Feel overwhelmed with how many people try to give you pointers or how many articles out there think they can teach you to perfect your swing with just a few sentences? Spoiler alert, they can’t. But there are definitely some great tips you should pick up that can improve your game at the beginning.
This is for your drive and your woods, come back next week for iron tips!
Keep in mind that these are tips we have learned through the years from taking some lessons, picking the minds of golfers we get paired with, and just general research like you are doing right now. It’s true you shouldn’t be taking advice from novice golfers, but these basic tips will not cause any bad habits and are great for tweaking your swing when you just can’t seem to get over that initial roadblock when you first start playing. I wish someone pointed these things out to me when I first started – would’ve saved me months and possibly years of struggles!
- HIPS HIPS HIPS!
This was the major theme of my very first lesson. So much power is derived here, so make sure you are working on turning your hips – don’t worry it’s supposed to feel awkward at first.
- Put your weight on back foot
Don’t go overboard but definitely make sure you have some weight on your back foot. It is ok to rock forward on your swing but note that however much you rock back is how much you need to compensate rocking forward at contact. And ideally you want to end up on your heels after following through but don’t focus too much on this in the beginning if you aren’t.
- Put the ball up in your stance near the inside of your lead foot with your hands behind the ball
Too far forward opens the shoulders too much, too far back pulls your body down and leads to slicing. Also the ball should be teed up so about half the ball is above the club head when lining up over it.
- Keep your trailing elbow tucked in, don’t worry about your front heel coming off the ground
The heel will come off with the turn of your hips, but that elbow needs to stay in – this allows you to swing on an inside track and using your body rotation for power.
- Act like you are pointing the club completely away from your body (feels this way but in reality, you are not)
This creates a bigger swing plane which is key over swinging harder. Once I started consciously doing this the number of hooks and slices I had went down tremendously!
And finally let your arms do the work! Golf swings are much more about doing it right than trying to crush the ball – the distance will eventually come with proper technique.
Only thing left to do now is practice! It’s hard to improve if you are only working on your swing during rounds with your friends.
2 OFF THE TEE 