By Kim Jeong-kyoo
The golf swing comprises chained actions and reflexes. If you grip properly, chances are you will set up correctly. If you set up properly, you will swing back correctly. If you swing your club back properly, you will swing down correctly and hit your ball solidly. Still, to be a consistent player, you need to care for your tempo, balance and weight shift.
Your tempo is the total amount of time you take to make your golf swing from start to end. You can have a fast tempo or a slower tempo. Typically, your tempo hinges on your temper. If you are a hot-tempered golfer, your swing tempo will be quick. If you are an even-tempered player, you’ll have a slow tempo. Either way you can hit your ball successfully if you can keep your natural tempo for every club in your bag. You will immediately get into trouble once you speed up or slow down your innate tempo.
If your tempo varies from club to club, you will destroy your timing needed to hit your ball solidly. That is why you can hit your irons decently one day, but not your driver. Your tempo needs to remain the same for every club in your bag. You need to swing your driver as if you’re swinging your pitching wedge. Your driver is longer than your pitching wedge. That makes your driver move faster than your wedge, allowing you to hit farther. Avoid swinging your club with a faster tempo. That invites disaster.
To find out your natural swing tempo, make several practice swings without a ball, using a 7-iron. Make the swings, keeping your balance. Then hit a tee shot with your driver, focusing on repeating the same tempo with a balanced finish. Practice this drill with all clubs in your bag. Your goal is to keep your tempo remaining constant.
Take care to swing your club at the smooth, rhythmic and natural tempo of your own. And you will hit your ball far and straight to your satisfaction every time you swing. This is why you need to hit your ball, whispering “one two three.”
No less important than good tempo is your balance. If you can keep your balance throughout your swing, you're going to hit great shots. To keep your balance during the swing and hit your ball pure, you need to set your weight correctly. Without placing your weight properly at address, you cannot keep your balance, let alone preserve your posture throughout the swing. When you’re struggling to make solid contact, you need to check first where you’re setting your weight at address.
Setting your weight too far forward toward your toes destroys all your critical angles created at address. That alters the angles of your spine, legs, hips, shoulders and head, typically inflicting fat shots on you. Setting your weight on your heels, you will have thin shots thrust on you.
To set your weight properly, shuffle your feet around at address. Don’t start swinging before you find a balanced position. At address, you need to set your weight evenly balanced on the balls of your feet.
To create power and improve accuracy, you need to transfer your weight properly during your swing. At the top of your backswing, let about 80 percent of your weight shift onto the heel of your right foot. About 20 percent of your weight will be towards the front of your left foot. You need to let your weight move toward the front of your left foot as you start your downswing. Granted, you must let your weight move from your left toes to your left heel at impact. This ideal weight shift helps you deliver your clubhead squarely to your ball as you rotate around your left foot.
However, you’d better avoid shifting your weight on purpose during your swing. The golf swing is like the blink of an eye. You’d better let it happen naturally. Just turn your body correctly, and your weight will shift naturally and properly.
Don’t try to slide your hips too much forward toward the target to shift your weight. That can play havoc with your ability to turn freely, causing less-than-solid shots. Just focus on turning your body. Then, you’ll shift your weight toward your left toes and then onto your left heel. You'll pivot around your left leg properly, hitting your ball successfully. Make sure your weight shifts to the left heel through impact as you turn.
Critically, don’t let your weight shift to the toes of your right foot at the start of your downswing. That forces you to throw your club outside the target line and come over the top. You will cut across your ball, having pulls and pull-slices thrust on you, often incurring a shank.
To avoid this fault, you need to keep your right heel down for as long as possible during your downswing. You need to let your right foot roll to the left. Don’t lift your right heel prematurely as you begin your downswing. To this end, you’d better focus on shifting your weight from your right heel to your left toes.
To learn to shift your weight properly, just throw a ball. You will move about 80 percent of your weight to your right heel on the backswing. Then, just think of turning your lower body as you would do to throw a ball. You don’t need to think of shifting your weight to the left. That way you’ll naturally place about 80 percent of your weight on your left foot through your shot.
At finish, about 95 percent of your weight will be on your left foot, with your knees touching.
A golf swing is like the blink of an eye. You’d better avoid exerting any deliberate effort to achieve a perfect weight shift, or whatever.