A Few Keys to Powerful Impact
By Kim Jeong-kyoo
Korea Times Golf Columnist
The golf swing is a circular motion and to take your game to the next level you need to learn to swing the clubhead around the body on an arc that promotes powerful impact.
Starting your downswing by rotating your right shoulder out and around toward the ball-target line or uncocking your wrists prematurely forces you to swing the clubhead on a path that is from outside to in, bringing about slice or pull-slice. You make a divot that is pointing left of your target.
A good way to keep your right shoulder from moving out and over is to be sure that the buttons on your shirt are pointing to the right of the ball at impact.
Similarly, tilting your right shoulder too much at the start of the downswing or getting it too low on the downswing, you will swing the clubhead on a path that is overly from inside to out. When that happens, the club gets behind you with your elbow stuck behind your hip.
From that position it's impossible to accelerate the clubhead toward the target as you have no alternative but to throw your elbow out away from your body and cross your right hand over the left to square the clubface through impact. To hit the ball powerfully you need to keep your right elbow in front of the hip halfway down. You need to feel as though your right elbow is attached to the front of your front pocket. If you allow your arms to separate from your body or your elbow to get stuck behind your hip, you'll make poor shots.
For solid impact it's essential to keep your right elbow close to the front of your hip when the clubshaft is parallel to the ball-target line with toe of the clubhead pointing straight up. That makes it easier to turn your torso aggressively and release your hands and arms freely and fully.
Also crucial to powerful impact is proper work of the wrists through the ball. Unless your wrists work properly, you can't hit the ball to your potential distance. For a powerful swing, you need to cock your wrists upward on the backswing and uncock them downward through impact so the right wrist flattens or even bows slightly just after impact. The clubhead will stay below the hands well into the release.
Re-cocking the wrists upward early on in the follow-through so it is higher than the hands is incorrect. The clubhead needs to stay below your hands after release until when the clubshaft gets parallel to the ball-target line and horizontal to the ground.
A common fault committed by recreational golfers is trying to hold the clubface square past impact. That causes the left elbow to go up and away from the body, making the ball go high and short or curve to the right.
Instead of trying to keep the clubface square to the target at the halfway point of the follow-through, cross the right forearm over the left so the forearms are level.
Slice results from getting the handle of the club too far ahead of the clubhead without forearm rotation through the ball. Usually, the ball starts to travel straight down the target line, curving to the right at the end of its flight.
To cure this type of slice, or rather, to hit the ball flush, you need to rotate your right forearm over the left through the ball so your left-hand knuckles face the ground immediately after impact.
To let the ball curve slightly from right to left on a consistent basis, watch your ball flight and adjust when to rotate your forearms. Forearm rotation at the right time increases your clubhead speed, squaring or slightly closing the clubface for a shot that travels far and straight or slightly curves from right to left.
Stopping your body turn after impact allows the arms to get ahead, resulting in pull or pull-hook. To hit the ball powerfully it's essential to shift your bodyweight to the left and rotate your body toward the target; a good way to attain this is to push hard off the inside of your right instep.
To create power you need to use the ground for leverage, rolling off the inside of your right foot with its heel off the ground.