By Kim Jeong-kyoo
Korea Times Golf Columnist
Without good pre-swing basics it's impossible to swing in balance and strike the ball on the sweet spot of the clubface. Grip, posture and alignment determine the type of swing and the quality of shot you make.
A key to correct grip is to let the last three fingers of your left hand and the middle two fingers of your right hand exert force on the handle of the club. All other fingers should gently feel the club.
For a correct left hand grip hold the handle with the last three fingers. Pressure from these three fingers promotes the left wrist hinge during the backswing and unhinge through impact, encouraging the clubhead to release fully.
To check for your posture set up to an imaginary ball without a club. Relax your arms and let them hang down naturally from your shoulders. Your kneecaps need to be over the insteps of your feet and your fingertips need to be pointing at the tips of your toes.
Fingertips pointing inside the tips of your toes mean you are standing too straight or too close to the ball and fingertips pointing outside the tips means you are bending over too much or standing too far from the ball.
However, golfers swinging on a flatter plane need to bend more from the hip-sockets and reach for the ball.
A poor posture that is too straight either at the knees or hip-sockets causes you to hit shots that fly high and curve from left to right. With too straight a posture you tend to swing on an overly upright plane, getting the club to work back outside the ball-target line with your arms and hands only. You will produce slice or pull to the left.
However, finding yourself hitting low shots that curve from right to left, you are probably bending too much. A posture that is immoderately bent forces you to swing the club on too flat a plane around your body, causing hook or push to the right.
Poor posture makes it impossible to get the swing started right, and with a bad takeaway you cannot expect a good swing path and plane.
There is no single, perfect swing path and plane. It varies depending upon the body type of every individual.
Golfers with a thick body and little flexibility are built for power rather than speed. This type of golfer needs to avoid an upright swing. That's just unnatural. To maximize power and accuracy stout golfers need to position their hands just under the shoulder line at the top of the backswing with their hands extended as far away from the body as possible. They need to keep their hands low below their shoulder at the top of the backswing, as they need to swing the club back on a flatter swing plane or around their body.
Tall golfers with long arms are built for flexibility and speed rather than power. They need to swing the club high on an upright swing plane, placing their hands and club over the head at the top of the backswing.
Average-built golfers are built for a combination of speed and power. They are better off swinging the club to medium height. They need to swing the club around their body, rotating their torso as much as possible to create torque. For an efficient swing they need to place their left arm even with the shoulder line at the top of the backswing.
Hand position that is below your right shoulder at the top does not necessarily mean an overly flat swing plane and hands that are placed above your right ear do not always mean too upright a swing plane.
Undoubtedly, it is hard to swing too upright or too flat if you position your body properly at address. Proper setup will let your hands go where they should ideally go unless you contrive to fabricate your swing.
There are a plethora of swing theories on how to swing, and you are prone to change your swing key every time you read or hear something new. Avoid doing that. To get your game to the next level, check your pre-swing basics instead of trying every new swing thought. A real secret to improving your swing is to learn and master correct pre-swing basics.
Without a doubt, it's necessary to fine-tune your swing here and there, but you need to check first if your pre-swing basics are sound whenever your swing goes awry.
With a correct setup you will hit a reasonable shot even if you make a somewhat poor swing, but with a poor setup you will hit a lousy shot even if you make a perfect swing.