Balance your body during the full swing

Golf experts do agree on something.  It’s not possible to play a good stroke if your balance isn’t maintained throughout the swing.  Keeping your balance sounds pretty simple.  But it’s nigh impossible when you have a death grip on the club, your arms and shoulders are stiff and you’re trying to hit the ball with every ounce of strength can muster.

Beginners are often warned to not try to hit the ball so hard.  A little energy well directed and smoothly applied will drive the ball father than a monstrous effort that ends up not connecting the ball at the center of the club.  If you’re balanced, you have more freedom when hitting the ball.

You want to keep your head in one spot, your eyes on the ball clearly.  Actually the steadier you keep your head in one spot, the better you see the ball.  This is all part of creating your foundation of balance.  Anything that tips you off balance makes it impossible to see the ball clearly.  You must keep your head still and not move it from the spot in which you start.

You can’t have your body rigid and your muscles tensed if you’re wanting to maintain your balance. Unless you relax your muscles, your head is going to move.

Practice in front of a mirror and you will see that your muscles really do need to be relaxed in order for you to keep your head still during a swing.  No two people have the same frame or physique.  So you have to work out some things for yourself.  But always start with the foundation of keeping your head in one position. If your head is still, you can see the ball clearly and you will turn your hands at the right instant.

Just by keeping your head perfectly still you’ll correct a lot of faults.  You can’t grip your club incorrectly without at some point disturbing your balance and moving your head.

And you can’t keep your balance unless you follow through correctly.

If your mind is concentrated on keeping your balance and keeping your head still, you won’t overswing or jerk your club away.  You won’t put forth too much effort forth at any one point.  You won’t be stiff and you’ll have a smooth, even rhythm to your swing and a nice finish.

Balance really is the cure-all for many faults of golf. It takes time before you see improvement, so be patient.  Think about keeping your head still and maintaining your balance at all times and you will have a foundation for an excellent golf game.

An example of poor balance during the golf swing

Relaxing is the key to good putting

When you’re on , you’re on.  The world is your oyster.  When you’re off… well, it seems even a preschooler has more of a chance to get the ball in the hole than you do.

You’d swear you have the same stance, the same putter, the same “feel” as the times you made the shot easily.  What happened?

Is putting merely a game of luck?

Not a chance.  It may seem that there’s no real key to putting successfully.  And granted, putting isn’t an exact science.

But if you’re having a poor game due to putting problems, it all can be summed up in one simple word.

Tension.

The more you relax your muscles during your putting, the more accurate your shots will be.

You make the game hard for yourself when you stiffen your muscles.  The basis of good putting, as with all other shots, is absolute relaxation of the muscles.  Fluid movement allows for perfect freedom and play.  If you’re trying to brace yourself to keep your balance, you’re courting disaster.

When you’re putting well, your movement is free and your confidence high.  The second you miss an easy putt, you become anxious and brace yourself to try more carefully.  The more you brace yourself, the worse the tension in your body becomes.  Consequently, your putting suffers.

You can change putters, change your stance, and mimic every pro player you’ve ever watched.  But it all comes down to loosening up.  Make your muscles go flabby and limp, loose and free.  Pretend your muscles are jelly.

Tension kills good shots.  When you furrow your brow and set your muscles in a rigid fashion, you lose the freedom necessary in successful putting.  Now you may make several shots in a row, but the time will come that no matter what you try, nothing seems to work.  That’s the time to gelatin-ize your body.  Relax your whole body as if you’re about to fall to the ground.  (But stay standing!)

The extra bonus here is that as you use this method of relaxation and putt more successfully, your confidence will increase and you’ll be even more relaxed on the green.

Loosening those muscles really is the magic bullet when it comes to putting!

The majority of the game of golf is putting - pure and simple.

It looks so easy - rolling that little ball into a nearby hole.  But mastering the skill has threatened many a golfer’s sanity.

Here are a few quick tips to help improve your putting skills this year.

• When practicing use one ball instead of your whole bag.  This is what really happens on the course so practice this way.

• Lock your wrists.  When holding your putter your palms face each other.  This prevents one hand from being dominant over another.  Your wrists should have no movement at all.

• Make sure you’re totally relaxed before you strike the ball.  Your muscles should have no tension in them at all.  All the work should be done with a rotation around your shoulders.

• Make sure your follow through is longer than your backstroke.  This ensures that you are accelerating through contact with your ball.

• Relax your knees a little.  Don’t lock up.  Think of an athletic stance because you are doing an athletic activity.

• Your heels should be shoulder-width apart.  This gives you a nice stable base to putt from.

• Your body should be parallel to the line you have chosen not pointing toward the hole.

• Always accelerate through ball.

• Make sure you get the ball to the hole.  No putt was ever made that came up short.  Besides if you putt past the hole you can watch the ball very closely and you will know what the line is.

• Practice your putt at home on your carpet by putting to a coin.  The smaller the coin the better.

• Find a putter that you like and stick with it.  It usually is not the putter that is the problem.

• Challenge yourself at every hole.  Make something up so that when the pressure is on you are ready to perform.

Play it just like a chip shot. Open up your stance a little bit (to the left if you are right handed). Play the ball a little further back in your stance. Not extremely far back but only two balls further back than normal. And use your chipping stoke.

Opening the stance up will allow you to make a little longer backstroke and give it a little more pop than normal. It will also involve your body a little more with the stroke.

How much further? Just as much as a normal chip. Practice a few times and you will see that it makes those long long long putts a little easier.

I have talked about the 40-60 swing where the back swing should be about 40% of the total swing and the follow through should be about 60% of the swing. I personally exaggerate this even more giving it about a 20-80 swing. But that was just a simple quick problem to fix.

The big problem with the young man was that because he was using a longer backstroke than a follow through he was not accelerating through the ball. Now I don’t want to imply that with a putt you should accelerate through the ball like a full stroke, but you should have a steady acceleration to promote a longer follow through than backstroke. It is quite a simple step that will improve your putting stoke.

This may be one of the biggest faults in amateurs golf strokes. But it is also the most simple to fix. Try a longer follow through. The only way to achieve this is to accelerate through the putting stroke.

A good warm-up routine is to start with short putts. Use no more than three balls to start out with. Hit 9-12 shots or all three balls 3-4 times.

Then go to a medium length putt. Medium is different for everyone, I would say from 10-15 feet. Do that for 9-12 shots or all three balls 3-4 times.

Then try a few long ones. Go as long as possible. You don’t have to spend a whole lot of time doing this, you don’t even have to make them. Practice getting it as close as you can to the hole. If some go in it is a good boost. If they do not go in but get close then you have the right speed. Again don’t spend too much time on the long putts. Focus on getting the right speed and distance.

Finally finish up with some short 3 foot putts. Start off with trying to make 3 in a row. Once your skills are getting better make 6 and 9 in a row. This is a great boost getting ready to play, and will build the confidence in the short putts. Knowing you can make 6 in a row on the practice green will help you with those tricky putts on the course.

So how does this work? It may seem more complicated with a full swing but it is not. Lets look at the putting stoke.

As you take the club back the hands gently pull the club away from the ball. The hands are working in tandem. Once the swing shifts to the downswing the hands have very specific jobs. The leading hand guides the club right back to where it began. Delivering the club back to where it started will ensure that the club is square at impact.

The trailing hand is the hand that gives the stoke the power. On a full swing if you are concentrating on the feel you can really tell that the trailing hand does the work. On a putt you have to keep it in control. There is no popping motion, no quick actions, simply use the right hand to deliver the power.

Using both hands as one will give you a consistent putting stroke leading to more putts made.

Jack Nicklaus - The most critical of all: Having a positive attitude. Believe you can make em and you frequently will. Believe you can’t and you generally won’t.

I would say that if Jack tells me that it is important to have a positive attitude about your putting then it is important to me to have a positive attitude. So why is it so important to have a positive attitude when putting? Your attitude will tell you that you can make it and you will begin to see the line. Your attitude will tell you that you can do it and you will. Your poor attitude will tell you that you have no chance and you will find a way to not make it.

So if you have a choice between being negative and having a poor chance at making a putt, or being positive and having a good chance at making a putt what would you choose? We know what Jack Nicklaus would choose.

Keeping your head still will reduce tension in your shoulders and neck and give you a more fluid swing. Your shoulders will naturally swing around your neck with your head still. This is a loose and tension free swing. If your head is moving there will be additional tension in your swing and this will lead to inconsistent putts.

Also what did every coach tell you when you were young? It did not matter if it was baseball, football, soccer, or golf, what did they tell you? Keep your eye on the ball. With head movement it is difficult to keep your eye on the ball. So keep it still and you will have more consistent putting, and better scores.

Keeping your body still will again reduce inconsistent putting and increase your putting ability. We have spoken about forming a triangle with your shoulders and hands. This triangle hinges on your neck and swings around it. Your body stays still, especially your lower body. There is no need to give extra movement. Extra movement leads to extra putts and higher scores.

The more simple your putting stroke is the more consistent it will be. With practice your putting will get better and better. Without a consistent swing no matter how much practice you do you will not improve your putting.