Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Balance and Posture Make for a Winning Swing in Golf

When it comes to playing golf, everything matters. A good swing, balance, stance, posture, grip, fitness, and good equipment; all these things are important. Can you master a superb grip? Yeah, it's pretty easy. Can you achieve a masterful swing? Definitely, with a little guidance. Can you find someone to teach you how to get fit? Sure, there are tons of programs out there. But because of the fact that the proper balance, posture, and stance seem to puzzle many, here's some advice about how to get where you need to be.

When a player has improper tension it can seriously ruin a first-rate swing and the potential for high scores. Realistically, you should probably have a solid grip and you need to have the right amount of spring in the swing, but when the whole body is tense, so is the mind. To loosen up take a few long, deep breaths and stretch out your neck and shoulder muscles.

Remember, its ok for your head to move slightly. This is true because a large number of good players can move their head up to 6 inches during a powerful swing.

Now, with your feet shoulder width apart, get a good grip and face the ball. Keep in mind that you should place your feet slightly further apart for wood and lower number iron shots, and a little lower for chips. Keep your back straight while bending at the hips. Don't worry too much about sticking out your butt, just don't over do it.

Put your weight toward the balls of your feet, and let your arms swing liberally. Don't hide your chin in your chest, but keep your eyes directed towards the ball.

If you have followed these instructions, you should be relaxed and balanced by now. Here are a few tests you can try to see if you are balanced and have a firm stance. Try lifting one foot. If you can do this without falling on your butt, you aren't balanced. If someone can nudge you to the one side or the other, you don't have a solid stance. If you could be shoved backwards by a slight push, you have placed your weight too far back on your the heels of your feet.

People will tend to swing from the inside to the outside if their weight is too far back on their heels. That's just asking for a hook. Make sure you have a solid stance by checking to see if your knees are directly above the balls of your feet.

Look at your stance. Your left foot should be slightly open, and your shoulders should be aligned and level along the line of the target. Turn your head to the left (if you're a right handed player), and imagine a line that runs across the front of your eyes. This should run flush to the target line. If you're in the correct position, your spine will turn away from the target slightly. This is true even if your weight stays balanced.

As you follow through with the swing, you should remain balanced. Practice doing a backswing-to-downswing, while making sure you're swinging through a single plane. This will be hard to maintain, if you're not balanced.

As you go into the backswing, 75% of your weight should move onto your back foot, and 25% onto the front foot. These percentages will reverse through your downswing to impact.

From how you complete your setup, your swing will develop. Once you have mastered balance, posture, and stance, you are half way to the perfect swing.


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David Nevogt writes golf instruction material that helps golfers of all levels reach their full potential and lower their scores. David is the author of "The Simple Golf Swing" which guarantees to have you shooting 7 strokes lower in only 1 week from today.
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