by Mark Stephens

It’s all here: The crossover of the hands, wrists and forearms through and beyond impact is one of the movements (perhaps the key movement) that defines good ball-strikers and their mechanics.

The upper arms are passive as the right hand and forearm ’snap’ over the left a sure sign of a full, committed release of energy through the ball.

The great Henry Cotton always stressed the importance of ‘educating the hands’, and for me he nailed the essence of the swing. Down the ages, the game’s greatest players have all made the same basic mechanical movement (i.e. a body turn coupled with a wrist hinge); they play with a hand action that both conducts and multiplies the energy created by the body all the way down through the shaft and into the clubhead. It’s no coincidence that the greatest names in golf have all shared a wonderful hand action.

Ben Hogan illustrating golf swing mechanics perhaps better than any other golfer the value of hand/wrist and forearm rotation in maximising the ‘whip’ through the ball.

Britain’s greatest ever golfer, Nick Faldo, is often cited as a ‘mechanical’ player who relies on the ‘big’ muscles in the swing; truth is, Faldo’s hand action has always been his greatest asset.

Good players understand the principle of centrifugal force and they maximise the efficiency with which they rotate their body to create it. More importantly, they translate this force into clubhead speed thanks to this vital component of the swing-hand action.

Modern teaching has increasingly focused on the role of the bigger muscles in the body, which misses the point entirely as far as the weekend golfer is concerned.

Golf is a speed game, not a power game. And you do not create speed with the big muscles, you create speed with the smaller muscles in the hands and forearms. So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to a series of drills to help you improve your hand action.

With practice, they will enhance your ability to create a naturally correct swing that maximises speed.

As your only point of contact with the club, the hands play what I believe to be the most important role of all in the basic development of the swing.

This is something modern teaching has tended to overlook; We hear so much these days about the ‘Big Muscles’ in the body controlling the action and generating power, but all of that, for me, misses one crucial point.

As I mentioned in the introduction, golf is not a power game, it’s a speed game. You do not create speed with the big muscles; you create speed with the smaller ones - the hands, wrists and forearms.

Brought to you by Golf swing mechanics and Brentwood Golf Clubs

Article Source: http://www.bettergolfarticles.com

by Terry Edwards

For most golfers it is the golf slice that gives us the most headaches out on the golf course. But, for many others who hook the golf ball, the problem can be just as frustrating. So, how can you stop hooking the golf ball and begin hitting more fairways? It’s easier than you might think and I’m going to show you how to get immediate results.

Stance - Position the ball in the middle or a little forward in your stance. For most golfers who hook the ball I see them position the ball too far back in their stance. You want to keep the ball in the middle or even with your left heel (if you’re right-handed). Make sure you position your feet toward your target line. Both of the tips of your toes should be even, or a little to the left of the target line. This more open stance will help reduce the chances of hooking the golf ball. Don’t position your left foot more forward in your stance than your right. Keep them even.

Grip - Grip the club with your hands facing straight down. Golfers who hook the ball tend to set up with their right hand facing too far toward the left side. You want to make sure the “V” formation your hands create by holding the golf club is pointing straight up to your nose. This will go a long way in eliminating a golf hook. The other aspect to a proper golf grip that will eliminate hooking the ball is grip strength. Try not to grip the club too firmly. What happens with an overly firm grip is that when you swing your right hand will turn over and come around, automatically causing you to hook the ball. Use a little less strength in your grip and you should immediately start seeing better results.

Weight - You want to be sure that after your backswing your weight is more on your left foot. Many times a golfer will hook the ball due to the majority of their weight being on their right foot, or back foot. By doing that, you can rest assured you will hook the golf ball every time. It creates a closed clubface by forcing you to come around with the club. If you or you see someone else hit a snap-hook, this is what happened. Be conscious of where your weight is when you finish your golf swing and you can correct this problem immediately.

These are just a few simple tips to help in eliminating that dreaded golf hook. By simply going to the driving range and putting these tips into practice you will start to see immediate results that will translate into lower scores out on the course.

Terry Edwards writes golf instruction articles designed to help all golfers lower their scores and have more fun out on the course. You can learn more on how to Lower Your Golf Scores and play better golf by visiting his website.

Article Source: http://www.bettergolfarticles.com

by Bobby Lopez, PGA

Keep in mind that when someone slices the ball, their body is moving faster than their arms and club. A person who hooks the ball too much is doing the opposite. Their hands, arms and club are moving faster than their body. Since most people slice the ball, it is easy to see that it is almost impossible to swing your arms too fast.

The Swing Plane

The swing plane is the angle at which the club travels throughout the swing. There have been numerous theories about which swing plane is the proper or best swing plane. After viewing thousands of golf swings, both amateur and professional, our conclusion is that the swing plane has not been properly described to date.

Hogan, in error, considered the swing plane to be like a plane of glass resting on your shoulders. Most golf instructors today draw a line up the golf shaft and consider that the plane.

I believe that the line drawn up the shaft is an indicator of where you want the club to be at impact, (within about three degrees to allow for the bowing of the shaft).  If you are able to maintain a swing path that is parallel or directly on the original shaft angle at address then your chances of returning the your address position at impact increase.

For example, if you were to swing the golf club very steep to the plane, or original shaft angle at address, then you must make a rapid adjustment to reroute the golf club back to the plane or address angle.  Not impossible to do but far more difficult.

Here is a good example of keeping the golf club traveling on a proper plane. Notice that the address plane and the impact plane are not exactly alike. The golf club is in motion and your thrust toward the target will make the golf club attack the ball from an angle slightly higher than the address position. This is why the toe of your club head should be slightly off the ground at address to accommodate the higher plane at impact.

Impact:

The impact point is simply another location along the swing path. Of course, in mechanical terms, impact is the moment that matters. However, it is not the thing that should matter most in the mind of the golfer. It is more useful to imagine where you are
going in the swing rather than where you are at a given moment. This is the reason we would like to limit your focus on impact.

I’ve found that most great golfers end up in an impact position that is slightly higher than that of the address position. A more accurate measurement is a line drawn from the golf club head through the elbows.

In either case, the most important thing to understand is that the golf club head must be as close as possible to 90 degrees from the path of the golf club in order to hit the ball straight.

Your left wrist should feel slightly bulged at impact. The left leg also straightens at impact.

Immediately after the impact position, the forearms rotate, allowing the golf club to remain square to the follow-through path and allowing the left arm to bend. One might need to feel as though this is happening before the impact area, in order to accomplish the club face passing the hand position through impact.

If these principles seem a bit abstract to you now, do not worry. They will become much clearer as we analyze your swing in more depth with the video camera. Just keep them in mind now and refer back to this section as you proceed through your instruction program.

Faulty Movement

Scooping
Typical Cause: Body too far in front of the arms, falling back on your right foot.
Remedy: Keep the left hand bulged at impact, limit the body movement in the swing, get your upper body to move forward on the follow through.
Get a FREE online golf lesson from the Golf Swami at:
Bobby Lopez, PGA
Bobby Lopez and the G-TEAM
(757) 382-5500
bobbylopez@bobbylopezgolf.com
www.bobbylopezgolf.com
http://golftipsbobbylopez.blogspot.com/

Describe your ball flight to the Golf Swami and he will tell you what you’re doing wrong in your golf swing.

Article Source: http://www.golfarticles.net

Attaining the proper golf swing can be a very elusive goal. The primary reason for this is that to the recreational golfer it is difficult to define what the proper golf swing is.

Have you ever noticed when watching the pros on tv that they all have beautiful golf swings? Yet their swings all look different from one another in someway. So, if all the pros have different yet proper swings, how can we lowly amateurs hope to be able to define a proper swing?

The key is in looking at the basic similarities of the pros swings. Although they are all different their swings have many components in common.

Let’s take a look at some of these components:

The Grip - They do not all have the exact same grip, but they all have a fundamentally sound grip that works best for their swing.
The Back Swing - Again, although they may all be different, their back swings all accomplish the same thing. That is it gets them in position at the top of the back swing to be able to start the forward swing on the proper angle and maintain the correct plane of the swing.
The Forward Swing - In the forward swing all of the pros accomplish the same fundamental thing. The face of the club head returns to where it started at the beginning of the swing, squarely behind the back of the ball. It not only returns there, but it returns with a great deal of force, generated by maintaining all the fundamentals of the proper golf swing.
Balance - You will never see a professional golfer falling off balance when taking his normal golf swing. Maintaining balance throughout the swing is arguably the most critical element that all pros have in common.
I hope these thoughts in someway will help you gain a better perspective on what the proper golf swing is, and more importantly, how you can acquire your own proper swing.

For more free information on the proper golf swing please visit my Squidoo lens here: http://www.squidoo.com/The-Proper-Golf-Swing-1

If you are looking for additional free golf swing advice see this lens: http://www.squidoo.com/golf-swing-advice

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_T_Turner

Once you take up Golf and start to look for a way to improve your Golf swing, you’ll discover numerous different instructional books, videos and tips. Sorting through and testing each one can take some time. After reading the Golf digest article on the stack and tilt swing, I started checking into numerous resources about this type of swing can apply to improving my swing. That is when I came up the instruction DVD set with Plummer and Mike Bennet who are professional golf instructors. They have spent an extensive amount of time developing a modern golf swing called the stack and tilt. If you want to get started there is an instructional DVD set that offers a ton of information on how to implement the stack and tilt into your swing. The video has all of the instructions you will need to apply these techniques to your swing. The DVD includes in-depth analysis, including, Setup, Backswing, Downswing, Follow-thru. The Instructional video will take you through analyzing your shots including your Slice, Hook, Fat shots, thin shots, and, Practice drills.

Is it for me?

The Stack and tilt started to become popular around 2007 when a couple of professional golfers started using this swing. If you’re wondering, does this work? Then check out some of the successful tour pros who use this method, they include Mike Weir, Aaron Baddeley, Dean Wilson, Tommy Armour III, Eric Axley, and others. Many of these tour pros utilize this method to get more consistency and power with their swing. Both amateurs and pros can adopt some of the strategies of the Stack and tilt.

How it works

It may seem contrary to your normal swing, but that is because it is. If you’re searching more consistency and power than you will want to try this swing out. There seem to be some skeptics, but many articles and comments I read seemed to be positive on the stack and tilt method. This is a short summary of how the swing claims to work. Throughout the swing you will want to keep most of your weight on your lead foot. When you address the ball, have 60 percent of your weight on your lead foot, then through the backswing having 80 percent of your weight on the front foot. They also instruct you to move your left shoulder down, not laterally when swinging. Once you practice all of the instructions you should be hitting the ball with greater accuracy and distance.

So if you’re interesting in improving your swing, making better shots, and getting the distance you want, then the DVD instructional video will have everything you need to get yourself started with the stack and tilt swing method. The DVD is comprehensive and organized making it easy to follow and gives gives step-by-step direction.

find more information on the Stack and Tilt and other golf tips, information, golf equipment and more at eGolfEquipment.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Darvey