Swing your hands and club in a circle
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By Kim Jeong-kyoo
The golf swing is a circle. You need to rotate your body and swing your arms up while hinging your wrists. Your body motion is incorrect if your clubhead does not travel in a circle.
You first need to grip the club so your hands hinge up and down, not sideways. You need to hinge your wrists the way you would to swing a mini-sledgehammer. The most natural way for your wrists to hinge is “straight up and down.” You need to avoid hinging your wrists sideways. That places too much strain on your hands, restricting your wrist hinge. To hinge your wrists freely or strongly, you need to cock your wrists up and down. That allows you to hit your ball more powerfully.
Typically, you’d better have a strong left hand grip. Let the V created by your thumb and forefinger point toward your right shoulder, or a touch below it. Grip your club with your left hand so the V between your thumb and forefinger points toward your chin. But experiment with whatever grip helps you hinge your club correctly. Usually, your left hand rotates your club, your right hand taking care of your wrist hinge. Hold your club with your right hand the way you would to hammer a nail into the floor.
Address the ball with your right shoulder lower than your left. To this end, you need to tilt your spine slightly to the right, away from the target. Your right hand sits lower than your left on the handle of your club.
Take a slightly closed stance. The distance between your heels needs to be as great as the width of your shoulders when hitting your driver.
Play your ball off your left heel when you hit shots off the tee. This will allow your left arm and club shaft to form a straight line from the face-on view.
Place more than 60 percent of your weight on your right foot. You need to do the same when you hit your ball.
Waggle your club several times, with your left hand moving slightly inward so the club works inside the target line. During your waggle, you need to feel you can hit your ball toward the target. Critically, you need to aim to swing your club in a circle.
Also, imagine you are hitting a soft draw. A draw travels farther than a slice or straight shot. Picturing a draw will help you slightly close your clubface when you hit the ball. You will also swing your club down slightly inside your target line.
Once you have carried out your last waggle, swing your club back the way you have waggled. You need to swing your hands and club back in a circle. Or, simply let the butt end of your handle create an inward and upward C-shape. Critical here is keeping your head steady. Do not allow your head to wobble to the right.
Complete your backswing by hinging your wrists fully as you count “one.” If you finish your backswing properly, your left arm will rest roughly at a 90-degree angle to your spine.
Start your downswing by holding your weight on your right side as you count “two.” Your goal is to avoid shifting your weight prematurely to your left side when you hit your driver. That way you can better stay behind your ball through your shot, swinging your club from inside the target line. More importantly, you will bang your ball with an upward blow.
Succinctly, to hit your tee shots at your best, feel you are keeping your weight behind the ball through the shot. Shifting your weight prematurely will not put you in position to hit the ball to your satisfaction.
Usually, shifting your weight to the left coincides with a hip shift to the left. If you shift your hips too much to the left, you will get the club stuck behind you. Leaving your club behind your right hip an instant before impact, you will incur pushes, push-slices or push-hooks.
However, you need to start your downswing by shifting your weight to your left when you hit an iron. That allows you to hit your ball solidly with a downward blow and put backspin on it.
You need to place your weight differently when you hit your driver and when you hit your iron. When you hit an iron, your ball is on the ground. When you hit a driver, your ball is on a tee. To hit your ball down, you need to place your weight on your left foot, or in front of your ball. To hit the ball up, you need to place your weight on your right foot, or behind the ball.
Practice hitting irons with your right heel up at address, with the left heel down. Keep them that way through the shot. Similarly, practice hitting your drivers with your left heel off the ground at address, with your right heel down. Stay that way through your shot. When you swing for real, just try to re-create the same feeling.
Practicing these drills, you will put your body in an ideal position for swinging your club on the correct angle of approach. You will also learn to look at your ball properly when you hit it. With irons, you will look at the front of your ball. When you hit a driver, you will look at the back of your ball.
Once you start your downswing correctly, you will naturally produce solid, powerful strikes. Just whack your ball as you count “three” and finish low and around your body. During the follow-through, you need to feel your left arm moving left, to the inside of the target line. You are swinging your club in a circle. That way you can achieve the inside-to-down-the-target-to-inside path that you need for consistent shot-making. Your left knee also turns left, helping your left arm swing left.
Do not try to finish your swing with your hands resting above your head. That is not natural and thus costs consistent contact, depriving your swing of power and distance.
Finish your swing with your hands low and around your body. That way you can turn your hips briskly through impact. This helps you speed up your club to the full and bring your club down on plane. Importantly, you will release the right side of your body freely through your shot. Finishing low and around, you need not use your arms and hands to square your clubface through your shot. It happens naturally. You will eventually hit your ball more consistently and accurately.
To recap, do not try to hit your ball using brute force. Concentrate on getting your club swinging in a circle. Thinking of a circular swing, you will stop committing errors including swaying or the coming-over-the-top move. You will start hitting your ball far and straight, to your heart’s content.