Golf Instruction

1. Putting 

…putting recommendations, based on the author’s experience.  

Keep the wrists fixed in relation to the arms, and the arms fixed in relation to each other.  The shoulders and torso provide a hinge to create movement.  

Twist the torso in the forward stroke direction at address until the spine is wound up around half of the way it can go.  This will move the shoulders and bend the trailing elbow more.  This could induce you to move the hands toward the target but you don’t need to allow that.  Hands toward the target at address de-lofts the club, and potentially requires adjustment of the club head.  This pre-load of the torso reduces or eliminates quitting on the shot, and makes distance control easier.  

Don’t cock the wrists on the backswing. 

It usually helps to keep the wrists cocked downward.

Set up with the ball on the target line under the eyes.

Try to minimize the lag of the putter in relation to the arms on the forward stroke.  If your back can take it, lean over far enough to keep the face from opening or closing during the stroke.

Use a PuttStraight device as shown on this website.

You can try letting your head turn with your torso to reduce the amount of work your brain does.  This is easy to do when the eyes follow the clubhead, as described below.  

To monitor your arc, watch the clubhead during the stroke. This is easier to do if your head turns with your torso.  Watching the club head during the stroke will provide cues to your nervous system and keep the stroke smooth.  It helps to reduce “looking up.”  It also shows you the path and length of your stroke, for control and correction.  Swing back and forth watching and smoothing the stroke, then close your eyes while continuing the stroke so as to memorize the feeling.  Make sure the hips and legs don’t move during the stroke. 

Practice aiming with training aids.  On a floor with perpendicular lines, place the putter head on a target line and the club face exactly behind a perpendicular line.  Follow the target line with your eyes from the club face to the end of the line and back to the club face.  Do it again with each eye separately, closing the other eye.  Notice also how the aim of the club face may appear different with each eye.  Two eyes, even if they see differently, might be better than one when you have to aim without assistance from lines.

Use the same brand of ball on a regular basis, or use different brands of balls tested for bounce height so they all bounce to the same height.  Test balls by dropping them (the reference ball and the tested ball next to each other) on the floor from the same height at the same time.  Keep a reference ball for this purpose.  During practice rounds, you can use your favorite ball for putting and chipping but various other balls for longer shots.  

I have noticed that it is easier to fine control distance by adjusting the force applied during the forward stroke, rather than adjusting the backswing length.  On a repeat putt during practice, I almost always get closer to the hole when I adjust the hardness of the stroke but not always when I adjust the backswing length.  Backswing length seems to be a gross adjustment for big changes in distance, unless it is done very incrementally; swing force or acceleration is a fine adjustment for distance.  When you are getting ready to make a putt on the course, take a practice stroke with your best guess at the needed backswing length and forward speed.  Guess if the clubhead speed seems good.  If it seems too fast or slow, make another stroke with a correction to the forward acceleration while reusing the same backswing length.  Repeat until the practice speed seems right.  Then hit the putt.  After you get very good, you may be able to make the a good putt without the pre-swings.  On the other hand, you can try adjusting just the backswing length while keeping acceleration the same, because it might work for you.

For more details on putting direction, go to this page.

2. The Swing (not putting)

—-An advanced principle: do not fight the ground.  Create your swing to minimize lateral ground forces where possible—

Swing Basics from the Beginning

1. Learn the grip.  Use a form fitting grip for speed learning.

2. At address, set the arms about 40 degrees out from the torso.

3. Before each swing, touch lightly the ground or mat with the sole of the club, by lowering the arms and club from a club-in-the-air (hovering) position.

4. Learn tangency and the variations from tangency of the swing path to the target line:  Outside-in, inside-out, tangent, heel contact, toe contact.

5.  Proper bending of the right wrist: an exercise.  With both hands on the grip, cock the right (trailing) wrist fully while at address.  Keep the arms near address position.   The club head should go back on the proper swing path, tangent to the line.   Note that when the right wrist is fully bent, it is nearly prevented from opening and closing the club face, and the club shaft is nearly 90 degrees from the left arm, depending on you wrist flexibility.  This wrist position is recommended for use at the top of the swing and for most of the downswing.  Try it out by fully bending the trailing wrist at address, then holding the wrist position while moving the hands to the top of the swing.  This position makes it easier to get the face square at impact.

As an exercise, come to a complete stop at the top.  Then start the downswing with the shoulders and arms.  The hips will turn automatically, as it is nearly impossible to not turn the hips on the downswing.  The hips should not start before the shoulders.  If they do start before the shoulders, something else is wrong with your swing, such as moving the hips to the trailing side on the backswing.  

At impact, the hands should be forward enough so that the leading arm is forward enough to form a straight line with the club, or a little more forward.  Pros say this position gives greater accuracy.  

Here is a great exercise:  Pose in the impact position, hips turned, hands forward and up, trailing elbow still bent, then get the arms, shoulders, and club moving back and forth through impact.  Gradually lengthen the swing to the top of the backswing.  Make sure the line is right at the start of the exerise, using the flashlight illumination if necessary. 

Do and Don’ts:    

Keep the left (lead arm) straight until after impact.

1. Natural Sway.  LET your body move forward on the backswing and then backward on the downswing, then forward on the followthrough.  This is not left and right. Forward here means the direction you face at address.  “Soft ankles” may help with this.  Do not prevent yourself from moving forward on the backswing.  You might be tempted to push down with your toes to prevent forward movement on the backswing, but this is dangerous, causing toe strikes.  

The theory is that counter-motion is a natural reaction to swinging a club or any weight around you, and if you resist this motion you will make it hard or impossible to get your main body mass back to hitting position by impact, so that you will be forced to compensate by swinging outward and/or downward with the arms to avoid a mis-hit.  Speed of the swing makes no difference on the amount of motion. The variance in the motion results from the mass of the club and the incline of your swing plane.  Longer clubs and flatter swing planes cause more movement.  

Rory McIlroy and many others have this sway movement.  You can see it in videos.   The head moves forward on the backswing, backward on the downswing, and forward again on the followthrough (very quickly on the downswing so it is a little hard to see).  It is more prominent with the longer clubs because of the flatter swing planes.

2. Don’t “move off the ball” (to the trailing side) on the backswing.  Moving to the trailing side again makes it very difficult to get back into the hitting position, requiring a lot of unnecessary leg work and timing.  If you don’t move off the ball, less physical effort and physical coordination is required, so the swing is easier to produce and thus more consistent.  To learn to stay centered, put your feet together, then pose in various positions of the swing, keeping the weight on each foot the same.  

3.  Hover (hold the clubhead in the air) a tiny bit so the start of the backswing is only on the line and not up too much.  Ideally, the backswing starts tangent to the target line.  (In general.  If you hit up on a drive, you need to impact the ball a little from the inside.  If you hit down on a shot, you need to impact a tiny bit from the outside.)  Use slow motion and short swings to assure this.  Back and forth motion is useful here as well, gradually lengthening the swing.  Don’t open the club face on the backswing.  Don’t cock the wrists upward.  Try cocking the wrists in the transition from backswing to downswing. 

4.  Pose in positions.  Very slowly move between positions. 

  

3. Exercise and Power.

1. Don’t do low rep exercises (one to five repetitions) at maximum weight.  Do more reps than five, unless you have a professional trainer.  You get stronger doing fewer reps but you could get too strong too quickly.  You could endanger your tendons and ligaments, as they usually do not strengthen as fast as muscles, and they could get overpowered and damaged by excessive muscle force.  You will get stronger with higher rep counts, perhaps not as quickly, and also have the advantage of increased blood flow, which is what the tendons and ligaments especially need for growth.

2.  POWER and Clubhead speed.  There are two main groups of muscles to strengthen for increased clubhead speed:  the ones that move the arms in the downswing, and the ones that uncock the wrists in the downswing.  Some folks may need torso muscle strengthening too.

 There are various ways to do these but it is always resistance opposing the downswing movement.   Both arms at the same time is the best way, so as to place realistic force on the torso.   You will feel muscles throughout your body doing work, but mainly the muscles that move the arms and/or wrists.   On a static exercise, hold for at least 20 seconds.   The advantage of a weight machine is that you know how hard you are working and how much your strength is improving.  It is interesting that strength and club head speed are not proportional to each other.  To increase your clubhead speed by 1.4 times, you will need to double your strength.  Generally, the speed is increased a little less than half of the increase in strength.