Methods to Gain Extra Yards

by Kim Jeong-kyoo

Korea Times Golf Columnist

Keep your right heel down on the ground longer on the downswing to hit the ball farther. That helps keep your head and upper body behind the ball at impact, preventing your right shoulder from turning outward toward the ball-target line. You will hit the ball more powerfully from inside to out.

To gain extra yards you need to create a wide swing arc as it leads to generating extra power; to create maximum width it's essential to be sure that your right forearm and upper arm form a 90-degree angle at the top. Most golf standouts do this perfectly and toward this end, emulate a waiter who's carrying a big dish.

Once you've got into this position with your left arm straight and left shoulder pointing behind the ball, all you have to do to launch the ball far is unwind your body through the ball immediately after shifting your bodyweight to the left toward the target. That way you will hit your potential distance without a forced effort, finishing your swing with the majority of your bodyweight ideally on the left side, which is a must for powerful impact.

To learn to place your bodyweight correctly at the finish and at the top of the backswing, complete your backswing and lift your left foot off the ground. Then swing to the finish, lifting your right foot off the ground.

Doing this drill without losing your balance will help you learn proper weight shift during the swing, enabling you to hit the ball more solidly and thus farther.

Two common mistakes committed by the recreational golfers at address are setting their left foot straight or perpendicular to the ball-target line and standing with straight knees. That inhibits you from mobilizing your lower body, making it hard to hit the ball firmly.

To hit the ball flush and far you need to turn your hips through the ball quickly, and toward this end, it's essential to get your left foot toed out about 30 degrees at address.

Also crucial to powerful hit is to keep your right knee flexed and kicked in slightly toward the ball. That helps keep your posture during the swing, preventing your body from swaying immoderately to the right going back.

Getting the left foot turned out and the right knee kicked in and flexed encourage you to create torque with your upper body on the backswing, facilitating shifting your bodyweight to your left foot coming down. When that happens, the club will accelerate freely through the ball, resulting in solid, powerful hit.

Similarly, to hit the ball far you need to learn to rotate your hips properly. Recreational golfers tend to rotate their hips too far during the backswing, which makes it difficult to get their hips to open up to the target at impact, a critical key to powerful, solid impact.

A statistic shows that with a 5-iron, tour players have a hip rotation of 48 degrees closed to the target at the top of the backswing and at impact they rotate their hips to an average of 42 degrees open.

Here are some swing keys helping to make more efficient and powerful use of your hips.

First, keep your right knee flexed throughout the swing. That limits the free rotation of your hips, promoting a right coil.

Second, focus on maintaining the width of your knees created at address during the entire backswing.

Third, try to keep your belt buckle pointing at the ball at the top of the backswing.

Fourth, try to point the buckle at the target by the time you reach impact.

All these will help to make solid impact, bringing about extra yards.