Perform Better Golf Blog

The No Backswing Golf Swing. What the heck? I thought the Stack and Tilt Golf Swing was the new, whiz bang golf method taking the golf community by storm. Is golf now getting like dieting? There’s a “new way” every week.

This no backswing approach is one that’s been used as a golf drill by golf instruction professionals for years, so it’s kind of comical this is the new craze in golf swing improvement.

It has a lot of merits to consider. The short backswing makes your transition and sequence of motion in the downswing much easier. It enhances solid ball contact which maximizes distance; so what you think you might lose from backswing coil, you gain in ball/clubface contact.

Unfortunately the negative is the golf swing requires a take-away. This no backswing golf swing removes that, so you might have a difficult time carrying over from the drill to can actual swing from address.

This may or may not be an issue, but I think doing the No Backswing Golf Swing is worth a shot. Who knows…you may dramatically improve your golf swing consistency and mechanics.

To achieve maximum power in your golf game, you must be able to fully hinge, unhinge and rehinge your wrists. A lot of clubhead speed comes from this wrist action, especially through impact. Hingeing (or wrist cock) your wrists, creates lag. Lag enhances power. Power means LONGER drives!

When I think of lag from the wrists, I think of Sergio Garcia. He has the most impressive, nearly impossible wrist lag (delayed wrist cock) on tour. It’s absolutely amazing to see him with his hands near impact, and his wrists still fully cocked.

One of the LONGEST hitters on the PGA Tour is JB Holmes. He is another perfect example of gaining maximum power through your wrists.

Hinging and unhinging (rehingeing) the wrists is ONE motion. This is where golfers get it wrong!

I took a quick picture(s) to show you the very SIMPLE motion of the proper wrist hinge.

I’m hinging, the second picture is unhingeing, and the third is rehingeing. That’s it!

Another common term for wrist hinge is wrist cock. Look how my wrist is bending only ONE way! This is SO important. It doesn’t break side-to-side, only up and down. Combine the turning of the shoulders, dropping of the arms, and this hinge, unhing and rehinge of the wrists at the right time, and you’ve got a TON of POWER!

Learning how to be better at golf is a lifelong mission for most of us. Peaks and valleys is commonplace. We all are addicted to the challenge of hitting a good shot, and once in a while hitting one that keeps us “coming back”.

Below is a list of golf improvement approaches that you can use independently or in combination to learn how to play better golf:

Golf Instruction

The golf swing requires certain movements that are not very natural, so golf swing instruction should be at the top of your list, especially if you’re a beginning golfer. Learning the fundamentals of golf is something every golfer needs and struggles with even as you improve.

Golf instruction can be through private one-on-one golf lessons. Group lessons (which are less expensive). Online instruction is becoming more and more popular. Golf instruction books. And golf instruction DVDs is another great alternative, that is much less costlier than private lessons.

Golf-Specific Fitness

I’m making this number 2 on the list, but easily could be a tie with number one, as many golfers, especially senior golfers have physical limitations that will not enable them to apply what they learn in their golf lessons, making improvement nearly impossible.

I am a firm believer that you are only capable of what your body can do in golf. In simpler terms, your body is keeping you from a better game. How many times have you told yourself you need a bigger backswing? Come on…be honest! What you are indirectly telling yourself, is your body can’t make a bigger backswing, and I’m telling you the ONLY way to improve it is with golf-specific stretching exercises specific to your backswing.

If you’re looking for longer drives, you need to improve your core strength and flexibility. This is the engine to your golf swing. When I talk about fitness, I’m not talking about going to a gym, and spending 2 grueling hours a day. I’m talking about doing, easy, fun and effective exercises right in your home with minimal equipment.

All you need is an exercise ball, exercise tubing (w/handles) and hand weights. That’s your entire golf fitness “in-home” gym. For under $50 you can have your own golf fitness gym, and start seeing results quickly.

If you need guidance on your golf fitness program, take a look at my Effortless Golf Swing Training System.

Golf Swing Training Aids

Another great option that can be very effective for specific swing faults is a golf swing training aid. There is a lot of garbage out there, and a few good pieces. The goal of any training aid is to ultimately make your swing better, but more specifically to help you correct YOUR personal swing fault.

This swing fault may be any number of them, such as a slice, top, thin, chunk, hook, pop up or any other ugly mishit that we all hate. There is only ONE training aid I think so highly of that I offer it on my site. The hinged golf club is an absolute gem of a training aid.

This club gives you INSTANT feedback as to the mistake you’re making in your golf swing. Whether it be a jerky takeaway, or an off plane swing, the hinge will break to show you it’s incorrect. Whether your tempo is off, or your swing plane, this training aid will get you corrected making a near perfect golf swing in no time!

I’ll be back later today, to finish this post, so stay tuned!

The full golf swing is something that should be a major focus for any golfer at any level. If you can’t make a repetitive swing that holds up for 18 holes, you’re in for a long round that ends up in frustration and unhappiness.

My personal golf instructor has agreed to provide some valuable golf swing tips right from his Golf Swing System that I’ve personally used to add 15 yards on my drives, and lower my score by 5 strokes, and I was a single digit already.

There are so many components to a good swing, that many golfers get overwhelmed and frustrated, never to improve. This golf swing system I’m talking about is simple, effective, easy-to-implement, and better yet…I’ve used it personally with awesome results.

I spent the past 10 years looking for a golf professional who could help me with my game. Thousands of dollars later, I finally found MY PRO! Not only has Bobby helped my golf swing immensely, he REALLY cares about me. I have NEVER met a golf instructor with SO much passion and care.

Have you ever been obsessed with getting a divot in golf swing? I used to struggle to get a divot even with my sand wedge until I finally realized you “hit down on it” to not only get a divot, but to make the ball spin and hold on the green.

Golf Divot

Creating a divot means you are hitting the ball first, then the ground. A divot before the ball is called a “fat shot”, which is something you want to try to avoid at all cost. A fat shot loses a tremendous amount of distance.

On the other hand, hitting the ball then taking a divot in your golf swing is something the professionals do on every golf swing they take. In order to do this, your hands have to be ahead of your clubhead at impact, which creates a descending blow on the ball. The most common problem is golfers try to lift the ball in the air and the clubhead gets ahead of your hands causing thin or bladed shots.

Your ball position can also play a role in where you contact it at the bottom of your golf swing. If it’s too far back, it’s hard to have room to rotate after impact. If it’s too far foward, you end up sliding laterally to get to the ball and hit it.

The ideal divot is about the size of a dollar bill and is only a half inch deep. Deeper divots mean you are coming down too steep onto the ball.

The moment of truth in golf - impact position! It really doesn’t matter what you do unless you get back to impact with a square clubface. I was watching the Natalie Gulbis show on The Golf Channel, and some guy asked her what the most important thing in the golf swing was, and that is exactly what she said. “Square impact!”

If you look at Tiger Woods impact below, you’ll see that his hands are ahead of the clubhead and he is compressing the golf ball. I got this off YouTube so it’s not a really good picture, but you can see what I’m talking about.

Impact position is different with your driver as you need to sweep the club into the ball, not hit down on it with your hands ahead like with this iron shot above. But with most, if not all your irons, and even hybrid clubs, you should have your hands ahead at impact.

Head

Your head should not slide laterally towards the target during the downswing. Tiger’s head actually is further back at impact than when it was at address. This takes a tremendous amount of core strength  and flexibility, and most golfers (especially senior golfers) don’t work on their core, and could not achieve this position with the head.

Shoulders

Here’s a secret golf tip Ernie El’s gives about the shoulders in the golf swing. At the start of your downswing, get the left shoulder moving away from your chin as soon as possible. Look at how far Tigers chin is from his left shoulder at impact. A flaw I currently have is not clearing my hips, and getting “jammed up” at impact, and you’ll see my chin is still quite close to my left shoulder. I am working on getting those shoulders to clear through at impact.

Hips

Your hips are definitely starting to clear at impact. The are aggressively rotating to the left to get out of the way for the club to freely swing at optimum speed through impact and beyone. I have a swing fault where my hips don’t clear as much as they should, and I fight and grind through impact. I am working on golf swing drills as we speak to correct this.

Knees

You can see how Tigers right knee has really “kicked in” towards the golf ball, and his left knee is starting to straighten (but not lock). You know you’ve rotated your hips if that right knee is more kicked in that when it was at address. Your knees will show you a lot if you ever get on video.

Feet

The feet believe-it-or-not play a key role at impact. The weight in the feet has changed from address to impact, and the right foot is really starting to “kick in” resulting in the right knee kicking in as mention above. The downswing should start from the ground up, and the first move is with the right foot pushing off. Now don’t think this is a lateral push, but more of a rotational one. The left foot has more weight on it at impact.

I truly believe impact is EVERYTHING in golf, and if you don’t get it right, you’ll be one heck-of-a frustrated golfer for a long time.

If you’re looking for a more powerful golf swing you must use your hips. Look at how much Tiger Woods uses his hips in the downswing? In fact, most of the touring professionals utilize their hips to create more power, especially with their driver. On tour, hitting it at least 275-280 is a must, as most of the golf courses play well over 7100 yards, making even a standard par 4 over 440 yards.

In my golf swing, I connect my upper body and hips together (one plane golf swing) to generate a HIGH amount of clubhead speed. For many senior golfers having the strength and flexibility to generate hip rotation separate from the upper body is almost a physical impossibility. You have got to have a level of hip flexibility that will allow you to powerfully rotate them first at the initial part of the downswing.

Many golfers can’t get the sequence right coming down. Usually they fire the upper body first, getting the golf club off-plane, creating a steep, out-to-in swing resulting in a big slice. Being able to initiate the downswing with the lower body first is critical to longer golf drives.

Look at the picture to your left. You can see the golfer has definitely fired his hips first, while keeping his upper body back to apply a powerful blow behind the golf ball.
If you’re like me, I have struggled for years trying to get my hips to clear, but not from lack of strength or flexibility, but from the wrong move coming down. Once I figure it out, and now swing around my body, my hips clear easily allowing me to really fire my right side through impact.

So if you want more power and distance, you need to use your hips in your downswing. If you can’t physically do it, you might want to look at my Effortless Golf Training System to improve your golf swing biomechanics through muscle and joint mobility training with EASY golf swing exercises and stretches right in the comfort of your own home.

In continuing with my new golf swing which is more around my body, I have come to the conclusion it’s a one plane golf swing. All I am trying to do is turn back with my shoulders, and turn through with them as well. My arms are following my shoulders almost in a passive mode, although I am one that uses my arms very aggressively, so I am working on that part.

The one plane swing totally fits my belief in what my body does more comfortably, which is a more upper body move than a lower body one. Since converting only days ago, I thought I might hit some wicked pulls and hooks, but to my surprise I have only hit a couple of pulls out of over 500 balls I’ve hit at the range so far.

I no longer have a hard time clearing my hips, as I am now swinging so around my body instead of vertically ‘down’ that it’s natural for my hips to clear. All those golf lessons that did not help…ugh!

So far it seems so easy to swing with a tilted circle in my mind. I am not trying to drop it in the slot, as for me that NEVER worked! All I think about is turn back and turn through in a more rounded fashion. I love it!

After all these years of struggling to take my game to the next level (low single digit) I had a HUGE revelation yesterday, so of course I ran to the range to try it. Wow! This could truly change my game forever. Let me explain, and maybe it can help you with your golf swing.

I have been a student of the golf swing for over 15 years now, and have studied every inch of the swing. I own every instruction book ever written, and I have golf swing sequences of all the greats in the game.

I am a VERY analytical person, so I tend to “over-analyze” everything, which for golf is not typically a good thing.

Well…one flaw I had in my studies of the swing was to try to mimic the downswing from the front angle. So looking straight into the mirror. I found out yesterday that it has been misleading me for ALL these years! You see…the golf swing is NOT just a down movement, but more importantly an “around” movement. The golf swing is a BIG continuous circle around your body.

The HUGE mistake I was making was focusing on “coming down” and not around! This was an epiphany for me. This down motion all these years was not allowing me to clear my hips and swing to the left after impact. I would come down steep on the ball, my left shoulder (and hips) would get jammed up, making me come up at impact, then I would just muscle it through to “hit” the ball not swing through.

And another very exciting thing is I hit the ball a LONG way with that BIG technique flaw. Once I’m able to FREELY swing around my body, I can confidently predict my drives will be over 330 yards, as I now drive it 300 quite a bit of the time.

You can bet one thing for sure!

I’ll be banging balls for the next few days ingraining this AROUND feeling. In fact, yesterday after I had this epiphany, I went out and hit 100 balls with my wedge and it was AMAZING! It was working. It was such a different feeling for me after all these years swinging the OTHER way.

I am SO EXCITED about this and I hope you can take something away from this as well.

The journey continues!

Getting a breakdown of the golf swing might not be the best thing to do if you want to SIMPLY improve your game. Breaking down every aspect of your golf swing can get overwhelming. Many golfers and instructors get too mechanical with swing technique and actually get worse not better.

The golf swing should be kept as simple as possible. 

Just think of playing baseball and swinging the bat. Would you ever think of each and every bodypart and what it should do to hit the ball? NO! Then why would you do it with your golf swing?

If you want to break it down, you can cover:

• Grip
• Stance
• Posture
• Ball Position
• Takeaway
• At The Top
• Transition
• Downswing
• Impact
• Post Impact
• Finish

That would be more than enough to think about, but if you can have one or two thoughts or drills for each area, you might be okay. On the other hand, this golf swing breakdown might completely ruin your game.