How To Master The Golf Swing



Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009

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This article goes into the basic golf swing and some exercises you can do to master it.

The golf swing is at heart a relatively simple action, however because most people's understanding of the action is not correct, it remains very difficult. There are a number of ideas you need to master in relation to the swing. The first is that it is a similar motion to throwing a ball underarm side-on. The difference in golf is that you are using two hands. It is very important to understand that the golf swing is not an up and down motion, rather it is a sideways motion. You can think of part of the golf swing a bit like swinging a baseball bat since the shoulders, as in a baseball swing, rotate parallel to the ground. However the head of the club has to reach the ball on the ground, not in the air so the posture is modified accordingly.

The first thing you should learn is the correct stance and posture. To practice this you do not need to be holding a golf club. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with your knees slightly bent. Keeping your back perfectly straight (use your abdominal muscles to help support your back) bend forward at the hips and let your arms hang vertically away from your body and keep your shoulders relaxed. This is the basic stance.

Now we can add the swing motion to this stance, again you can work on this without the club. Adopt the stance previously described and this time bring your palms together. Now start to rotate your shoulders ensuring they are parallel to the ground. You should keep rotating until your hands and arms are pointing to the back. As you rotate your shoulders you will also notice your hips rotating as well. You will feel your weight transfer to the heel on the back foot This is the basic back swing. To practice the forward swing just reverse the process and rotate your shoulders until your hands and arms face the front. Notice your weight transfers to the heel of the front foot. Keep practicing this swing motion until you are comfortable with the rotation of the body in the absence of any separate arm swing.

Once you are comfortable with this motion you can practice it holding a club. On the backswing this time, let your hands reach shoulder level as you get to the end of the shoulder rotation. The same is true for the forward swing, let you hands rise up to around shoulder level.

To hold the club you should grasp the shaft with your right hand as if you were shaking hands. This is the top hand on the club. The club should rest diagonally over the fingers and palm. You should then wrap your fingers gently around the club. The most common method of adding the bottom hand is to place the center of the palm on top of the thumb of the top hand. You then overlap the little finger on the bottom hand over the forefinger on the top hand.

Hopefully this article has given some insight into the basic golf swing. Future articles will touch on more exercises and how to use the wrists.

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Patrick Attlee has been writing articles and blogging about golf for a number of years. His latest passion is for visco elastic foam mattress technology and you can check out his latest site at www.visco-elastic-foam-mattress.com
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