There are many swing basics for you to follow when learning how to play or improve your golf swing.
However, having too many thoughts and points to achieve when you play will result in you achieving none of them. Work on following these four swing basics and doing these well and you will notice a big improvement in your game.
If you watch how today’s leading Tour Players play, you will notice that there are certain characteristics and swing basics that they all have. The first of these is how they hold the golf club. All of the best players display a similar hand position whether they interlock or overlap their grip. To achieve this, place your left hand on to the handle as you usually would (for right handed golfers). Now take a coin and hold it between your left thumb and index finger. This is the position that your left thumb should be in, right next to your hand. Now rotate the coin until it is over the centre of the handle and the coin is pointing up to your right shoulder. This is the correct left hand position. Now place your right hand on to the club so that the 'scooped' out part of your palm sits on top of your left thumb. Again, the coin test would help here in that you should be able to hold a coin between your right thumb and index finger and this should point up to your right shoulder. You can then either interlock or overlap your right little finger with your left index finger and make sure that you hold the handle with a pressure of 4 out of a maximum of 10.
The second swing basic that we can notice from all of today’s leading players is the pre-shot routine that they use to get into the correct set up position to swing from. Before you set up, stand directly behind the ball and target and imagine a line from the target to the ball. Pick a spot four to six inches in front of the ball on this line and now aim your club face at this point. Put your feet together as you do this and get your feet in line with the club face as it is aiming at the point you picked out. Now split your feet left and right to take your stance up and you are now correctly aligned to play your shot at the target.
The third swing basic to work on is that of rotating your shoulders during your backswing. Today’s leading players all make a 90 degree shoulder or upper body rotation to the right during their backswing to help them generate power and also the correct movement in the club head during the swing. This allows them to swing back towards the ball with maximum club head speed to produce distance and allows them to swing the club head along the target line to achieve accuracy with their golf shots. Work on rotating your shoulders and upper body 90 degrees to the right of their initial start position, during your backswing.
The final swing basic to achieve would be at impact. Impact is crucial as it is this position that dictates what happens to the golf ball. All of today’s leading players display a 'power line' at impact whereby their left arm is directly in front of the left side of their torso, their hands are in front of their left thigh and the shaft of the club is vertically straight and in front of their left leg, with approximately 75% of their weight on their left leg and their pelvis rotated towards the target. This impact position produces powerful shots of maximum distance and allows the club head to swing along the target line producing accuracy as well.
Work on achieving these four swing basics and you will notice an improvement in your play, an increase in distance, better consistency with your shots and more accuracy.
