Better Golf Swing

How to improve your golf - this is the question in every golfer’s mind, whether amateur or professional. The difference is that many amateurs look for silver bullets, while the successful pros know that only hard work develops success. For example, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh spend 50 to 80 hours every week improving every aspect of their game. And off season? Tiger Woods spends plenty of time in the gym, keeping his muscles in good condition for the next golf season. What about you - how far are you willing to go to improve your golf?

If you are a weekend golfer with the will to put in the effort, here are 8 tips to lower your handicap:

1. How To Improve Golf Swing Power

Do you know why Tiger Woods can drive his ball 350 yards? Because he is one of the fittest golfers around. Have you seen his pictures? Do you see any flab on him?

Do some golf fitness training. If you can’t afford a dedicated golf fitness program, then do some simple calisthenics. Basically push-ups, squats and lunges. These are all simple, free exercises which rely on your own bodyweight. 10 reps, once every morning, will only take you 5 to 10 minutes. If you are the typical weekend golfer, this basic fitness routine will easily add 10 yards to your drive.

If you have a bit of spare cash, learn pilates. Pilates is excellent for developing your core strength. A strong core will let you swing the club faster and really boost your golf swing speed.

Don’t you want to see the look on your golfing foursome’s faces when you suddenly drive the ball an extra 30 yards?

2. How To Improve Golf Flexibility

Your backswing is one of the keys to a powerful drive. So, how much wind-up can you give to your backswing? Can you get the club-head up to the 9 o’clock position? The 10 o’clock position? Higher? Or do you struggle just to reach 8 o’clock?

In other words, to drive the golf ball farther, you need more backswing. To get more backswing, you need more flexibility.

Getting more flexibility is a matter of loosening your tight muscles, tendons and ligaments with flexibility exercises. For golf, you especially want to target your lower back, shoulders and hamstrings. If you don’t know any exercises, just hit your local library. Check out the books on flexibility exercises. Especially look up the Rotators stretch for your hamstrings, and the Cats Up and Cats Down stretches for your lower back. Also look up the Trunk Rotation and Spinal Twists exercises.

3. How To Improve Golf Swing Timing

Timing is one of the most important elements of your golf swing. Without it, no amount of strength can drive your ball very far. The simplest way to improve your golf swing timing is just to hit the ball more often. Your best friends here are the second-hand balls that you can pick up cheap at Amazon or Ebay. Just swing your golf club and hit as many balls as you possibly can. Don’t get hung up on your poor shots. Eventually, your body will figure out the correct timing on its own.

On the other hand, some people find that they learn faster using the Medicus trainer. This is actually a special training club with special hinged joints on the shaft. If you swing the club wrongly, it will collapse. Some golfers find that this extra feedback helps them develop correct timing faster. But be warned that not everyone finds it useful.

4. How To Improve Golf Swing Technique

Depending on which golf pro you talk to, golf swing technique is either the most over-rated idea in golf or the most important idea in golf. Proponents of the natural golf swing would say that the only way to develop the perfect golf swing is to swing the club and hit the ball more often. Don’t over-think things and just let your body figure out things on its own. They say that there is no single correct way to swing the golf club. As evidence they point to the many top golfers and how all of them have different styles of playing golf.

Opposing them are the golf analysts and teaching pros who say that the best players use either the one-plane swing or the two-plane swing. One of the most famous two-plane swingers is Greg Norman, while the most famous one-plane swinger is Vijay Singh. Tiger Woods seems to switch between the two, having re-invented his golf swing several times.

At the end of the day, most weekend golfers don’t have much choice. If they learn to play golf on their own, they have no choice but to use the natural swing. If they learn from a pro, they’ll use whichever technique their golf trainer teaches them.

Regardless of how you swing the club, there is only one way to improve your golf swing technique. And that is to get lots of practice. Of course, using a digicam can be helpful. Just capture all your practice sessions on video and play it back later. Look at what you did wrong and fix it in your next practice session. If you can’t figure out what went wrong or what the fix is, show your club pro the video and ask him for help.

5. How To Improve Golf Impact Position

The moment of truth for your golf swing technique comes a impact - when the clubhead strikes the ball. The clubhead needs to hit the ball square on at the same time you generate maximum power in your swing. The correct weight shift and posture is essential.

Correct impact means your golf ball sails towards your target straight and true. Strike the ball with your clubface open or closed and your ball will hook or slice. This is quite possibly even more important than power.

The old-style blade irons are a very good training aid here. Their tiny sweet spot really forces you to learn how to hit the golf ball correctly. Whenever you miss the sweet spot, the iron vibrates very badly and stings your hands and arms.

In general, getting lots of practice helps a lot, but the way you grip your golf club is also critical. Which leads to…

6. How To Improve Golf Club Grip

More than one golfer has found his hook or slice miraculously disappearing once he learned how to grip a golf club correctly. Although golf pros teach three main types of grip - the overlapping (Vardon) grip, the baseball bat grip and the interlocking grip - which one you use doesn’t matter very much. The important thing is to grip the club firmly - not too tight and not too loose.

Many people find that training grips help a lot. You can buy them at your local golfing shop or at Amazon for anything from $5 to $20. If your hook or slice is due to a poor grip, learning to grip a golf club correctly is a very cheap cure.

7. How To Improve Golf Swing Accuracy

Accuracy is important in golf, even more important than bashing away at the golf ball with maximum power. Before you even swing your club, you need to know where you want the ball to land. After that, it is a matter of skill - does your ball land at your point of aim, or does it fly wildly away?

Remember, if you don’t want the ball to land in the bunker or the water hazard, make sure you choose a suitable aiming point. Give up some distance if you need to. It’s better than suffering the penalty of losing your golf ball.

Being able to drive the ball farther than your golfing buddies isn’t much use if the ball does not go where it will do you the most good. Sometimes the best golf balls are not the longest distance golf balls. Consider that Tiger Woods used Nike’s One Platinum which only gave him moderate distance. Why? Because compared to balls which flew farther, it gave him more control and accuracy. You, too, should ask yourself this question and experiment with different balls to find out which one gives you the best results.

Consider also that winners of the most prestigious tournament, the US Open, are usually golfers with the most accurate golf swing, not the power hitters. Of the power hitters, only Tiger Woods had the accuracy to win the US Open.

8. How To Improve Golf Short Game

The old pros say that driving the ball is flash, while the short game is where the money’s at. If you look at the statistics of a usual game, you’ll see that this is true. Golfers spend 30% to 40% of their time with a putter, 15% to 20% with their wedges, and only 10% to 20% using a driver. That means in a typical game, you’ll spend up to 60% of your time playing the short game.

Fortunately, the short game is easy to practice, even at home. Just buy a golf mat, plenty of cheap balls, and start practicing. Hit the ball with your putter, hit the ball with your wedges. In good weather, you can set everything up outdoors. In bad weather, just practice indoors in your basement or an empty hallway.

Your golfing buddies will be amazed at the sudden improvement in your game.

How to improve golf - just by fixing up these 8 aspects of your game, you can lower your golf handicap. A number of these golf swing tips can be done in the privacy (and secrecy) of your own home, without letting your golfing buddies know. Improve your golf in the off season, in winter, then pull out the surprise and grind your pals into the dust.

Do you have these 3 problems with your golf swing: 1) inconsistency; 2) slice; 3) distance? In the last 3 years, The Simple Golf Swing has helped over 16,000 golfers with these same problems to lower their handicaps by at least 7 strokes. Click here to order The Simple Golf Swing.