Picture this, you have arrived at the range and are ten minutes into your practice. So far you have hit the ball great and are really getting into the groove that you thought you could. And it sure feels good to get that confident feeling on every shot. Right?

Ok .. so all of a sudden, out of no where, you can’t seem to repeat the earlier move. You are now stink’n up the joint with one bad swing after another. And you know that if this keeps up you won’t be worth a crap. But you keep at it. Swing after swing after swing. Results? You ****!

In total disgust and anger at this point you ponder what the next move is. Go home. Stay and work it out. Go putt. Chip? Maybe hit some mini swings with full swing fundamentals.

And, yes, people are looking at you. Making you feel even more useless and exposed. This is not what you came here for. So, go home. That’s right go home. Go now before you change your mind and start the foolishness all over again. Go on!!

Or……….. you could try and figure out what the heck happened to your swing. Thinking that this could happen while you were playing, you should find a way to fix it.

Ok, I agree. Good idea to fix the thing while you are there. No time like right now. Going home is the sissy way out and will leave a bad taste in your mouth and a bad swing on the range.

Bad ideas, both.

So here is what we all should do.

First go get a drink of water or take a short walk and take three deep breaths, exhaling slowly.

And believe this, it happens all the time. Even some of the best players have this exact same issue from time to time. It’s no wonder golf is such a brain twister.

So what to do.

It always gets back to basics. I know that sounds kinda cope outish. But it is the most realistic comment that anyone could make in this instance.

Re-check your grip. Double check your alignment. Triple check your ball position.

Is your posture still good? Spine angle still strong and straight. Sometimes there is a leaning toward getting a tad lazy with the little things and it gets a bit too comfortable, forgetting that all the little things in your set- up are precursors to a good solid swing.

Miss one and you mess up all the rest.

Once you have checked all of these, time for the first move. Make sure you set your angles and keep them through out what you are about to do. ( I assume you are using a lofted iron)

Now with good angles, move to the half backswing position, but make sure your shoulders turn fully. That would be 90 degrees to the target line. Or left shoulder under your chin.

The chest moves the arms and hands as they are now not active. Just let them go along for the ride. Remember to maintain your angles. This is a half swing with the arms and hands.

Your move to the golf ball is filled with objectives, but we will only be using one.

Keep you angles intact all the way through impact. However you have to do this, you must do this.

Some find that they can mentally connect the arms to the shoulders and just turn the shoulders and of course the arms go with them.

This is a minny move, you are not trying to hit the ball anywhere. You are trying to get sequence and timing, along with a sense of control back to where you are in charge of yourself.

Tempo, sequence and timing will start to come back to you as you just lazily, but correctly, muddle through this drill.

Maintaining angles is what this is about.

The golf ball should be getting off the ground crisply and may have a slight right to left movement. That is just fine. But if it is moving left to right you will need to pay attention to clubhead path. Make sure you are hitting the inside of the ball.

You are entitled to a slight weight shift with this drill if you like, but it isn’t really necessary.

A very fast review on angles, there are two we are concerned with. The angle of the right wrist to the right forearm. This is the ” trayed” right wrist position. That’s one.

note: the left wrist should not be in the awful “cupped” position.

And two is the angle that is formed by the shaft and the right forearm. That’s two.

The latter, in this drill, will be about 90 degrees as the left arm is parallel to the ground and the shaft is pointed straight up in toward the sky.

Keep this angle.

Take it casually here as you work out the stress of being the driving range laughing stock. In a matter of moments your swing will be back and you will shut them all up.

Nice feeling right?

Oh .. if you read the article on what lag is, you would have read about the drill, bump and drop.

This is an excellent drill to work on your angles and know what they are and how they feel. And the neat part of this drill is that you will never get negative feedback as you will not be hitting any golf balls.

Happy now?

If there is a magic move it’s in this bump and drop move. Harvey Penick knew it and wrote about this exact move in his ” Little Red Book”

So let me be clear that I did not make this one up. Harvey did. Try it. It works.

By: Paul Macleod

About the Author:

You’ve been playing golf forever and you still stink when you’re out on the green. You’ve got all the necessary gear, all the training stuff, and you’ve watched videos and tutorials online. So, what’s the problem?

Even if you play golf as a hobby, you’ll always need to be concerned with correcting golf swing problems. There’s nothing more rewarding than noticing that you’re scores are getting lower. You’ll gain more confidence and feel better about your game.

Here are some simple tips for correcting golf swing problems.

Keep Your Eyes Open

When you go golfing with friends, watch them. During the first few holes, check out everybody and see who’s the best player. Don’t worry about all your own slices and mistakes; find out who’s the best in the group and study their moves.

You’d be surprised what you can learn just by watching others play. If you don’t get out to play as much as you’d like to, watch pro golf on TV. Instead of thinking about how impossibly good the players are, watch what the do and pay attention to their technique.

Practice Practice Practice

I can’t write tips for improving your game without mentioning practice. Practice a lot. Okay, I mentioned it, so let’s move on!

Watch Yourself

When you’re doing all this practicing I mentioned above, videotape yourself and watch your swing. This can really help you notice things you wouldn’t have noticed before. When you are practicing, you’re so busy DOING it, that you might not notice a mistake you’re making.

Watching the video back, you might notice that your posture is a little awkward, or your address a little off. You can watch different shots and see how consistent your set-up is. You can see the angles from the outside, and you can even compare your swings with those of your favorite golfers.

Just remember to erase them when you’re done. There’s no reason to keep an archive, and let’s face it, it’s a little weird to have a hundred videos of yourself practicing golf!

If you’re not into the audio-visual side of things, practice in front of a mirror. This will help too, and you can practice your “Nice shot!” face.

No More Slicing

The most common problem with most golfers’ swings is the dreaded slice. The slice is basically when the ball goes veering off to the right of where you meant to put it (of the left, in the case of lefties).

If you slice a lot, you are probably swinging in too much of a downward motion. In other words, your swing plan is too steep.

Try flattening it out. If you flatten it out too much, the ball will start veering to the left (or the right, in the case of lefties). Try to find the right balance between too-steep and too-flat, so that the ball goes just where you want to put it.

Sometimes slicing is caused by improper grip or stance. Make sure you have the proper address before you take your golf swing, and you’ll eliminate this problem.

There’s a lot that goes into making a perfect golf swing, and all of us can stand a little correcting once in a while. Always correcting golf swing problems will help improve your game and get you over the slump to the next level.

By: Mandy Fain

About the Author:

There are plenty of swing devices out there that claim they will have you swinging like a pro in no time. They are all based on a few foundational parts of a swing, that, if missing, could be catastrophic to your game. The worst thing is, a majority of golfers are doing it.

I can guarantee that the pros like Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Charles Howell, and everyone else out there never bought any of the crazy devices you’ve seen in the late night golf infomercials. They never bought the swing plane device or the red ball one. They all have, on the other hand, worked extremely hard to make their swings picture perfect.

A normal golfer, however, does not have nearly the time to practice that most pros do. You know the type… normal people like you and I. Instead, we have to deal with the very little time we have to make our swings perfect. This can only be achieved by focused, and efficient practice, helping to actually work on things that will help a swing.

For example, let’s say that you were to go to the driving range tomorrow. Would you be practicing a good, solid swing that will hit the ball long and straight every time? Or do you think you’ll be reinforcing bad habits? If you don’t know exactly what to practice, what to fix, and what drills to use when you’re practicing, you’re wasting every bit of your time.

The only way to get much better and bring your game to the next level is to pick up a tip and practice it. Usually these tips are found through instruction, whether it be in the form of a golf pro or a course you bought. The tips are no good unless they’re practiced and practiced correctly and consistently.

By: Brad Jeffreys

About the Author:

What is a golf lesson ?

Does golf instruction actually instruct?

After you pay $ 60.00 or so, are you a better golfer?

After you get past all that setup stuff, the swing is actually rather simple.

If you want it to be.

The one thing that makes me madder than a hot match under my fingernails is that when you get instruction from a PGA certified person, you get the standard stuff.

It’s practically all the same.

I don’t have so much of a problem with sameness as I do with whether it is correct or not.

Here’s my point.. if you watch the best players, man or woman, on the tour, you will see swings that are not taught to you on the practice range. It’s not because you can’t do it.

I’m not 100% sure why. Here’s a guess. My guess is that instructor don’t know what the best players are actually doing at every point in the swing. Except impact!

So….Golf instruction is not teaching what the best players actually do in their respective swings.

Let me give you just one example.

Golf instruction tells us to take the club away low and long. That is, low to the ground and far away, before you do any lifting of the club on the moveaway. It’s called separation. A method that creates a wide arc and is supposed to be a power source.

It is true that there are some players that do this.

But not many.

If you try to do it, you will first find it almost impossible, and if are able to do it, you will pull yourself outside of your right foot and never be able to get back to the left side. And you will probably not be able to get the proper wrist position at the top of your swing ( if you ever get to the top)

It is a formula for the impossible. An equation for failure. Very few really good players do this.

So what do they do on the moveaway!

Mike Weir and Chris Dimarco of the PGA tour are excellent examples of what most players are actually doing on the moveaway.

If you watch the pre-shot routine of these two, you will see an early right ( left for Weir) wrist **** or bend toward the forearm. And the club is set at or near parallel to the ground. There is no body movement on this.

If you could stop then right there for a second. Then tell them to keep that position with their hands and just turn their shoulders into the backswing slowly so you could watch. And have them bring the club with the shoulders with no further hand action.

If you could get them to do that you would then see EXACTLY what almost all good players are doing on the moveaway.

A few days ago I wrote an article about the right wrist position and the angles that are important in order to gain leverage and power.

In this article, the right wrist angle to the right forearm and the angle between the clubs shaft and the right forearm are created at or near address with a pushing of the right hand down onto the left thumb.

Please read that again. It sound complicated. It’s not!

This little move helps push the right wrist bent and creates the angles.

This is exactly what Mike Weir and Chris Dimarco are doing.

Then they turn their shoulders and make sure that they maintain the angles through to impact.

The trouble begins when they do it at full speed. It is incredible deceiving. They do this move but it very very hard to pick up without stop action.

This is what is missing for your golf instruction. Golf lessons do not include this move. They should.

Is this a tad advanced? Yes it is. But it is so simple that almost anyone can do it. Try it!

I’m telling you right now, that if you can make yourself do this you will be hitting the ball as if by magic in no time flat. And if you do I would love to hear from you.

By: Paul Macleod

About the Author:

There are different aspects to the game of golf but the swing is actually the most important of them all. There are different types of swings and for each swing there is a certain posture or positioning of your body arm and legs. This posture helps you balance the body for the action or swing required. That is, when you are positioning for a swing its the distribution of your body weight that helps you do it. This can be adapted through some golf exercises.

If you are over weight or out of shape forget about learning how to swing golf, unless and until you are ready to do some simple exercises to get into shape. You will definitely have to be flexible more so to take some long golf drives. There are some specific golfing exercises to become more flexible to improve your swing. Here again there are number of golfing lessons which can teach you this , it can at times become overwhelming, but choose one that you feel will help you gain on the above aspects and you will be on road to becoming a good golfer.

Now golfing has advanced so much that you find golfers choosing different clubs for different shots. But whichever club you use unless you know the correct positioning for the swing you are not going to get anywhere. Golfers are forever looking for instruction materials to improve their game and there are plenty of them to be had but what is behind real success is practice practice and more practice.

By: Sheena VC

About the Author:

Golf is a lifelong sport, one that you can start as a child and continue to do well into retirement. But, that doesn’t always mean that you get better the longer you play. In fact, most of us will go through lulls when we simply aren’t as good as we used to be, and it has very little to do with age. In some cases, it has little to do with the amount of practice you get either. Sometimes you need golf instruction swing help just because your game has gone awry.

One of the major reasons that problems start to develop in a person’s game is because of an injury. If you have something wrong with your body – your knee, for instance – then you will change your swing to adjust for the pain. This can cause some very strange swings and getting golf instruction swing help early, before you cement this into your muscle memory is a great idea.

The most obvious place to get help with your swing is the golf course. Most driving ranges and golf courses have a professional on staff who can watch your swing and give advice on what to do to help you with your problem. You may also want to seek help from a physical therapist who can give you ways to treat your injury if that is the problem.

Golf instruction swing help may also be obtained online. There are plenty of online sites that give you exercises and drills, tips and tricks, that will help you get your swing back to where it used to be. The key with any kind of swing flaw is to address it before it becomes a habit. By getting help early and often, you will be less likely to be stuck with a lifelong of bad swings.

By: Rob Jeffries

About the Author:

Imagine, just for a second that you are a golf swing instructor. And you have made arrangements to conduct an on course golf swing lesson with three of your good clients.

All three are in need of golf instruction and you are fully prepared to give them the works today.

It’s a great day! You feel thankful that you have this opportunity to spend time out on the course.

That driving range stuff can really get old.

And here they come. Three wannabees. The good news is that they are best friends. And they get along with each other very well. So it should be a really good day. Right?

Well, let’s see what they’ve got today. You think to yourself that you just wish they would get the grip right. And the setup. If they could do that it would sure make your life easier.

Your objective today is to compare the three with one another. To see if you can find some commonality in their respective swings. And then, perhaps, you can streamline a program for all three so that when they practice together they would have a clue what they are doing and even help each other to some degree or other.

So here’s how it goes.

You are all on the first tee. Jake tees it up and rips it to the far right. That’s interesting, he hit it so far right that it’s in the driving range with about a million other white golf balls.

Charlie is next and hits a weak slider about 150 yards into the fairway. Ok he gets to at least hit the same ball again.

And last is Kent. He takes about an hour to get set up. He fidgets and fidgets. Grips and re-grips. And then hits a power house snap hook so far left that it actually went over the water into the lawn of one of the residences. So I guess Kent can hit it again if he can find a way to get over there.

This goes on and on for hole after hole. These guys are having a great time. They don’t seem to really care much about where they are hitting the ball or what scores they are putting up. Except for maybe Kent who is mad as hell that he is hitting a snap hook on every shot.

I’m beginning to wonder what I’m doing here. It would be too bad to insert anything negative to their good time.

But they are paying so I might as well get into it. Wouldn’t you ?

Here is what I see. All three hit the ball differently. Kent hits a snap hook, Charlie hits a weak slider and Jake hits huge slice.

The interesting thing to me is that their problems are exactly the same although their ball flights are entirely different.

You see Kent’s snap hook comes from closed clubface and a swing path that is outside in or ” over the top” and it is compounded by little to no weight shift from the right side to the left side.

Charlie has a similar problem, yet his ball flight is totally different. His weak slider is a result of an open clubface, also an over the top or outside in swing path, but his weight shift is backwards. He has a reverse weight shift. He goes to the front foot on the takeaway and then to the back foot on the downswing.

It’s an ugly looking thing.

Jake is a powerful guy. He hits the ball very hard every time. It always goes left to right and it travels a great distance, to the right. Jake takes a mighty whack at it. His motion is hard to see because of the speed of the motion. But it is apparent that after he hits it the clubhead has stayed low and around his body in his finish. And the ball always goes left to right.

This indicates an over the top move and an outside in swing path. He has considerable weight on his back foot, although not as much as his playing partners. He still exhibits the symptoms of a poor weight shift and the classic over the top pattern.

All three of these guys have a knack of getting the ball close when chipping. I suppose it’s because they get tons of practice since they are rarely on the green in regulation.

My conclusion to their individual swings and the fixes is that they all have the exact same troubles. Even though their ball flights are very different. This means that, generally, they can use the same fix to remedy the problems.

The one common problem is poor weight shift. This puts the golfer in a poor position to hit from the inside and so he is forced to throw the club outside the target line to inside in order to even hit the ball.

There is a difference between a reverse weight shift and no weight shift but not so much that the fix isn’t the same. Sometimes a reverse weight shift is caused by the early spinning of the hips in the downswing.

But if we address the weight shift issue it will take care of that.

Ok. So our boys have a slice and a hook. They all have poor weight shifts. They all have an over the top swing paths. What’s the fix?

A good weight shift will cure most of what ails them. A good inside swing path will too.

I can go to any practice range in America and see these swings all day long. It is the single most common swing problem in golf.

First move down? Bump your hips laterally and drop your right elbow to your right side.

Get rid of that weak grip and make it more neutral or a tad strong. Turn your right elbow toward your right hip at set up. ( try that)

Make sure you are set up square or slightly closed.

Lesson over.

By: Paul Macleod

About the Author:

Ok, you spend time on the range, you subscribe to all of the golf magazines, your golf library fills up the entire bookcase, you go to your local golf pro once a month or more, and you still can’t find any consistency with your golf game.

What is your problem?

You are being bombarded with too much information. You have 15 swing thoughts and your brain just can’t process all of them.

Let’s face it. There are many ways to swing a golf club. Turn on the tournament this weekend and count how many successful professionals DON’T swing the club the way you are being taught.

What is the golf swing? It’s hitting a little white ball with a club. Do you really need page after page and hour after hour of complicated instruction? The short answer…..no!

I will admit. After playing many of the popular sports for years, golf is definitely the hardest. Two swings that feel exactly the same can produce entirely different results. A good shot is usually followed by “Wow, what did I do there?” The last few years, I have been on a quest to improve my swing. Many say I have a nice looking swing, yet I routinely shoot in the 80s and 90s, sometimes close to a 100. My mind is filled with thoughts about my stance, my grip, my swing plane, my weight shift, my……ARGH!

I used to have a couple basic thoughts when playing golf.

Keep my head level (not completely still, just don’t stand up taller or dip down).

Let my weight transfer to my right leg (I am right handed) but bend that leg and let the tension build and go into the ground, not get on the outside.

Make solid contact. That’s it.

Years after changing my swing I can still revert back to my old technique. It is far from perfect, but produces a solidly struck golf ball and ok scores, without all of the stress.

So the question…….am I going to abandon all of the work over the last 5 years and go back to the old swing? No. But……..I am going to change my thought process. Most people who spend quite a bit of time playing golf know how to swing the club, and nobody knows your swing better than you do.

So my advice….Pick 1 or 2 things to think about when swinging the club. These thoughts don’t even have to be about anything specifically related to the swing, just something to keep you focused on the task at hand……..making good contact with the golf ball.

Don’t fill your mind with too much garbage. You have swung the club thousands of times. Your body knows what to do so let it….AND….when things go bad, just let it go. Don’t forget…golf is a game and meant to be fun.

By: Marty Calloway

About the Author: