Answers to Hitting Better

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

Korea Times Golf Columnist

To hit the ball powerfully you need to start your downswing by moving your right hand and right knee in unison. What makes the difference between a poor shot and solid hit is the synchronization between them.

Regardless of the club you use, you need to start your downswing with your right hand and right knee moving in sync. A prerequisite for firing the right side correctly or shifting the weight properly to the left is to get your right elbow, hip and knee in line as you approach impact.

Starting the downswing with the right knee only causes the hands and arms to be left behind. When that happens, you need to manipulate the clubface with your hands through the ball to square the clubface, which is hard to repeat on a consistent basis.

Initiating your downswing with your hands only with very little body turn causes an out-to-in swing path. You will cast the club outside the ball-target line, resulting in pull or pull-slice depending upon the clubface alignment at impact.

In a nutshell, starting your downswing with your hands only or moving your right knee only toward the ball leads to inconsistency. To hit the ball far and straight on a more consistent basis you need to initiate your downswing with your right hand and knee moving harmoniously.

To better ensure that your right hand and knee move together you need to improve your footwork and for better footwork you need to keep your feet planted on the ground as long as possible during the swing.

To get your right hand and knee to move in unison it's necessary that your right heel should not come off the ground prematurely. Just roll the inside of your right foot so almost entire bodyweight is on your left foot at the finish with only the toe of your right foot planted the ground.

That is, you need to avoid getting up on your toes both going back and coming down.

Advanced golfers swing the club down on a flatter plane than they take it back on the backswing so the clubhead works on a more inside path than it took on the backswing. They create an inside path to the ball by re-routing the club from the top or rather by looping the clubhead more to the inside.

That facilitates preserving the torque between your shoulders and hips, promoting solid contact with power and distance. That also helps to create maximum clubhead lag, making it easier to lead the forward swing with your lower body. The clubhead lag is what makes it possible to whip the ball at the right moment without a forced effort. Better yet, that prevents you from making the faulty over-the-top movement on the downswing.

To loop the club inside at the start of the downswing you need to allow your right arm to move freely away from your body on the backswing. That promotes smooth, tension-free takeaway and ameliorates the looping action as it facilitates swinging the club on a path that is more vertical. Allowing your right elbow to move away from your side also promotes smooth rhythm, a core ingredient for solid impact.

Be sure that the clubface is looking at the ball for the first few feet of the backswing to prevent the clubhead from working overly inside. Crucial here is to avoid fanning the clubface open or swinging the club too far inside.

Swinging the club back too far to the inside causes you to push it away from your body coming down, resulting in the coming-over-the-top problem. You need to move the clubhead above the original shaft plane created at address so it works on an upright plane. Just imagine yourself making a really long putt and all good things will happen naturally.

To get the club to loop inside thrust your left hip upward at the initial stage of the downswing instead of trying to loop it with your hands. Once you've reached the top of the backswing on the proper plane, that lets the club automatically loop inside. Leading your downswing with the lower body prompts the club to drop onto the inside path without your having to try to do so.

From there, all you have to do to hit the ball far and straight is just turn your body through toward the target, swinging the club high over your left shoulder.