The Danger of Over Swinging

The Danger of Over Swinging

Without a doubt, the biggest threat to the balance of the average golfer is over swinging. If you swing too hard, it is going to be difficult – or even impossible – to maintain your balance throughout the swing. Countless players in the amateur game swing too hard because they are trying to maximize distance. Not only is this approach going to make it hard to stay on balance, it will probably cost you distance in the end. To hit the ball as far as you can, the best thing you can do is focus on balance while making a controlled swing.

Of course, it can be hard to convince golfers that they don’t need to swing extra hard to hit powerful shots. It seems like adding effort to your swing should lead to better results, even though that isn’t the case in this game. Trying harder in golf is only likely to lead to trouble, as this is a game which is about execution rather than effort.

If you are prone to problems with over swinging, and you think those problems are harming your ability to stay on balance, you have some work to do on the driving range. Teaching yourself to swing softer needs to happen on the range, because this is a difficult change to make when you are out on the course. During your next visit to the driving range, go through the process below to see just how effective your game can be when you swing softer.

Take your seven iron out of the bag and set up a few golf balls to hit during this drill. For your target, you are going to pick out something on the range which is well within the distance limitations of your seven iron. For example, let’s say that you can hit your seven iron 160 yards when you catch it cleanly. If that is the case, you are going to want to aim at a target which is well inside that distance for this drill. Something in the range of 130 – 140 yards would be perfect.

With your target picked out, go ahead and make a good swing with the goal of sending the ball toward that target. You don’t need to make any adjustments to shorten up the length of the shot (like choking down on the grip). Just hit the ball with the understanding that you won’t need to swing very hard in order to cover the full distance to the target.

Once you have hit a few shots to this short target using a soft swing, you are going to notice something that may be surprising. Despite the fact that you are making a soft swing, the ball is sailing right over your target and covering most (or all) of the usual distance you get out of a seven iron. Even though you don’t feel like you are swinging very hard, the ball is still ending up where it would when you take an aggressive rip at the shot. What is happening here? It’s all about efficiency and balance. You are in better control of your balance when you don’t swing as hard, and your swing is more efficient as a result. In the end, you get just as much distance out of your seven iron as you would have when using that wild swing that so frequently threw you off balance.

This is a great drill for those who just can’t seem to kick the habit of swinging too hard. Learn to control your effort level out on the course and your balance is going to improve immediately. And, when your balance improves, your scores are going to come down.