1. First, the easiest thing to check is your grip. If your grip is too strong (hands positioned too far right on the grip) then this can promote a closed club face, promoting a hook. Weaken your grip by making sure your thumbs are pointing straight down the middle of the shaft instead of to the right.

2. Next, you will want to focus your attention on your posture. Hold your club out directly in front of you. If you stand too upright, your swing may tend to be a little too wide and your hands may become a little too active coming over the ball.

A good drill for correcting your posture is to hold the grip end of your club level with your belt buckle, effectively making a “T” with your body and the club. Now hold your arms out and extend away from your belt buckle, then bend over until the club hits the ground. This will give you the proper posture to hit the golf ball.

3. The third step to correct your golf hook is to use the famous head cover drill. Just pull out one of your head covers and place it under your right arm. Now take a few practice swings, keeping the head cover under your arm. This drill forces you to keep your right elbow close to your body, promoting the proper swing plane, reducing the chance of a hook.

4. One of the most important tips to remember is to shift your weight to your front foot. This is the single most common cause of the hook and one of the best solutions to cure the hook. Be sure to finish your swing with your weight on that leading foot.

5. Lastly, check your swing path. A good way to visualize this is to picture a clock on the ground in front of you. Your target is at 12 o’clock. Those who hook the ball tend to swing the club on a 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock swing path. A proper swing path will go from 6:30 on the backswing to 11:30 on the follow-through. To correct your golf hook, check your swing path and make appropriate adjustments, and you will see results.

Aaron Leonard writes for the How to Survive Stuff site.

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A great backswing requires practice and understanding the biomechanics of the golf swing.

A good backswing starts with your hands, and then the arms and shoulders follow in one smooth motion.

Swing easily and smoothly. When you are ready, tee the ball up and swing away. Swing issues and technical moves should be worked out on the practice range.

Shorter backswings and the longer ones are both relative to the amount of shoulder rotation each golfer creates. John Daly can turn his shoulders back more than 90 degrees.

Shorter players will have a flatter swing with elbow closer to the side as they generate power from added hip turn and leg drive. Taller players will have a more vertical or upright swing, generating clubhead speed more from the width of the arc; they will probably find a close-in elbow constricting.

Backswing Form

In order to learn how to get more extension and turn when initiating your backswing, here are a few simple tips.

The mistake that most players make is loosening up their grip too much, especially with the left hand (on right-handed players). By all means, loosening your grip will definitely help your clubhead extend further behind your body, but remember that you must re-tighten the left hand. This causes a change in the alignment of your clubhead. The result is far less accuracy when hitting the ball.

It is best to always maintain a firm, yet light grip on the club. Varying your grip pressure during a swing is not recommended.

By far, the best way to increase the arc on your backswing is to turn your left shoulder further until it has reached a point over the right foot. This way you will always have a full turn, thus creating the fastest speed of swing that you can possibly generate, while still maintaining balance and grace.

The Top of Your Swing

At the top of your backswing, always check the position of the club shaft in order to be sure that you are on the proper plane and accomplishing a full backswing. The club should be perfectly parallel to your target line, and the clubhead should literally be pointing at the target.

An easy way to determine the changes that are needed in your swing is to have a partner examine your moves. Better yet, have your partner videotape your swing. This way, you can determine the changes that are needed so that your club will point directly towards the target and your swing will be on the correct plane.

If you are right-handed, then check to see if the club is pointing left of your target. If so, then the club is considered to be “laid off” which typically results in a slice. When the club is pointing right of your target then you have “crossed over,” which may result in a hook.

With a little work and practice you can fine tune your backswing so that the clubhead will always be pointing directly towards the target.

Verlyn Ross owns and operates Golf Strategy, which includes a wealth of free golf articles.

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As a golfer, the most important trick of your trade is your swing. The importance of a good swing can never be over emphasized. If a good swing is part of your repertoire, your game should improve by leaps and bounds. Following are some small details that could help you master that elusive golf swing.

• Contrary to popular belief, the perfect swing is not really about a golfer’s powerful arms. What you need to learn and master is bringing your whole body to direct a concentrated and powerful swing of the club. Having strong arms alone is not going to get you that. Remember, more power and more control means a better swing. Your entire body is going to turn with your club, but don’t forget to keep your legs facing the ball. Also, your leading arm should not be bent at all. For a backswing, the force should come from right around your body. This helps to gather the power before the final swing.

• Cocking the wrists is one of the most important aspects of a good swing. It can make or break your game. Remember that your leading or playing arm should always be over the swing. This means that you will look like a waiter holding a tray, which is actually the perfect position to be in. However, this has to be practiced at least daily before you can do it effortlessly. It also helps in building powerful wrists.

• The feet should be right. This is one of the most common mistakes made by a first time golfer. Never, and I mean never break your stance. You need your perfect stance to maintain a controlled and powerful swing. Never lose your concentration.The front foot should generally be placed firmly on the ground. No matter how great the power, do not move the front foot. You might twist your back foot to gain momentum, but the front foot stays in place.

• Eyes on the ball. There is a very easy way to ensure that your eyes never leave that ball. Before you start your swing, make sure that your buckle faces the ball. Once you do that, there will be no way you can be looking elsewhere. At the end of the shot, your buckle should be directed exactly at the place where your ball should land. But don’t forget to keep the feet on the ground. Never lift them from the ground. When your entire body is thus concentrated on the shot, it is bound to be good.

• Practice. This is the most basic and the most relevant tip of all. Practice and practice. There is really no replacement for this. Think about your play. Concentrate on your form, and then on your speed and power. Analyze your style. Videotape yourself so that you can see your swing and pick out the errors later. Follow this and see your game improve.

Steve Crooks writes for Golf Club Mentors where you can get more information and honest opinions about the perfect golf swing.

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Wouldn’t it be nice if all our golf ball lies were as level as they are on the driving range? Unfortunately they are not… and golf would not be as interesting if they were!

We often find ourselves in situations where the ball is above or below our feet, or we are hitting from an up or downhill lie. All of these lies affect the way the shot is played and how the ball will fly. So how should you play these shots?

Uphill Lies

When you are hitting from an uphill lie, the ball will fly higher than normal. The slope you are hitting up effectively adds loft to the club. So take an extra club to compensate. Always try and align yourself perpendicular to the slope. This will stop you coming in too steep on the shot.

Downhill Lies

When you are hitting from a downhill lie, the ball will fly lower than normal. The slope you are hitting down effectively removes loft from the club. So take less club to compensate. Again, always try and align yourself perpendicular to the slope. Play the ball slightly back in your stance to reduce the chance of hitting the ground first.

Ball Above Feet

When the ball is above your feet, you are standing more upright and therefore the swing becomes flatter. A flat swing will encourage a draw or hook, and the ball will tend to have a lower trajectory, flying farther. To play this shot take less club and align yourself slightly right of target to allow for the draw/hook effect.

Ball Below Feet

This could be the hardest shot in golf! The ball is easily caught thin as you are “reaching” for it. The ball will also have a tendency to fly to the right of the target because of the fade/slice spin applied by coming in to the ball from a slightly steeper angle. To play this shot well you need to make sure you “sit” in your stance a bit more and align a touch left of target.

One Final Tip

Most important in all these shots is to maintain balance.

Next time you are practicing, try and find an area to play from that is not level so you can get experience and learn to play uneven lies.

Mark Pearson plays and coaches golf professionally in the UK and has over 25 years golfing experience. He is the author of How to Master Putting and Putt Like a Pro. Visit the site and sign up for a FREE 7-day E-Course on “Course Management Keys” covering on-course strategies for low golf scores.

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Warning: If you are a weekend hacker and are happy with it, do not read this. Just click away from this article and go on with whatever you were doing.

If you play just for the heck of it and could care less about the score or competition, there is a great knitting site you may be more comfortable with. Go there.

For everybody else, those of you who strive to get better at golf, this is an absolute must read.

I plan on not messing around with this. Rather I want to get right to the point.

And here it is. The best players in the world, not all of them but the vast majority of them, and all of the top name players in the game, do this one thing consistently.

Now think about this for a second.

Most players and many teachers will tell you one thing, and do an entirely different thing in their swings. It’s not so much that they don’t want you to know the truth; it is more that they just don’t know what actually happens in their swing.

But for the sake of keeping this short and to the point, here is the one and only magic move that anyone on the earth can do if you are of sound health.

Here, in the real golf world, where players break par routinely, they, the players, almost all do exactly the same thing.

They keep the club face square to the ball for as long as possible.

Have you ever wondered why some waggle the club as part of a pre-shot routine? Observe them very closely next time you watch a PGA or LPGA player.

Their waggle is a wristy movement, with very little arm movement. And no real backswing. It’s just a little movement of the hands. The purpose is to remind them of the position the right wrist must be in throughout the swing in order to keep the club face square to the ball throughout the swing.

This is something, the proper waggle, that you can do in your living room. It is so simple it borders on stupid. But if you do it correctly and get the feeling of where and how the hands and wrists are supposed to work, well you will soon be hitting it like never before. Honest.

You must know that there are no PGA players who have bad grips. If they did have poor grips, it would not allow them to make the correct hand movement, even for just the waggle.

So make absolutely positive that you have a great grip.

Here is a brief explanation:

With your left hand only (sorry to you lefties)… grip the club so that your hand is more on top than it is on the side. You should be able to see at least two knuckles when you look at the back of your hand.

Now put your right hand on the side of the club… not the top and not under. Make sure that the thumbs of both hands are not on top of the club, they belong on the sides. If you do put them on top despite being told not to, you will be unable to get your wrist in the correct and mandatory position.

Ok… the left thumb now fits into the lifeline of the right hand, and it fits there very very snugly. This grip is not light. It is not a loose grip. It is a tight grip. Not a death grip but close. If you think I’m nuts, watch a PGA player as he prepares for a shot. Look at his forearms, you can see all the muscles and tendons as they are flexed in response to a very tight grip.

A good example of saying one thing and doing another.

If you have the grip correctly, at this point you should (must) feel the following things.

1. Your right hand index finger should feel some pressure against the grip of the club; this is quite noticeable.

2. The middle and ring finger of your right hand should feel a slight pulling in the “up” direction.

3. In response to this pulling, your right hand inside the thumb pad that sits on the left thumb, will feel some pushing down onto the left thumb.

4. There will be a degree of “squeezing” between the right index finger and the right thumb. This is not an attempt to squeeze the life out of the grip. It just exists.

If you follow all of that, you will now have a pro grip. It is not as easy as it sounds. But let me tell you that if you do this grip, you increase your chances of doing this magic move tenfold.

And one other thing, if you have less than a great grip, you will always be less than a great player. Lastly on the topic of the grip: It is without a doubt one of the few things in the golf swing that anyone with two hands can do perfectly every single time.

So how do you feel when, in the future, you get lazy with this pro grip and drift back to the one that won’t work, but you do it anyway? I would be naive to think that it won’t happen!

Now let’s do the waggle.

What you want to accomplish here is a rehearsal of the real thing. This waggle is not meant to “loosen” you up, or to reduce tension. It’s one and only purpose is to get ready to duplicate exactly the position that your hands are going to be in at the top of your swing.

We are going to do this in two parts.

The first one is, after we take this great pro grip and get all the four (4) feelings under control, you push down on the left thumb with the lifeline of your right hand. Do not move your arms.

The club should have moved up some and be at about a 45 degree angle to your body, and the arms have not moved yet.

Check the position of both hands now. You should see two knuckles of the right hand and one knuckle of the left hand. The right wrist is now bent back toward the right forearm.

Remember to remember that at this point the arms have not moved.

Now a little explanation. What you have done so far with the waggle move is to pre-set exactly the correct position of both your hands as they should appear at the top of the swing or, better said, the finish of the backswing.

Now repeatedly do this with the hands only. Do it 25 or 30 times till you get it exactly correct. Check the check points. If you will do this so that you become very comfortable with the waggle as it has been explained, and the grip as it has been mandated, you will then be able to actually hit a ball.

Ready?

Now back to set up and your first move is the waggle, check points please at this time.

Now the swing, start by using exactly the same move as you did with the waggle, but now allow your shoulders to turn into the backswing, bringing the arms and wrist with them as a unit — not independently moving either hands or arms. Just let the shoulders do it.

Bring the whole thing to the end of your backswing. Whatever and wherever that is will be just fine.

Stop!

At the finish of the backswing I want you to check the right wrist and the left hand to make sure all is well.

The left hand should be flat. Not cupped back, not even a little. And it won’t be if you have done this correctly because your right hand will be in the same position that it was during your waggle.

That is, the hand will be bent back toward the right forearm. Exactly as it did when you waggled. Provided you did it according to plan. That is the reason I asked you to do the waggle 25 or more times to make sure you did the check points. All so that when you got to the finish of your backswing you would be in the correct positions.

It’s all about angles folks, the waggle put your right wrist in the correct angle and the shoulder turn kept the angle intact.

Some call the right wrist position at the top the trayed position.

Now for a quick drill.

Do the waggle, repeat it exactly into a small swing. About half or less. Let the arms move into the swing by the turning of the shoulders while maintaining the position of the hands. Now just turn into the ball allowing your arms to fall toward the ball, maintain the hand position through impact. Slowly at first and gradually speed it up as you get used to this new and exciting feeling. Results will come… promise.

Paul Macleod publishes ebooksbestbuy.com where you can learn the four magic moves in a golf swing. Learn the first one for free and take it to the range for a spin. 

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In part 1, I discussed the impact that simplifying the golf swing can have on consistency and accuracy. More specifically, minimizing your weight shift back and away from the ball is your first step to a more consistent golf swing.

Proper weight shift forward and through the ball on impact will help you improve your golf swing resulting in straighter balls with more distance.

In practice, this means less sliding through the ball and more swinging your weight around your body.

How to Keep Your Leading Shoulder Closed Through Impact

If you struggle with a golf slice, you are likely opening your leading shoulder through impact. This is a very common mistake made by golfers who are learning how to play golf.

Opening your shoulder through the impact zone makes it very difficult for your club face to come through the ball in a square position. The most common result is contacting the ball before your clubface can get square causing the ball to be sliced.

Take a series of swings with your knees and feet held together is an effective free golf swing tip that will promote a more consistent clubface position at impact. Keep everything else the same, making a normal golf swing.

Keeping your knees and feet together causes a few things to happen:

• It promotes a more even distribution of weight in your swing minimizing your ability to shift your weight backwards and allowing for your weight to turn around your body through impact.
  
• It gives you the opportunity to focus in on the relationship between your arms and your body during the golf swing.

Most golfers who slice the golf ball don’t let their arms start the downswing. Your arms should swing away from the body and shouldn’t move in concert with your shoulders. Lead with your arms to promote a more consistent ball striking.

The above golf swing tip can be used on the practice range or the golf course itself. Keep in mind that you will likely hit the ball at 80% of your normal swing but will be rewarded by the consistency of your ball striking.

After you develop a rhythm using this practice drill, gradually go back to your normal stance.

Michael Kosmala provides proven golf teaching techniques and golf video instruction that help average golfers reach their full potential through his website YourGolfFix.com.

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When we finally realize that golf is in our head in a big way, we can attack the animal where most of our golf swing issues arise.

For instance, when you take your backswing, I bet that in your head you think, “terrible back swing I am in trouble,” and you give up on the swing on the way down. Meaning, you straighten up and remain on your backside and flip it. Now, I bet that if you stayed with the swing and transferred your weight, you would have hit it a ton better then when you gave up on it. So why don’t we just trust our swing even if we feel it’s a bad backswing and complete the downswing?

How about when you are on the first tee and you swing so fast because you just want to get the swing over with and move on. Plus you know your swing looks so ugly, or you are so concerned about your swing that you do a hundred mile an hour takeaway and a thousand mile per hour downswing, of course while looking up before impact. And then you peak and it goes in the creek.

What if you just took two big breaths instead and slowed everything down? Slow your backswing down and swing through on the downswing. I bet you’d hit a much better shot. I speak from experience; trust me. Most of my swings were “get it over with as fast as possible cause everyone is watching.” Guess what? Crooked, crooked and more crooked.

Go ahead, I dare you to videotape your swing at the range and see how fast fast fast you swing. When you swing so hard and fast, your body can’t do the things you want it to do becuase it is always playing catch up.

The best lesson I ever had was when my pro made me hit my 8-Iron 100 yards. Guess what? That drill was impossible for me. Know why? Because I swung so damn hard, darn it! After half an hour, I realized how slow and smooth I had to swing to hit a full 8-Iron 100 yards.

Go ahead and try it some time; your tempo will thank you. Suddenly you will start turning your hips on the downswing, turning your right knee towards the target and trapping the ball like a pro. How can you do all those things at 130 miles per hour? (My swing speed by the way is 130.)

So the biggest thing amateurs can do to improve is fight the mental midget that lies in our heads and swing sloooow and smooth. Trust me, even your slow speed will be plenty to hit the ball a long way. Think about it, you are hitting a rubber hardened ball with an iron head at the end of a long stick. It will go no matter what.

We all see the guy at the range with the dark sun tan, beautiful white teeth and beautiful clubs that look like they cost him a ton. Beautiful golf clothes head to toe, sweater vest, etc. Then you see the swing, and oh my what the heck was that? One hundred miles per hour back and 200 miles per hour through, all while standing up on the downswing. The ball flies 140 yards dead right. He immediately in rapid fire succession launches 30 more balls in a row directly right and further right because he keeps swinging over the top, and further left so he cuts across everything.

Don’t be this guy. Realize that swinging on the inside is the only way to not slice. The club must come inside! How to get it inside is very difficult for most amateurs because it feels so wrong.

In baseball, a game we all played as kids, if we want to pull the ball to left we swing the bat faster and earlier and pull it left. A slicer sees the ball going right, so he starts pulling the club left to try and make the ball go left. Makes sense to me and I used to do it. However, this doesn’t work in golf. To fix it, I’d get a weighted club and slowly swing it 20 times a day, forceing that club to come from the inside on the downswing.

Good luck and don’t be that guy on the range any more.

David Kierstead is an ex-20 handicapper that is now scratch after only three months of lessons and hard work. Learn how he did it on his site.

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Most golfers spend countless hours trying to reproduce a highly technical swing that only a handful of professionals can replicate on a consistent basis. So it’s no wonder that the United States Golf Association recently reported that only 10% of all golfers break 100 on a consistent basis.

Many golfers learning to play golf shift their weight back on the backswing because this is what they see countless pros do on TV over and over again. What they don’t realize is that you don’t need to swing like a pro to lower your golf handicap. In fact, simplifying your swing will dramatically improve your golf swing, increasing consistency and distance.

How to Minimize Weight Shift Back and Away From the Target

Improve your golf swing by minimizing your weight shift back and away from the target. Reducing your weight shift back is the first step to gaining more consistency in your golf swing.

If you are used to shifting a lot of your weight back during the golf swing, it may take several practice sessions to get used to this new concept. Breaking your backswing into several smaller pieces is one of the free golf swing tips that will make a real difference for you.

Start by taking the club back and up to parallel making sure that your weight hasn’t shifted. Once you are able do this move consistently, make a ¾ swing. Continue until you are making a full swing without moving your weight backwards.

Develop Increased Consistency and Distance in Your Golf Swing

By minimizing your weight shift back and away from the target and shifting your weight forward on the downswing, you’ll be adding consistency and distance to your golf swing.

You will still need to shift your weight forward and through the ball to improve your golf swing and distance. Your ball striking will also improve because you will be limiting heavy or “fat” golf shots.

NEXT: Part 2

Michael Kosmala provides proven golf teaching techniques and golf video instruction that help average golfers reach their full potential through his website YourGolfFix.com.

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I recently worked with one of my readers who asked me for a second opinion on a video swing analysis that he had just received that brought up an interesting point about adjusting swing plane. He went for the lessons with the goal of increasing his driving distance by 10-15%. He was also experiencing pushed shots to the right.

The video analysis revealed that his swing plane on the backswing was very flat. Being a large-chested man who lacked a little flexibility in his upper body, he had developed a tendency to “wrap” the golf club around his body on the backswing. The net result was a shallow downswing that came into the ball from a sharp inside-out club head swing path that often caused the pushed shot to the right.

What he needed to do to help correct the push problem and also improve his distance potential was to adjust his swing plane to a more upright plane.

This would cause the club head swing path to move a bit more down the target line, giving him an increased margin for error at impact. It would also help the backswing create more potential energy from a higher top swing position, causing increased swing speed at impact.

His instructor correctly observed this. However, the fix for the problem provided was a little misleading.

His advice was to “raise the hands” more on the backswing, essentially the end result he was looking for that would come with a more upright swing.

The reason I decided to focus on this is that I often read and hear about “raising the hands” as a means of creating a more upright swing. This is also a technique used by some instructors to encourage more trunk rotation on the backswing to increase backswing torque and swing speed.

It’s a little misleading since the student is presented with instruction that can create other problems with his swing. As it turned out, that was what happened with my reader.

His instructor was encouraging him to get his hands up above his head and shoulders, which further encouraged more trunk rotation and raised his swing plane, which is what his instructor was looking for. But due to his lack of flexibility, it created a lot of left side muscle tension and also a severe break in his left elbow.

Swing plane is not governed by your hand movement — it is determined by shoulder movement. The higher hand position is the “result” of a more upright swing, not the means to get there.

To adjust your swing plane, your focus has to be at the start of the swing, not at the end trying to achieve a result that many golfers have no hope of reaching due to their lack of flexibility.

Swing plane is affected by how you rotate your left shoulder — the more you rotate your shoulders “horizontally” around your spine, the flatter the swing plane, as was the case with this reader.

To increase the swing plane angle, rotate your shoulders more “vertically” by driving the left shoulder down instead of around at the start of the swing.

Initiating the backswing turn with a vertical shoulder movement instead of “lifting the hands” helps your left arm remain relaxed, and helps maintain a stable left side with no elbow break. Incidentally, this also results in reducing the possibility of an early hand release from the top of the swing.

We all know that increasing backswing torque increases swing speed.

Rotating your shoulders more achieves this end. However, you will not generate any more shoulder torque by breaking the left elbow just to get your hands into a higher position — you end up losing torque.

The reason why you have to break the elbow in the first place is because your shoulders will not turn any further. If they have reached their limit of flexibility that’s the maximum torque you will achieve from the trunk turn.

The left elbow breaks because the arm muscles are unable to match the tension that has been built up in the trunk turn. Once the break occur, you release the torque contribution from your arm muscles, essentially “opting out” of the total torque built up in the turn.

The net effect is that you lose backswing torque after the break occurs.

Breaking the left elbow also creates another moving part in the swing that has to be coordinated back to the straight position at impact, making the timing of the swing more difficult.

Be very careful about what you hear and read about the “high hand position”. Yes, it is the ideal swing position for power and consistency that we see in every professional swing, but you have to have the flexibility to achieve it.

If you lack the flexibility, do not attempt this as you will create more problems with your swing than you will solve.

Recommendations:

1. Never try to swing beyond your “natural” swing range, which is what the instructor was advising the reader. Always swing within your natural range of flexibility.
   
2. A move to a higher swing plane angle is good for both swing consistency and swing speed; you get there by a more vertical rotation of the shoulder that comes from driving the left shoulder downwards at the start of the swing, not by trying the raise your hands above your head.
   
3. Do not break the left elbow. Even though your hands may not be able to go beyond shoulder height, maintain a firm left side to retain backswing torque and simplify the timing of the swing.
   
4. In order to achieve more shoulder turn, you have no other choice but to improve the flexibility of your back muscles. Do simple lower back stretching routines every day for 2-3 weeks, and you will increase your turn angle by as much as 10º.

Les Ross is the author of Breaking the Distance Barrier  and owner of Highlander School of Golf which provides personal “live” online technical information that is flexible for the student and cost effective. Try out the online seminar experience and register for their free seminar on ”How to analyze your own swing.”

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Back in the day, good golfers used to roll their hands open on the backswing. This move opened the club face at the top of the swing. An interesting position to be in since you want the club square at impact.

This open position created a need to make a severe correction on the way to the ball in order to square the club up at impact. This correction required tremendous timing and great hand eye coordination. Only the best players could do it on a consistent basis.

This is absolutely true.

So, here is a question: Why in the world would someone of average or less talent attempt this exact move over and over and over?

I must admit that I have no clue as to what the answer is.

But, what I do know is that I see this move all the time. Golfers swinging their arms and rotating the club face open and then having no idea how to get the thing back to square.

So how do you know if you are one of those?

If you take your normal move away, watch the position of your left elbow. If it tends to move up and your right elbow tends to move down, you have rotated your arms and opened up the club face.

If you know what to look for, tell someone else to see if you are opening the club face. You will have to explain exactly what you mean. But that might be more reliable than for you to look at your own elbows.

What happens next is when the mess starts.

Almost everyone will cast the club or “get long” on the downswing. This is in an attempt to get that club face square. Unfortunately, it is a very serious power drain, it releases the club way early, it causes you to ” drag” the club to impact and you will likely hit the ground way before you hit the ball if you don’t compensate by having a serious and powerful weight shift.

WHEW!

That is the bad news. Trying to make this move is almost impossible. I know this very well since I used to do it too. I was cured when I took a lesson at David Leadbetter’s golf school here in Florida.

I will give you the benefit of this golf instruction. A golf lesson that to this day is one of the very best bits of golf instruction I have ever participated in.

The cure for this problem is simple, if you can do it. It is “just don’t roll your arms,” but that doesn’t cut it for most. Kind of a let down, I know.

Here is one way to look at it.

Make the club face look at the ball for a very long time on the take away. Keep it looking at the ball. Do not roll it away. And about half way back the club face should be almost looking at the ground.

If you put pressure on the grip with your right index finger to hold the club face square while moving it into your back swing, you will be able to keep the club “looking at the ball a long time.”

Try it. Grip the club and put down pressure on the grip with your index finger of your right hand. All the while thinking of keeping the club face looking at the ball.

Or…

Take another ball and put it behind the club on the ground. Now push it straight back as you move away.

Or… take a small block of wood and place it behind your club on the ground and push it back straight as you move away.

Either way will show you how to move the club back without rolling your arms and getting the club open.

Now if you are able to do this, you will find that your hits will be crisp and there will be a divot. After the ball, not before.

This move should also shorten your back swing some. Believe me that is a very good idea.

A check point is your left wrist at the top of the swing should be flat. Never cupped.

Another is that half way into your back swing the club face should still be looking at the ground… more not less.

The right wrist should be in the trayed position at the top of your back swing. More not less.

If you are able to get this done, you will be shocked and amazed at the difference in your ball striking. Remember to give it a chance. These moves don’t come overnight. And they are not easy. Be willing to take the time and effort to become as good as you can at this game. You can do it. We all can.

So have at it… Get her done!

Paul Macleod publishes ebooksbestbuy.com where you can learn the four magic moves in a golf swing. Learn the first one for free and take it to the range for a spin.

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