We all want to lower our golf handicap. That’s why we practice so hard and read so much about the game. It’s the “Holy Grail” of golf. Among the keys to achieving a lower golf handicap is consistency. You must be consistent to lower your scores and cut strokes from your handicap. If you want to achieve consistency, transferring your weight correctly is a must.

But that’s easier said then done. As an instructor, I see many golfers struggle to achieve proper weight transfer. Even golfers who I know are good athletes sometimes have trouble with this. Poor weight transfer is one of the most common swing faults in my golf lessons. It’s especially prevalent with golfers who play infrequently. They have what’s called a “reverse pivot”- one of the deadliest swing flaws in the game.

Transfer Your Weight

Normally, when swinging a club, you transfer your weight onto your back foot during your takeaway, then onto your front foot during the follow-through. Watch Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, or any of the pros on television and you’ll see how well they achieve correct weight transfer. For them, it’s second nature. They make the transition smoothly and efficiently. That’s why they’re so consistent when hitting a golf ball. None of them exhibit anything even close to a reverse pivot.

With a reverse pivot, you do the opposite of what you should do. Instead of transferring your weight to your back foot and then to your front foot, you transfer it to your front foot during your takeaway and then back to your back foot during the follow through. This move constricts your body turn, short-circuiting power and inhibiting consistency. Golfer’s who exhibit a reverse pivot don’t get much on their drives or iron shots.

Causes of a Reverse Pivot

Causes for a reverse pivot are many. An obsession with keeping your head down, an attempt at holding your left arm (right for left-handers) rigidly straight, and/or allowing your head to turn to the right as you swing the club back-all cause a reverse pivot. So if you find yourself doing these things, you may be employing a reverse pivot in your swing without knowing it.

Since the reverse pivot wreaks havoc with your swing, it’s hard to describe any tell tale signs that you have the fault. The reverse pivot restricts your turn so much that your arms and hands have to take over the job of your shoulders while hitting the ball. That curbs your power. But two sure-fire signs that you are committing a reverse pivot are loss of power and accuracy.

Eliminating the Reverse Pivot

One way to eliminate the reverse pivot is to practice this drill: Adopt your address position, and then place the club across the back of your shoulders. Now turn as if you were going to hit the ball. As you turn back, the club encourages your head and spine to rotate. Sense your balance as you do this. A good tip to get the hang of this is to look out of the corner of your left eye (right for left-handers) at the top of your swing. Practice this drill as often as you can… and then keep doing it.

Another drill-one that seems to get better results in my golf lessons-is to begin with a sort iron and assume your setup position. From your setup, lift your forward foot and position it next to your back foot. As you swing, take the club away from the ball, lift your forward foot, and allow it to return to the original position in your setup as soon as your club reaches about waist high in your backswing.

This drills trains your body to shift your weight to your back foot at the beginning of the backswing and allows your body to shift its weight toward the front foot at the end of the backswing, and then on through the downswing. It also promotes a much healthier spin angle, both atop your swing and into the finish.

Proper weight transfer is essential to developing a swing that delivers power and accuracy consistently. Achieving consistency-whether by taking golf instruction sessions or through working things out on your own-is the only way to lower your golf handicap. If you’re serious about becoming a scratch golfer, make consistency your ultimate goal.

Copyright (c) 2007 Jack Moorehouse

By: Jack Moorehouse

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Did you know the average golfer’s gross score is 107 shots? You may receive all the greatest golf tips in the world, take countless lessons and get superior instruction and still may not be able to gain consistency. Even the guys who play golf for a living and get the best golf instruction in the world still struggle to improve their golf; and they practice each and every day!

Visualize where you would like the ball to land, as you swing. Keep the good energy flowing and don’t give in to any negative thoughts. A common mental error golfers make when driving the ball is to hit it as hard as possible.

Putting can become a nightmare and a condition called the ‘yips’ has affected not only amateurs but professionals as well; get expert advice and consider a golf swing aid. Use the basic ‘hitchhiker’ position when you’re working on your backswing. Before you swing, make sure you’re relaxed; contract all your muscles tightly for a moment and then relax them.

Swing slowly and steadily using a nice rhythm. After the ball is hit, the follow-through stage consists of a continued rotation to the left. Pick out a spot on the course, preferably the green of the fairway, and concentrate on hitting the ball to that spot.

The backswing is a rotation to the right, consisting of a shifting of the player’s body weight to the right side, a turning of the pelvis and shoulders, lifting of the arms and flexing of the elbows and wrists. As the body matures, the ability to rotate the upper torso is affected by age, and the hand action can also slow down requiring a slightly stronger grip.

Ask your golf pro to evaluate your posture while swinging. Try not to grip the club too tightly. Use the muscles in your legs and trunk when you swing.

Conditioning your golf muscles will reward you with straighter swings. Many golfers have improved their golf game by concentrating on golf fitness. Using a weighted club, make rotational golf swings to improve your power.

Whether you’re a seasoned golfer or just starting out, pick just one golf swing aid and go to work on your swing. There are golf swing aids that will help you with swing alignment. Keep in mind that with some golf swing aids, you may still need advice or help from an expert.

Golf swing aids come in all shapes and sizes including apparel type accessories to correct alignment or a golf club add-on accessory to monitor your swing. If you’re looking for an aid to improve your stance they’re not hard to find. Golf magazines often review the newest golf swing aids and are reviewed by golfers, making it easy to choose the right one for you.

You can find golf swing aids that will help you with your wrist and arm position. There are a wide range of golf swing aids on the market today to help the beginning and advanced golfer. If you’re a golfing novice just starting out, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.

There are a number of good golf swing aids on the market today. Before buying any golf swing aid, check with an expert to get an idea of what problem you need to work on first; backlift of golf swing, momentum of downward thrust, or stance for example.

Golfers can never get enough golf tips. Invest in a few of the newest golf books and golf ebooks; older golf books may be outdated. There are hundreds of useful golf tips to seek out in golf magazines, consumer magazines, sports magazines, in books, ebooks, DVDs, online and offline.

By: Helen Hecker

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The single biggest golf swing tip instructions that golfer’s want the most is in dealing with slicing the golf ball. It’s a problem that 80% – 90% of all golfers face.

Does this sound familiar? You aim way left and hit your tee shot, only to watch it fly way right? How do you go about stopping that dreaded slice? This is exactly what you’re about to learn today. And in doing so you’ll begin to enjoy the game of golf like it is meant to be.

Slicing is caused mainly from these three areas: the swing plane, clubhead path, and the golf grip. It’s not caused by where you are aiming, or even how you’re standing. Once you make the adjustments in these three areas, you’ll put an end to the problem.

First, let’s look at the swing plane. Most golf swing instructions don’t touch on the swing plane, but that is the number reason for slicing the ball.

The swing plane for every golf club will be different. What I mean by that is if you take your driver and your 9-iron out and hold them at the address position, you’ll quickly see that the 9-ron is closer to your body. This means that the swing plane is going to be different for the 9-iron than the driver. The 9-iron will be more upright and feel straighter up and down, while the driver feels flatter.

The cause of most slicing problems is due to golfers swinging the driver on a steeper swing plane like the 9-iron. When you swing the club too steeply, the result is an outside in swing pattern and a slice. The key is to flatten out the swing plane which will create a straighter shot. This will take some practice, but continue to make adjustments and you’ll find the correct swing plane.

If this doesn’t eliminate the problem, then work on the clubhead path. The clubhead path needs to be square as it goes through the impact zone. This may require you to adjust the position of the club in your hands to be a little more to the left. Again, make the adjustments a little at a time while on the range.

Finally, the golf grip may be the reason for slicing. A weak grip inevitably causes the ball to go right. Try strengthening your grip by rolling your hands a little to the right, which causes the “V” to point more to the right of your face. A weak grip is the second most common reason for slices.

Of course, these golf swing tip instructions are not as detailed as they can be. You can find more detailed tips and instructions at the end of this article. With these simple tips and a little practice on the range you should begin noticing improvement immediately.

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By: Terry Edwards

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My name is Bobby Eldridge with the PurePoint Golf Academy. Today, I wanted to talk about pitch shots and more specifically, pitching the golf ball with loft. The most common golf instruction problem Ive seen is when a golfer tops the ball over the green when pitching.

Well, I have a great golf instruction tip for you today. Are you ready? The reason that you struggle when you pitch is because the golf club swings down in the downswing, and just before it gets to the golf ball, it starts to swing back up and you wind up hitting the middle of the golf ball.

When you pitch the golf ball, the goal is to hit down on the ball and to have the ball crawl up the face of the golf club and go onto the green. The only way to make this happen is for the leading edge of the club to hit the bottom of the golf ball. The reason that many golfers skull the ball over the green is because they focus on the follow through being high and as a result, hit the ball on the upswing. In short, they dont hit down on the ball, but rather hit up on the ball.

Imagine the golfer with the high follow through. As they come down, they start to swing back up again. Can you imagine how high the club face is at follow through? This is the incorrect way to hit a pitch shot. Ive been in golf instruction for a long time and this is one of the most common problems I see.

The correct way is to put a little extra weight on your left leg, or the front leg, lean over on top of it, and with your arms, swing the club head down and let the golf ball go up. It will crawl right on up the club face. The key is to follow through low to the ground, not high.

In the downswing make sure, with your weight on your left side, that you swing your arms down and get the leading edge to swing into the ground. And then, the golf ball will crawl all the way up the face and take off for the target.

So remember, ball in the middle of your stance, weight on your left leg, swing your arms up and down. We like to keep golf instruction simple.

For better impact and for a little more loft when you’re pitching, get the feeling that you’re swinging the club face down into the ground.

By: David Nevogt

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I’ll never forget the time a few years ago when my brother in law Steve explained to me how he discovered a major break through in his golf swing. He describes this golf swing takeaway tip as “lightning in a bottle”…the true holy grail of golf!

Steve told me he had been sitting at an 8 handicap for about 4 years and was getting very frustrated at his lack of improvement. He practiced diligently however he had truly reached a plateau in his golf game.

He went through about 4 golf pros during this time and every one of them told him there was nothing wrong with his golf swing. Eventually he started playing less and less golf and was about ready to give it up altogether.

Steve said while on vacation with his family he was browsing through an old book store on Martha’s Vineyard when he came across a used copy of Joe Dante’s “Four Magic Moves to Winning Golf” written in 1972. He said he couldn’t put the book down so out of courtesy to the store owner he bought it.

Steve showed me the book and as I leafed through it I was amazed at all the beautifully drawn illustrations showing how to swing a golf club properly. Andy Brown has since revised this book for the 21st century and offers many media formats to read or listen to the book.

Steve turned to the chapter that explains “the early backward wrist break” and told me this one magic move has totally transformed his golf game! He went on to say how golf pros never tell you HOW to break the wrists during the backswing for whatever reason. Steve believes the first 18 inches of the backswing are the most critical.

Most golfers fan the clubface open early in the backswing causing them to swing the club way too much to the inside…this knocks the swing off plane early in the backswing. Golfers then usually spend the rest of the golf swing trying to adjust so they can just make contact with the ball…not a good recipe for success!

The book goes on to say there should be no open or closing of the clubface early in the backswing…if you correctly perform the early backward wrist break your swing will be on plane early in the swing…Steve says he feels like the club is swinging itself…a truly effortless swing!

I am happy to say that my brother in law Steve is now a scratch golfer, thanks to this one magic move that has transformed his golf game!

When you make the backward wrist break perfectly – only one knuckle of your left hand (right handed golfers) and two knuckles of your right hand should be visible and the golf club should be parallel to your target line.

You pay a lot of money to play this great game of golf…so why not enjoy it more by playing the golf you are capable of?

Try this golf swing takeaway tip and build the early backward wrist break into your golf swing and I promise you will halve your handicap in 2 weeks!

Hit ‘em Long and Straight!
John Lynch

By: John J Lynch

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I will tell you right here and now that this is some very serious stuff. When we start comparing our golf swings to Tiger Woods we are really really going out there.

But, hey, so what!

If we can’t use one of the most classic swings on the earth to learn from, than we would be pretty limited in our thought process. Wouldn’t we?

I am toying with the idea of making this article a two or three part article for brevity purposes. Comparing our swings to Tiger’s, first requires that we understand what Tiger is doing.

Believe me, that is not an easy task. But,even though it’s not easy, it is doable.

Let’s take a look at Tiger’s grip.

Does your grip look like his?

His grip is neither strong or weak. It is about as neutral as you can get. Is your grip neutral? Chances are strong that your grip is on the weak side. And that when you look down at your grip you see one knuckle on your left hand (righties). And your right hand is more on top of the club than on the side or under.

This, of course, describes the grip of 90% of all golfers. And it is wrong. Tiger’s is correct, your grip is wrong. I apologize if you have a good grip and don’t mean to lump you in with those poor grippers.

Sorry!

For those of you who have read any of my musings, you know, by now, that my one pet peeve is a poor grip. You will not see a good golfer with a bad grip.

Almost never.

If you are an average person with average athletic abilities, a bad grip makes you a bad golfer.

Tiger Woods has an excellent golf grip. Is that a surprise? No, then a least let’s try to copy his grip. That should not be that hard since it requires absolutely no movement at all.

Left hand on the club with two knuckles showing, right hand on the club, exactly facing the left hand. Right hand a little on top is not a bad thing. Having it on the side ok. Having it under the club is not allowed. Try it!

The setup is the ignition of the golf swing. Think of it as the key to the engine. If the key doesn’t fit you will not get started or, if you do, the engine will skip and backfire.

Tiger’s set up is so perfect it is scary.

His balance is beautiful and his alignment is right on. Every single time he sets up. All PGA players are very very particular with their set up. Never are they lackadaisical in their set up.

This is a position that you all can do unless you have a bad back, or some other limited physical issue. You should look like Tiger, Great balance, back reasonable straight, knees bent over the top of your shoes. Butt out and you are bent from the hips. Every part of your body is in alignment. And you are absolutely square to the target line. And last, but not least, your chin is not resting on your chest. It is up so that you have room under it to move your left shoulder into the backswing.

So far it is relatively easy to immolate Tiger. Don’t you think that almost every one could do this grip and set up thingy? If you say you can’t do it, I would have trouble believing you. It would probably be more like you won’t do it. Not can’t!

There is no doubt that as a golfer you will need extra discipline with the little things in the swing. But lets face it, if the best in the world thinks set and grip are so important that they make every effort to get it right every time, well, shouldn’t we also?

Now Tiger is ready for his first move away from the ball. This is one area that we will have trouble with. Us mortals. Tiger gets tremendous separation and extension of the club and arms on this move. He keeps the clubhead low and long and delays any wrist cock until very late in the back swing. All the while maintaining superb balance as he shifts his weight to his right side in preparation of the downswing.

He ” loads up” the right side better than anyone in the game. His club is on plane and is perfect to the top where he finally lets his right wrist get into the trayed position.

An incredible athletic move that few of us will be able to do with any regularity.

I want to take a minute and debunk this move as it sometime taught on our driving ranges across America and beyond.

First it is almost impossible for you to incorporate this move into your swing. Heck your having trouble with the grip and that requires no movement at all. So let’s all get real.

This long and low with big extension idea is not for us. It is more of a timing issue than anything else with the better player who does this. And, just so you know, fewer and fewer players are embracing this move.

Does it provide more power? No it doesn’t. Here is why. The power is always generated on the downswing, not on the takeaway. The problem exists when a golfer picks the club up early and fails to turn his shoulders. This picking up early is a common error. And it is usually accompanied by a severe bending of the left arm.

This is where the power drain is located. So to defend against this move. golf instruction has included the low and long idea. This, so the thought goes, prevents that early pickup and bending left arm. Does it? Sure it does. But no body except the most athletic can do it.

This low and long move almost always causes the weight to move too far over the right foot, outside the right foot and makes it impossible to get a decent weight shift if any shift at all.

Tiger can do it. You can’t.

But you can still get into the exact same or close to the same position on the backswing as Tiger and be in a powerful position to hit the ball.

Here is how. Push your right hand bent early in the move away. That is to create an angle between you right wrist and your right fore arm that is as close to 90 degrees as possible and then turn your shoulders so that you left shoulder goes under you chin. And do not collapse your left arm. Keep it straight but not stiff.

That’s it. I am going to make good on my threat to make this more than one part. This, I think is enough to absorb for one session.

Lesson over.

By: Paul Macleod

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A common problem for golfers is the correct use of the fairway wood. Many amateur players try to lift the ball into the air rather than let the loft of the club do it.

Tip one; let the club do it’s job. Engineers and very clever people design these clubs to perform a set of particular actions, getting the golf ball airborne is one of them.

Fairway woods are incredibly useful clubs performing a variety of tasks from the obvious like hitting the ball from the fairway to driving off the tee, from getting you out of the cabbage to chipping from the edge of the green.

Learn to swing your fairway wood and you will have a useful ally in your golf game.

For this article we shall concentrate on the most common aspect of the fairway wood and that is the second shot from the fairway into, and hopefully onto, the green.

Visualise this; the club will sweep the ball from the turf without taking a divot. A slight bruising of the grass is all that you want, the club face will connect with the ball at the bottom of its arc, the lofted face will cause the ball to rise into the air and fly down the fairway.

Set up to the ball in the manner of your driver with a stance slightly wider than your shoulders, this gives you a firm basis for your swing. Your spine will will be tilted slightly to the right to accomodate the fact that your right hand is lower down on the club.

The ball is played from just inside your left heel and so your sternum or breastbone will be behind the ball by a couple of inches.You can check this initial positioning in a mirror at home so it becomes natural on the course.

To begin the swing take the club back close to the ground. Practice the move by placing another ball a few inches behind your target ball and pushing it away with your club head. The swing arc is wide and fairly shallow and tempo is all important. Start practising at half speed to achieve the right technique.

The down swing will return low and wide, the club head will brush the grass and be fully at the bottom of its arc when it impacts the ball. Remember, no divots. If you are taking a divot it means the club is striking the ball on the downward direction, this will cause it to pop up violently losing forward momentum or you will scud it into the ground. Neither of which is desirable.

Develop a sense of hitting the ball down the fairway, not up into the air. After impact allow your arms to extend through the shot along the target line. This should help keep the club square at impact meaning a straighter, more accurate shot.

As mentioned earlier in the article tempo or timing is crucial to consistency with the fairway wood so practice sweeping the grass without the pressure of hitting a ball and even hum a little tune which helps you swing rythmically. It can become the most natural of movements. Good luck and good golf to you.



By: Norman Stanley

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Everyone who plays golf knows how to swing a golf club – the obvious problems arise when, having swung, the ball doesn’t do what we expected it to do. Perhaps “hoped it would do” is a better term for many of us.

The irritating reality is that not all of us were born with the ability to swing a golf club like the tour pros do. Even if we studied the biomechanics of that sort of swing, most of us probably wouldn’t be able to replicate it.

Mere golf mortals need to demystify the anatomy of a golf swing. We need a simple, repeatable golf swing that will allow us to hit the fairway from the tee and land on the green from the fairway – consistently!

“The simple golf swing” gets us back to the fundamentals of a golf swing. It eliminates all the twists, turns and unnecessary movements from your golf swing and replaces these with a simple 5 step system that anyone can benefit from in a short space of time.

Starting with your set up over the ball (probably the most important factor in determining your ultimate score for a round), you can quickly develop a golf swing that injects both length and direction into your game.

There is an added bonus to all this which many golfers will appreciate. It not only gives you a swing that is consistent and repeatable, it also gives you a swing that reduces stress on the lower back. And because it is based on golf swing fundamentals, both high and low handicap players can benefit from this system.

An improved swing leads to improved shot making, better scores, increased confidence and an ever increasing feeling of achievement. Now that’s the sort of golf I like to play.

By: Keith Perrett

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How to Break 80 is one of the best selling golf technique books nowadays which is specially designed for the average golfers whom are aiming to enhance their skills more. It is not just a mere collection of golf tips, lessons and instructions, yet it can be your personal guide in making your game more incredible.

With this book you can have the chance to learn the simple steps in order to create more consistent skills in your swing, and in your game as a whole. It will only take you 30 minutes approximately and then you can be able to learn the different techniques. The book also provides you drills, where it helps you apply the techniques you have learned into the game.

However, the book is not mainly about the game but it is also about the complete manual on how you are going to shoot your best scores in your game. Many would ask on what are the things that they can get when they can be able to purchase the book, that simple question has a lot of benefits which can be the answer for your query. It will serves as your best guides that will help you in all the areas of your game.

With this program, you can be the best golfer in the soonest possible time, since it can provide you the latest and effective tips in playing golf, and start making your game the best. The book contains proven techniques for you to get an instant 70 in your game. It has been proven that you can be able to learn the step by step instructions, and specifically learn what you need to do in making your swing more effective. It has included the secrets which will help you draw and fade the ball in order for you to make pin.

The best thing about this book is that it will religiously teach you how to handle hard attacks during your game and be able to overcome it as much as possible. Earning an instant 70′s is not impossible if you could have gained all these skills being emphasized in the book.

Benefits

In every books being produce for the golfers, they have one in common and that is the common benefits that it can give to those people who are fun of golfing. Every golf books were equipped with the different skills that are useful in making improvements of your game, and this is just a simple reason to think that you are being benefited.

Certain skills and techniques that were stressed out in the said book can help you a lot in order to enhance your skills in swing, and even developed consistency and accuracy for you to earn more scores. You will not have a hard time understanding all these techniques since it is always the basics in playing golf.

Pros
You can enhance your skills in break 80. You can develop more consistency and accuracy. You can make your game more fantastic with the techniques that you have learned.

Cons

You should always focus in following all these golf instructions and techniques so that you can achieve golf success.

By: Joanne Covey

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All golfers should be familiar with the term ‘golf swing path’ as the golf swing path makes up one of the most important shots in the game of golf. So what exactly is the golf swing path? In short it is the route, or path, that the golf club will travel when a golfer is taking a shot. This path is so important as it is a key factor in determining how accurate your shot will be, get your golf swing path right and you will be proud of your low handicap, get it wrong and you will be the one buying the drinks in the bar afterwards.

Ask any golfer and they will tell you that they spend a great deal of time making sure that they have the right golf swing path as it does not come easy and practise makes perfect. Two of the most important parts of a good golf swing path are the back swing and the down swing. The back swing is the part of the shot where the golfer draws back the club ready to strike the ball, this should be done with care making sure that your eyes are on the ball.

Then it is time for the down swing which is the part of shot where the face of the club strikes the ball and sends it hurtling down the fairway (hopefully). When completing this part of the golf swing path it is essential that you pay attention to what you are doing and keep your eyes on the ball. That way you will be sure to hit the ball time and time again. Many golfers like to practise their golf swing paths many times without actually hitting the ball just to make sure that they are on target with their swing.

By: Joe Marquart

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