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What is the best golf tip ever?


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#1 – Take Your Time

 

It is easy to rush in the golf swing. After all, you are probably trying to hit the ball a significant distance, especially if you are standing on the tee, so it is only natural to swing as hard and fast as possible.

 

However, most of the time, that level of effort is going to do you more harm than good. The best golf swings tend to be those that allow speed to develop gradually, with the club accelerating all the way down until it arrives at impact.

 

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You want to pay particular attention to taking your time when it comes to the transition.

 

Most amateur golfers rush through the transition, quickly shifting from backswing to forward swing as they hurry to hit the ball. Sadly, this is where many players get off track – and there isn’t enough time between the transition and impact to fix what has gone wrong.

 

You can easily create a number of different problems as a result of a faulty transition, with the slice being among the biggest issues to surface when you rush at the top.

 

During your next trip to the driving range, make it a point to take a bit of extra time at the top of your swing. Start by hitting some soft wedge shots while using an extra-slow transition. Just pitching the ball a short distance down the range while keeping your transition slow will help you to feel how important this part of the swing is to your overall performance.

 

As the clubs get longer and the swing gets faster, be sure to keep track of your transition to ensure that it doesn’t speed back up unnecessarily.

 

 
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before you do anything, get your grip right. Most amateur golfers grips are wrong, and that is where their problems begin. For simple, easy to understand golf tips watch the Mike Malaska videos on YouTube. Turned my game around and I'm back to a single digit handicap.

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It's a very good tip and indeed an important facet of the swing.

The swing is made up of a group of coordinated fundamental necessities, one part of this is the take away, the slight pause at the top, and then the downswing.

I agree that a lot of amateurs swing way too fast, and, as you say they think this will create power. This is not at all true.

The power in your swing comes from a few places in sync i.e. the rotation of the body, a full shoulder turn, the legs!, and breaking of the wrists going back and then the reverse breaking and 'releasing' of the wrists at the lower end near ball-strike point. Most high-handicappers have poor wrist control and actions.

 

It is these (and of course other things too as the swing is made up of many small contributing parts) that are very important.  Releasing of the wrists' just before striking the ball contributes HUGELY to club-head speed NOT a fast swing. I speak form experience and aded 20 to 30 yards to my drive and long irons after activating and coordinating my wrists more efficiently.

 

Most amateurs who lack length, poor ability to draw the ball, or hit straight use the wrists and hands way, way too much. Casting is a sure sign of very poor fundamentals in a swing. It can be, for less limber golfers, a reaction to not being able to swing freely and an attempt to get the club back and down in a reasonably full swing-arc.

Another very very common problem with slicing comes at the strike-point and having the hands behind the ball (you can see this as the club shaft either vertical or angled backwards. This usually is caused/initiated by putting the weight on the back-foot/back-side of the body). Its impossible to keep the hands in front of the club-head if you're on the back-foot. The hands must be in front of the ball at strike, the weight must be 'propped' and on the front side of the body.

 

If you rotate the body, face the back of the shoulders to the target at the top of the backswing (for driver and low irons), and very importantly get back to the front side of the body/propped and rolling over onto the edge of your front foot on that front leg before the downswing the shot will improve markedly.

Another way to check that you're on the front side of the body and hands in front of the ball is to analyse the divot i.e. of your hands are behind and your on the back-foot and casting at all the divot will be behind the ball not under and in front of it. You can use a tee in the ground to mark the back edge of the ball - offset the tee a bit away from the ball, then after hitting its easy to check the divot position.

I agree that soft, slowed down, short shots, disregarding distance, is a good way to develop the swing.

It's always a good thing to do before playing any round, along with placing a long club across the back of the shoulders and 'yoking' the hands over it and practicing your swing, rotation. 

 

I would also suggest that to analyse your own swing entirely by yourself is a good recipe for failure in improving. Get good lessons - regularly.  

The issues you talk about in "casting" is often caused by 'overactive' or exaggerated-use of the wrists and hands out of sync to the rotation of the body and shoulder turn.

If one stands behind such a striker and watches the pathway of the club-head it will go back on the inside but on downswing move to the outside on the downswing resulting in hitting outside in = slice, instead of inside out (when I say 'outside' we are talking about a small crossing of the centre-line of the stance at and after strike which then naturally closes again as the swing pulls you through. In 'casting' this 'outside-in' is exaggerated and easily seen.

The hands naturally 'roll over' at the ending of the swing with the right hand (natural stance) rolling over on top.

This can be seen clearly as 'steering the ball with the hands' rather than using the line of the stance and club face pointing to the target. The wrists should 'naturally' break in the backswing as the body rotates and shoulders rotate to their max point at which the wrists MUST naturally break to allow the club to achieve a semi-parallel position at the top of the backswing. Then at the lower end of the downswing just prior to hitting the ball the wrists again break.

 

As for the 'speed of the swing changing' unless you're playing a 'choked shot' (hands down the club to shorten the club length for a reduced distance shot) or a short chip, or chip n run, or sand shot the swing should be exactly the same every time. 

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The best golf teacher I ever had used the time tested technique of a driver head mounted on a piece of heavy rope, not a shaft. 

It seemed ludicrious to me at first but he was patient with me and though I never mastered it, it did reveal the concept of relaxed arms and hitting with the centrifugal energy generated by the clubhead and not the shaft.

 

I wasn't always able to summon that swing out on the course but the days I was able to were fun indeed. 

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On 10/4/2021 at 2:58 PM, Will B Good said:

OMG....yes. That is a no brainer.

 

Seen a few guys do that....ruined their lives.

No No No MrsJ and myself have loads of golfing holidays.

 

One downside is she normally beats me .. unless she falls for… let’s both play off the whites today.. better value…

 

Suppose the big downside is that it costs twice as much 

 

YMMV and it seems it does…

 

ALSO…cut the pun like comments please

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