If you were to spend a day working as a golf pro, you would quickly learn one thing – most golfers are concerned first and foremost with increasing their distance.

Despite the fact that there are many other aspects of the game that are more important than raw power, the average golfer is simply obsessed with hitting the ball as far as possible. An experienced pro will have given countless lessons where the goal is to generate more power.

Do you count yourself among the many golfers who would love to hit the ball a bit farther? If you do, this article is going to offer a valuable tip to help move you in the right direction. As you may already know, producing power in golf largely comes down to executing your technique perfectly. Sure, it helps to be strong and fit, but you can’t overpower a golf ball and expect good results. This is a game which is all about technique, so fine-tuning your mechanics is the right place to start when in search of extra yards.

The portion of your technique which will be addressed in this article is the behavior of your shoulders. In many ways, the shoulders are the engine of the golf swing, as they need to turn back and through properly if you are going to generate power. Unfortunately, it is easy to go wrong with the use of your shoulders, and the speed of your swing will suffer as a result of those mistakes. Many golfers are surprised to find just how much swing speed they can pick up simply by ironing out their mechanics. A swing free from mechanical errors will work efficiently, and that efficiency is going to generate impressive speed through the hitting area.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.

The Mistake in Question

There are plenty of ways to allow power to ‘leak’ out of your golf swing. Even a relatively small mistake can lead to a significant loss in power, which is part of what makes golf such a frustrating and challenging game. You don’t necessarily need to make big mistakes in order to suffer the consequences – making a small mistake at the wrong time can dramatically change the types of shots you are able to produce.

In this article, we are going to focus on the mistake of allowing your shoulders to open to the target line prematurely in the downswing. Your shoulders should be a main source of power as you make your swing, but that isn’t going to be possible if you fly open on the way down. You need to make sure that your shoulders stay back, remaining in a closed position for long enough to allow the swing to ramp up toward impact. When you open your shoulders early, you’ll be giving away a big portion of your potential power, and your shots are going to fall short of their potential as a result.

As you might have guessed by now, the mistake of opening the shoulders prematurely in the downswing is a problem that is quite common throughout the amateur game. How can you tell if you are making this mistake? Check out the points below.

• You are hitting a slice. This is the classic giveaway that your shoulders are opening too soon. As you transition from the backswing to the downswing, your goal is to swing the club down into the slot on a great path to make solid contact with the ball. Approaching the ball slightly from the inside is generally a good plan, as this will allow you to produce a powerful strike time after time. However, if your shoulders are spinning open at the top, you will wind up moving the club ‘over the top’, and you will end up swinging down from the outside. This mistake is more than likely going to produce a slice. If you are dealing with a persistent slice and you just can’t seem to get your ball flight straightened out, working on the position of your shoulders as you swing down will be a wise move. Later in this article, we will talk about how you can work on improving your performance in this area.
• You lack distance as compared to your playing partners. It usually isn’t a good idea to compare your game too closely to that of your playing partners. After all, each golfer is different, and every player has his or her strengths and weaknesses. However, you may be able to use your playing partners as a general guide for how far you should be able to hit the ball. For instance, if there is someone in your group who is of a similar age and physical condition as yourself, yet they consistently hit the ball much farther, something is allowing them to produce that extra distance. Are they more efficient from the top of the swing down through impact? It may be that the other player is doing a good job of keeping his or her shoulders closed on the way down, while you are flying open early. Rather than getting frustrated that you keep being outdriven by the others in your group, use this as a learning opportunity to spot what they are doing right, and what you are doing wrong.
• Your swing is steep. When hitting an iron shot, it is good to hit down through the ball slightly. This will help you impart backspin on your shots, and it should help the ball climb nicely up into the sky. However, it is possible to take it too far on this point. If you wind up hitting down severely, you’ll start to struggle to strike the ball cleanly, and your shots will balloon up into the air and fall short of the target. A steep swing can be caused by a number of mistakes, and one of them is letting your shoulders open up too soon. When you find that you are digging down deep into the turf time after time, it is worth considering the possibility that your shoulders are causing a problem.

Letting your shoulders swing quickly open from the top of the swing is a costly mistake, to be sure. While you do need to rotate your body toward the target in order to hit powerful, accurate golf shots, there is a process that needs to be followed in order to have success. You will need to unwind your lower body first, letting it get out in front of the swing to lead the way and generate power. If you can hold your shoulders back and closed while the lower body gets started, your potential for creating speed in the swing is going to increase dramatically.

Getting in Position

At this point, we need to actually take a step back to make sure you are setting yourself up for a successful downswing. If you don’t do things correctly in the backswing, you won’t really have a chance to succeed once the club begins to move forward. So, in this section, we are going to talk about how you can find a good position at the top of your golf swing. If you are able to find the same solid position over and over again at the top, you will stand a much better chance to produce a powerful, accurate swing on the way down.

The tips listed below should point you in the right direction while trying to improve the quality of your backswing.

• Build on a solid base. Yes, we are talking mostly about the rotation of your shoulders in this article. However, your lower body always plays an important role in the golf swing, so we can’t avoid mentioning it here. As you swing up to the top of the backswing, it is crucial that you maintain a stable and steady lower body. Using a strong base is going to support your swing and make it much easier for you to achieve a full turn. Sadly, countless amateur golfers fail to respect the importance of the lower body in the swing. If you stand without much flex in your knees, or you let your legs sway from side to side, it’s going to be hard to use your shoulders properly. Work first on the performance of your lower body and then move on to your shoulder turn once your legs are doing their job.
• Make a complete shoulder turn. One of the tricky things that comes up when talking about shoulder turn is the fact that a good turn is different for every player. What would be a full turn for one golfer might not be all the way to the potential of another. Don’t worry about measuring your turn as compared to other players – just make sure you are getting the best out of what you can do. A full turn can be defined as one where you rotate as far back as you can without losing balance or forcing the issue. If you feel like you are straining at the top of your swing, you are probably pushing it a bit too far. Commonly, golfers will wind up cutting their backswing short because they are in a rush to start the downswing. Don’t lose patience at the top of your swing, as you will pay a big price in the end for trying to rush. Give yourself the proper amount of time to finish your turn and only start down toward the ball when you are sure your turn back has been completed.
• Keep the right arm tight. You can get into trouble in your backswing if you let your right arm get too far up and away from your body. While you do want to get plenty of extension in your backswing, you should find that extension by keeping your left arm almost completely straight as your swing back. As for the right arm, you should keep it in closer to your body, with the right elbow pointing down toward the ground at the top. This is an important position to find because it is going to help you swing the club down on the right path. With your right arm in tight, you can simply drop that right arm into the downswing and the club should follow along nicely. If the right arm were to be high and away from your body, on the other hand, it would be tough to find a good path down toward impact. While making some practice swings, pause your swing at the top and check the position of your right arm. If it’s getting up and away from your body too far, work on improving this part of your technique before spending time on other pieces.

Every move you make in the golf swing builds on the move you made previously. If you fail to make a quality backswing, it is going to be almost impossible to make a quality downswing. You don’t want to make this game harder than it already is by getting out of position at the top. Once you learn how to find the right position at the top of the backswing, keeping your shoulders closed early in the downswing may wind up to be an easy task.

Watch the Ball for Proof

Unless you are a highly experienced golfer, or even a golf teacher, you may have a hard time dissecting your own performance. Even if you watch a recording of your swing on video, it may be tough to figure out how well you are doing with regard to the use of your shoulders. Are you making a good turn going back? Are you holding your shoulders closed long enough as the downswing gets started? These are judgement calls in many ways, so it can be difficult to determine how to evaluate your technique.

Fortunately, there is one sure-fire way to check on the way your golf swing is working – watch the ball fly. In golf, the flight of your ball will tell you everything you need to know about the swing you produced. If you are getting the right kind of flight when the ball leaves your club, you can feel confident that your swing is in good condition. If not, something is going wrong, and you’ll have to do some work to get on track.

With regard to keeping your shoulders closed, what you want to watch for specifically is the starting line for your shots. If the ball is starting a bit to the right of the target, or even directly at the target, it’s very likely that you are using your shoulders effectively. However, if you are pulling the ball to the left of your intended target with regularity, opening your shoulders early may be a problem. As we stated earlier, opening your shoulders prematurely can lead to an over-the-top swing, which is going to cause the ball to start to the left of where you intended.

It is important to note that you don’t necessarily need to be hitting a draw in order to feel like you are doing a good job with your shoulders. Sure, you might wind up hitting a draw, but don’t judge your success or failure on that criterion alone. You need to understand that the shape of your shots is determined by the relationship between your swing path and your face angle at impact. The swing path is what is going to determine the initial path of the ball as it leaves the club, which is what we were talking about above. From there, it will be a matter of face angle to determine which way the ball is going to curve.

Let’s walk through a quick explanation for clarity’s sake. Imagine that you are making solid golf swings which include a powerful shoulder turn, and you are doing a good job of holding your shoulders closed during the early stages of the downswing. This is going to lead to an inside-out delivery of the club through the hitting area, and the ball should start either on the target line or a little to the right. However, at impact, you are holding your hands off a bit, rather than letting them release through the ball. That means the face is going to hang open, and you will almost certainly hit a fade as opposed to a draw. Does that mean you are failing with your shoulders? Of course not. Your shoulders are working properly, and you’ll need to change the way your hands are working at impact if you want to turn the ball over.

You can get into the habit of watching your ball flight for evidence of how your swing is working, no matter which part of your swing is in question. Always trust the ball flight over what you feel, as the ball is not going to lie. Of course, you will need to factor in conditions when judging your performance, as a strong wind or another outside element could cause the ball to do something unusual. As a good rule of thumb, never draw strong conclusions from one single shot. Instead, look for patterns and use those to evaluate your play.

Other Important Power Factors

To wind down our article, we want to touch on some other key factors that play into how far you are able to hit the ball. Keeping your shoulders closed early in the downswing will help, to be sure, but that is not enough on its own. Review the list of points below to discover some other elements in your swing that contribute to power overall.

• Using the right equipment. Make no mistake – equipment matters in golf. Is it going to turn you from a short hitter into a long hitter? No, probably not. However, it can help you to tack on a few extra yards when hitting a driver, or even when hitting an iron shot. As you look for equipment, be sure to focus on the shaft of the clubs that you are purchasing. The shaft is the engine of the golf club and is just as important as the club head in terms of the shots you’ll be able to produce. You don’t need to spend top dollar in order to play at a high level, but you do need to use clubs which are a good fit for your skills.
• Committing to the swing. One of the best things you can do for your overall power level is simply to commit to your shots and swing all the way through to the finish. Many golfers doubt their swing on the way down toward the ball, and they wind up losing speed as a result. Remember, there really isn’t anything you can do while swinging down to save your swing – it’s too late to make any useful corrections when the downswing is already underway. So, with that in mind, you might as well turn it loose and produce as much speed through the ball as possible.
• Stay balanced. It is easy to overlook balance when working on your golf swing, as it seems like a rather basic fundamental best left for beginners. However, golfers of all skill levels would be wise to work on balance consistently. When you are balanced, you’ll be better able to swing at a high rate of speed, since you won’t be fighting to hold your body in its position. Key on balance in practice and remember to focus on this fundamental on the course, as well.

If you can keep your shoulders closed as your downswing gets started, building speed in your swing should become much easier. Plan on spending some practice time on this point during upcoming range sessions so you can see improvement on the course down the line. Good luck!

One of the tricky components of any backswing move is to try and generate as much power as you can in the coiling up process. So as I wind my body up in the backswing, I'm turning my shoulders while I'm trying to resist with my hips. I'm actually creating power by doing that. It's what we call the X angle, the X factor in a backswing. So we turn back, my hips don't move and my shoulders do and I create a big angle. The more angle effectively the more power I'm storing up. If when I turn back my hips follow, there's no X factor, there's no X angle or very little, I don't have much power. Likewise, if I don't make a big backswing shoulder turn, no power either. So a big turn here with a lesser turn here and I'm creating lots of power. If we look at this from down the line now and I wind up and create my power, it's now very important that I don't lose my power in the first movements of my downswing. So if I turn to the top and then spin my shoulders, I've now lost my angle to accelerate into the ball. I can't accelerate quite fast enough.

So what I want you to feel like you're trying to do to generate maximum power and to help you approach the ball from the inside line to draw your longest shots is to try and maintain a fairly closed shoulder position in your downswing. Turning back to the top, all the way to here, and then move back into the ball, but without unwinding my shoulders, so I'm nearly going to hit the ball, my shoulder still quite closed. I can then spin my shoulder into an open position last minute and generate maximum acceleration just as I hit the ball. I must stress when you hit the golf ball, your shoulders will be open and certainly should be open along with your hips. But it's about maintaining a closed position for a bit longer to store your power for longer. So the normal swing from here, if I spin my shoulder open there, I've lost power, come outside the line and I'm going to slice the golf ball. If at the top I hold a nice closed or square position with my shoulders for longer, I then spin open at the bottom half, generating more power. So the first thing is create the X angle and the backswing of turning shoulders against hips and then hold the X angle into the downswing before you unleash it and that's a really good way of creating longer, straighter and maybe even drawing the ball off the tee.