It is a shame that so much of golf instruction is focused on the long game.

Sure, it is important to have a fundamentally-sound golf swing, but your full swing can only take you so far. Experienced golfers know that it is essential to have a quality short game as well, and so we are going to address the short game techniques in this article.

Right off the bat, we can say that you still don’t want to be sliding in the short game, just as you don’t want to be sliding in the long game. Moving your body laterally as you swing is not going to help you produce good shots, so it should be avoided. There will be a little bit of lateral movement in your full swing, as a result of your aggressive rotation, but no lateral movement should be present for most of your short game shots. You should be standing almost perfectly still, only moving the parts of your body which are absolutely necessary for a quality shot.

When putting, you really don’t need to think about things like rotation and lateral movement. You are going to be centered over the ball, rocking your shoulders back and through to move the putter. If you are moving laterally during your stroke, work to eliminate that mistake right away. The putting stroke should be an extremely simple action, as simplicity is the best way to produce consistent results. Golfers who struggle with their consistency on the greens tend to be those who have complicated strokes.

The biggest part of the short game where rotation is going to come into play is sand shots. When hitting out of a greenside bunker, you’ll want to turn your shoulders nicely to build as much speed as you can for the downswing. You need to swing hard to hit good explosion shots, even though you are within short range of the target. Make a big swing – much like you would do when hitting a full swing off the grass – and let the club accelerate into the sand behind the ball. Just like with any other full swing, you don’t want to make an effort to move your body laterally on this type of shot.

While the golf swing can seem pretty complicated at times, it can also be made rather simple. With regard to how your body works in the swing, you should be trying to rotate while maintaining great balance and avoiding any hint of a lateral slide. If you can succeed in this mission, you will almost certainly be happy with the progress that you make on your ball striking. We hope the advice offered in this article will help you move in the right direction in the near future. Good luck!