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Ballantrae at Birmingham
Instructional Tips
Ballantrae Lesson #5 – Full Swing
It’s not about the arms!!!!!
OK – We have worked hard over the first 4 articles in this series to improve all of your pre-swing fundamentals. From this improved address position, you can successfully build a great swing. Most folks sadly use only their arms and hands primarily to swing the club. They lack distance and consistency because of this approach. In this article, I want to emphasize the importance of learning to “turn your body” to create the swing. If you have ever thrown a ball correctly, you recognized how important it was to allow your weight to transfer from one foot to another. As you cocked your arm to throw, your body weight transferred to the trailing foot, and then as the ball left your hand as you threw it, your weight transferred back to the opposite foot. Golf is no different! Weight must transfer back and forth as you swing the club as well. Using only your arms to swing the club will not create this weight movement that is needed to make an effective swing. You must feel the body turn using the steady spine as your pivot point. Think about turning your back to the target first, followed by facing the target to complete the swing. You should feel the body weight moving back and forth as you perform this turn. The arms, hands and club move right along with this turning motion. One key component of this action is the right knee (right-handers). As you wind the trunk back with a good turn, the right knee must act as your brace so it remains flexed as it was set at address and cannot move sideways during the back swing. The combination of this turn and a properly braced knee will guarantee a powerful coiling motion and sufficient weight transfer onto your trailing foot. This motion should be done slow and smooth as there is no reward for a hurried backswing! Once completed, turn the body the other way and “let it happen”! The completed swing will have you facing the target, with all of your weight balanced on the target side foot.
You will be amazed at the difference in power as you begin to add body turn and weight transfer to your effort to swing a golf club! A nice, simple drill to feel this motion involves no club. Simply assume your address position and cross your arms in front of your chest. Then feel the trunk of your body move back and forth with a nice smooth turning motion and weight transfer. This excludes the arms from control and puts the responsibility for the backswing on the turn. When you add the club to hit shots, this feel of turning will remain with you and slowly replace the arm swing you previously made.
Ballantrae Lesson #4- Stance and Ball Position
Now that you have worked on improving your grip, aim, and posture, it is time to mention the last couple of pre-swing fundamentals that will ensure a great starting position from which to build a great swing.
Stance – The longer the shot, the wider the stance – When hitting a wedge on shorter pitch shots, your feet should be relatively close together. On full shots, the rule of thumb is to have your stance wide enough to maintain perfect balance, but narrow enough to rotate your trunk freely and shift your weight as required. On your longest clubs, position your heels so that they are no wider than the width of your shoulders. Then gradually narrow the stance as the club length shortens.
Ball Position – Position the ball with short irons opposite the center of the stance and the driver opposite the left heel (right-handers). Stagger the rest in between these points according to their length. Nothing is played outside of these suggested points unless you are talented enough to play a specialty shot. An example of this would be a very low shot under a tree limb where you would position the ball back of center in the stance. Generally speaking, to hit a lower,hooking shot, play the ball further back in your stance – for slices and higher shots, play it further forward.
Once you master the set-up points we have made in these first 4 articles, you will be ready for learning more about a proper swing. Lesson # 5 will begin that segment of improvement.
Ballantrae Lesson - #3 – Aiming
Do you ever pull shots to the left of the target (right-handers) or push them to the right? If so, it may very well be an aiming problem that causes this to happen. It is a proven fact that very few golfers line up to their intended target very well. Most right-handers tend to aim well right of target. Needless to say if you aim to the right of your target, you will have to swing left in order to come anywhere near the intended target. This creates a need to make an incorrect swing and we see a lot of this aiming problem as the root cause of a bad swing.
To correct this aiming problem, we will use a tried and true remedy-“Railroad Tracks” – Imagine that you are hitting shots down a railroad track. The outside rail is aimed directly at the target and your ball is set up on this rail. Meanwhile, your feet are positioned on the inside rail along with your hips and shoulders, all parallel to the outside rail. Now you are standing “square to the line of play”!
On the range, replicate this picture by laying your putter on the ground exactly parallel to the ball to target imaginary line. Then position your feet, hips and shoulders as square/parallel as you can to the putter which becomes your guide for square alignment. Practicing with this guide regularly will provide an accurate picture of the target as you swivel your head to look downrange on each shot. You will rarely see a tour level player practice without their guide in place.
Ballantrae Lesson – #2- Grip
I hope you have all read and digested the notes from lesson #1 on Posture. That information carefully applied
will help anyone’s ball-striking quality and help to eliminate tops and fat shots.
Do you ever have trouble slicing? Do you lack adequate distance, especially off the tee? If you answered yes to either problem, you are in a huge group of golfers worldwide who suffer from these same problems. The number one reason for this is a poor left hand grip (Left-handers think opposite hand). Most golfers hold the handle too high in the left palm and have the hand turned too much to their left. This is what teachers refer to as a “weak” grip, meaning it is a weakly-positioned grip. Correcting this fault has two steps, one is positioning the handle of the club in the proper position within your hand, and the second is ensuring that the attitude of the hand is correct before gripping the club. The handle should actually be positioned in the left hand from the base of the little finger through to the middle of your index finger. (See Example)
Although this is still primarily a palm grip, it is more in the fingers. The attitude of the hand must be as it hangs naturally beside your left leg.
This typically means that the hand is rotated and points more inward. We measure this application by studying the “V” relationship between forefinger and thumb. The angle of the “V” should point towards your right shoulder with the club extended in front of you. If the attitude of the hand is correct, you should be able to see three knuckles with the club gripped and extended in front of you.
These two adjustments have many positive features; they will free up your wrist action and allow the club to swing more freely which will in turn add speed and a free natural release of the clubface. That adds distance and eliminates the slice. One additional point is needed about grip pressure. Avoid holding the club too tightly. The vast majority of golfers hold the club much too tightly because it is not gripped correctly, and they feel it slipping as they swing. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being tightest and 1 being lightest, strive for about a 3. Another indicator of problems with your grip is unusual glove wear. If your glove shows unusual wear on the heel of the palm, your grip needs work!
Try this correction process on your own and ask any Ballantrae professional staff member to check your grip for accuracy. We will verify that your grip is correct or help you fix it on the spot!
Ballantrae Lesson - #1- Posture
Do you ever have trouble hitting “tops” and “fat” shots? If so, it is likely that you are suffering from poor posture at address. Of the five pre-swing fundamentals of golf, posture is probably the most often overlooked. Too many players attempt to “keep their head down” at address by gluing their chin to their chest – BIG MISTAKE! This procedure positions the head in the way of a good, full shoulder turn leaving no room for the shoulder to fit under the chin at the top of a good backswing. As a result, the swing becomes an effort of the arms rather than a good turning effort of the trunk, and severely limits proper weight transfer.
To improve your posture, study a side view of your address position using a full-length mirror. Then go through the following steps to assume correct posture for full shots:
- Begin by standing erect with your feet turned outward slightly, weight evenly distributed and the stance about the width of your shoulders
- Next, flex the knees slightly until you feel your weight moving onto the arches of both feet
- Then stick your rear end out as you tilt slightly forward keeping your lower back flat with your chin up. READ AGAIN – KEY POINT!
- Now let your arms hang naturally downward as if holding a club and feel your upper arms resting lightly on your chest.
- Last, tilt your left shoulder and left hip up slightly, and relax your right side dropping the right shoulder a fraction.
- YOU’RE THERE! Now your spine angle and center of gravity are correctly positioned. This new address position may feel very awkward at first which probably means it is correct. Check your posture often using a mirror to maintain the correct position! Now go and enjoy some better quality shots for a change!!
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