swing so that the club will produce the effect for which it was designed, and the ball will fly true and straight towards the objective.

Now, D.M. had (1) the footwork, which gave him the necessary balance so that he could (2) use his body to swing the club, but he was totally lacking in (3) the proper club positioning control so that his shots kept going “hither and yon,” and until he corrected his errors in this respect, his golf game was erratic.

Everybody’s golf game is subject to the following analysis.

First, how well does the player handle their weight; what is their sense of balance; do they know how to work their feet and legs in order to establish the proper sense of balance so that the body can be established as the motivating factor in swinging the club?

Secondly, how well does the player use their body; do they understand that a golf swing is a double-handed, ambidextrous motion in which there is an upswing as well as a downswing—an upswing that is made with the right side of the body and a downswing and follow through that is made with the left side?

Third, if the player has the footwork which will give them this double-handed, ambidextrous motion with their body, do they knew exactly how to use their hands to exert the necessary positioning control over the club so that they can make the ball do just what they want it to do?“

Knowing how to properly assess these three key components of golf swing mechanics is the key to improving your swing.

Use Novak’s three part analysis to help you evaluate your own swing pattern.

Check back soon for more articles and posts to improve golf swing mechanics!

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