Golf: Breaking Down The Golf Swing

When I wrote about fault no.1 I mentioned the 9 parts of the golf swing. The golf swing is a continuous motion. For beginning golfers, it is good to understand each part of the golf swing. Even players who have played for a while can benefit from this knowledge. In order to play to the best of your ability, is it necessary to get each part exactly right? Absolutely not. As I have written many times, the swing is not the thing. Your pre-swing actions, before grabbing a club or at the address position, probably affect your shot more. Still, it is helpful to understand the elements of a good golf swing. It is also beneficial to learn the best ways to accomplish them. It is also good to know some of the pitfalls to avoid when executing the golf swing. Without further ado, here is the golf swing

Step 1. Starting the golf swing. The main goal here is to start the club low to the ground for the first 12 to 18 inches of the golf swing. Arnold Palmer thought this was the most important part of the golf swing. He felt if you did this, you could not make a bad swing. The easiest drill I know to get the right feel is to place a large ball behind your club at address. A soccer or volleyball will do. As you start your swing, just push the ball away. This will give you a great feel for keeping the clubhead low to the ground. You will hear a lot about the one-piece takeaway with everything starting at once. Some of that is even being questioned today. I would not worry about the one-piece takeaway. Simply keep the club low to the ground and begin turning your body.

Step 2. Getting the club shaft parallel to the ground. Once the shaft is parallel to the ground, you want to check the position of the clubhead. The clubhead should be pointing in a direction that is parallel to the ground. If you have closed the clubhead to your intended line, then the clubhead will be pointing toward the ground. If you have fanned open the clubhead, then it will be pointing toward the sky. The easiest way to see this is to lay a club on the ground with a tee behind the clubhead to keep the club head from falling over. Take your stance with the middle of your feet even with and perpendicular to the club shaft. Take your swing, and when your club shaft gets parallel to the ground, it should be a perfect match. There will be some players that have a slightly closed clubface at this point in the swing. That is not a bad position and can help in preventing a hook. You will never see anyone really fan open the clubhead at this point in the swing. Even Hogan, whose clubhead was wide open at the top of the swing, was still square at this point in the swing.

Step 3. The left arm is parallel to the ground. At this point in the swing, the club shaft should be perpendicular to the ground. The left arm and the club shaft should form an L. This is where the wrists should be almost fully cocked. Everyone uses their wrists differently, but if the wrists are fully cocked at this point in the swing, then I think you can avoid getting into that wrist-flipping action at the top of the swing. The cocking of the wrists is one of the most interesting subjects of the golf swing, but if you want to increase your distance, getting them fully cocked at this point in the swing will help. To do this, the club shaft needs to be perpendicular to the ground at this point in the swing.

Step 4. The top of the backswing. The key positions here are that the left shoulder should be under your chin. This will give you a 90-degree shoulder turn. Your hips should turn 45 degrees. You should feel that your weight is almost all on the inside part of the right foot. These are guidelines. My view is the more you can turn your hips, the better off your body will be. At this point, your club shaft should be pointing on a line that is parallel to the target or right of the target. Some touring pros may have their shaft pointing left of the target, but they are big and strong. For the average player, this position will just lead to short, crooked shots.

Step 5. Starting down. This is where the swing starts to get tricky. A lot of people will refer to this as the transition. Another observation is that the downswing starts before the backswing is fully completed. If you watch videos of some of the great golf swings or the golf swings of tour players, this is very true. However, thinking about it usually leads to disaster. I think you need to do two things at this point in the golf swing. You must be aware of or feel the change in direction of the golf swing. This will cause a slight pause at the top. It has to happen because nothing can change directions without stopping first. This is a basic law of physics. You want to feel the pause, not consciously do it. Then your next thought should be to get your weight on your left foot before starting down. It is not important how you do it, just do it. You want to try and feel that your arms and hands are starting down slowly from that paused position.

Step 6. Your left arm is parallel to the ground and the club shaft is perpendicular to the ground. The exact same position when your left arm is parallel to the ground on the backswing. The one big difference is that things are happening so fast in the swing at this point you can’t consciously control it. This is where you have to begin to let it go. You have to trust your swing at this point and finish the job. This is why starting down slowly is so important. This is where you can maintain your wrist cock as you start down. If you can do that, the wrists will still be cocked when the arm is parallel to the ground.

Step 7. Impact. The moment of truth. Your body is unwinding. The key point of impact is that your belly button has to be past the ball at this point. Your head is still just above or slightly behind the ball. This is where a lot of people begin to come up and out of the shot. You must stay down and finish the job.

Step 8. The straightening of the right arm. This straightening of the right arm is a result of staying with the shot. You have to be able to resist the temptation to look up to see where the ball is going. A great feeling is that your right shoulder is coming around and literally forcing your head up and out of the way.

Step 9. Finishing the swing. A lot of people like to call this the follow-through. I prefer finishing the swing because that is what you are doing. The straightening of the right arm and finishing the swing in a nice balanced way are very important parts of the swing, even though they happen after the ball has been struck. You want to be aware of these parts of the swing because it stops you from hitting at the ball. You want to be able to hit through the ball. If you are aware of the last two steps of the golf swing, your swing will accelerate through the hitting area and not be slowing down.

This is essentially the golf swing. You do not have to perform each part of the swing perfectly or exactly as it has been described here. Having an idea of what is required will at least help you in developing a style that will be effective for your game. Having an effective sound golf swing will help improve your game. Getting a fairly good golf swing can help, but there is still the short game and putting, which can really drive you nuts if you let it. Hit ’em straight.