Hit Longer Off The Tee

When you strike a good drive, the feeling is almost euphoric. To hit those drives that you wish for,your body and swing must all work together and be in sync.

Although you may want to hit the ball for distance, you must also, strive for accuracy. The ideal drive would be to hit the ball for distance and accuracy. You can do this with practice.

You will not hit perfectly straight drives, all the time. If you are like most golfers, you likely have a natural fade or draw. So, just play to your fade or draw and you should be alright.

Also, when we say far, this could mean different things to different people. Some golfers may think 175 yards is bombing it. Still many others will hit the ball 275 yards. Now, let’s see how we get get you more distance and accuracy on your drives.

Lets begin with how you address the ball:

One of the most important aspects of your swing, is your set-up. You must align yourself to your target. Bend at the waist and bend your knees slightly. You need to put the ball 4 1/2″ left of the center of your stance. Grip the club normally. Relax, and let your arms hang below yyour shoulders.

Swing tempo is our next subject:

Swinging too fast will not necessarily get you more distance. Slow your tempo down, on your backswing. When you reach the top of your swing, you need to pause for a second. This will allow you to begin your downswing with your hips leading the way. An increase in clubhead speed, will add distance to your drives. To achieve this, you need to incorporate your whole body in your swing. Your arms, legs, shoulders and hips must all work together and meet at the point of contact.

Balance:

If you want to hit longer straighter drives you must remain balanced. Staying balanced is crucial and it all starts with your set-up and swing speed. If you swing too hard, you will lose your balance, as well as distance and accuracy of your drives.

You should concentrate your efforts on hitting the ball straight first, then you can try to add distance .

If you can hit the ball real far, but, it is always in some hazard, it will probably cost you more strokes, than if you just kept it in play with a shorter drive.

Your local golf pro can help you with your swing.

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This post was written by admin on December 10, 2010

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How To Set-Up Properly

The following golf instruction tips will help you with your overall swing.One of the most crucial steps you can take to hit a good golf shot, is to set-up properly. You will not hit with power or accuracy, if you are not set-up properly.

Many golfers fail to remember this fact when trying to correct a swing problem. Your set-up, or address as some golfers refer to it as, is part of the basic fundamentals of golf and should not be ignored.It is one of the most crucial golf instruction tips you should follow.

Address the ball correctly, and you will be able to coil and uncoil your torso and stay balanced. When you are in balance, that gives you the ability to generate more power. The more power you can create, the longer your shots will go.

Need to know if you have set-up correctly? The next important golf instruction tip is stance width.Just keep reading, to learn how to get into the correct stance. Your stance should be 2″ wider than your shoulders, when hitting your driver or long irons. For mid irons your feet should be shoulder width apart. For short irons you want to narrow your stance a couple of inches than shoulder width apart. Every golfer is not the same, these are excellent starting points for you to practice with. Your stance can be corrected as necessary.

Now, your lead foot should flare slightly toward the target. This will encourage proper coiling of the shoulders and hips. The Back foot should be straight to the target. With your knees flexed, You should bend slightly from the waist. In this position, your shoulders and arms will form a triangle, with your elbows pointing at your hips.

When lining up to your target, be certain your shoulders and hips are square to the target. By doing this, you will have the best odds of hitting your target area.

Placing the ball correctly in your stance, will improve your ball striking ability. Ball position will be different, due to the different shaft lengths. The longer the clubs, the farther forward the ball will go in your stance.

When you are using the driver, position the ball forward 3 ball widths in your stance.

The ball should be placed 2 ball widths forward in your stance, when using your fairway woods and long irons.

Middle irons: The ball should be positioned 1 ball width forward from center.

Short irons and wedges: The ball should be placed in the center of your stance.

You can adjust these ball placement suggestions to your liking. This will take some practice and time at the driving range. The key here is to find what will work best for you.

You need to make sure your weight on the balls of your feet, not your heels. placing your weight on your heels will prevent you from being balanced in your swing. If you can remain balanced during your swing,you have a better chance of hitting the ball with more power and accuracy.

If you have perfected this golf instruction tips, your swing will start to come together and your scores will begin show it.If you would like to improve your golf stance, check with your local golf course for lessons. You can have a friend or playing partner film you, so you can visually see how you are setting up, and see what you need to modify to get your stance right.

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This post was written by admin on December 10, 2010

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GOLF INSTRUCTION – CHIPPING Top Tips

Requiring the utmost authority in golf is a shot that is also one of the shortest in golf. Golf instruction chipping without authority can be thin, fat or even shanked shots. Whatever can go wrong usually will. You’ll be tapping in your next, when you hit chip shots with authority, you will improve your chances.

A few things lead to poor or bad chipping and a lack of authority, they are fear, lack of strength, and indecision. Think of your club as a horse.(i know but stay with me here) confidence plays a big part, it has a knack of ‘knowing’ what’s going on and plays up. The results are way more satisfactory when you show it who is boss and your in charge.

The best way to ensure authority is repetition. Bring authority back to your short game, take on these two strength drills now.                                           
First Drill- Hold your club horizontally out in front of your body, then cock the wrists. These simple exercises will gradually build strength and flexibility into those wrists, repeat each drill for 10 repetitions.

Drill 2; Hold your arms outstretched with a weight (a couple of golf clubs or 440gm cans are fine if you don’t have hand weights) and lift up and down with your wrists.

Your Wrist Power
If the golfclub feels heavy in your hands, it’s difficult to hit a shot with any authority. The pitch or chip is a firm wristed action and the wrist must secure the club to make sure you are in control of your swing. For many beginners, weak wrists can be a problem, however it won’t hurt all golfers to spend some effort on these drills.

Be Decisive
There are countless articles covering club selection and type of chip shot for a particular situation. Whatever your decision, convince yourself that it’s the correct shot – eliminate doubt.
Spend the time on the practice green repeating the same shots over and over again.
Placing a basket or bucket in your backyard at home and practice chipping into that, can really hone your skills. Regularly hitting the target could mean that your decisive, have strong wrists and on your way to getting a lot more of your chip shots closer.

Learn the proper chipping set-up; weight on lead side, ball slightly back of centre in your stance, eyes and hands closer to the target than the ball is at address.
Learn to hinge and hold; During the backswing use your dominant hand (right for right handed) and hinge the club slightly.
Hold this position post impact, in the follow through. That is, don’t let the clubhead pass under your lead hand before impact. At impact the back of that hand should be closer to the target than the ball is. After reaching impact, you may release the club a little.
Relax. Scooping a chip shot into the air, getting to wristy is an amateures number 1 difficulty.

Golf Instruction Chipping Tip- Bet on the percentages

It might look fancy in the air but there’s a higher risk of error when you increase your loft for a greenside chip. Extra loft decreases the margin for error at impact and decreases the size of the landing  zone on the green.
A shot best used by the pros is the second bounce check-up, and it is one of the most difficult to play in golf.
For amateur golfers I suggest going for more roll and less air time, always remembering to land on the green.. When faced with a chip around the greens, relying on a simple formula means using less lofted golfclubs. Of course, primary to this for any golf shot is some on course management. As is a brush up on the finer points of golf instruction for a balanced posture

Golf Instruction Chipping, the method
When chipping, your target is not the flag, your focus is on your landing spot. This will vary depending on the condition of the green and the loft of the club you are using. Start with a five iron, and increase the loft depending on  the amount of green available, using the following ratios.

  • 5 IRON

20 percent flight, 80 percent bounce and roll. ?

  • 8 IRON

33 percent flight, 67 percent bounce and roll

  • WEDGE

50 percent bounce and 50 percent roll.

First practice chipping with an 8 iron then once you’ve mastered that learn to use your wedges.

Here is a great golf instruction chipping tip I learned a while ago, try this. In your normal stance for a chip shot, grab a ball and throw it underarm at your target to gain a feel for how hard you will need to swing the club.
Try this to get a feel of how much strength is required to fly the ball onto the green and up to the cup, throw the ball about 2/3 of the way to the hole and allow to roll out. To gain a feel for the shot this is a good technique.

I hope these few golf instruction tips will help you to improve your short game and reduce the number of shots in your round the next time you go out on the course.

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This post was written by admin on February 23, 2010

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