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.

If you’re a golfer looking to quickly and effectively improve your golf swing speed, power and distance, you’ll want to take a look at our Power Golf Swing Weight Trainer.

I am always on the lookout for golf swing trainers that will help golfers add more power and distance, and this one “fits the bill” completely!

It is now part of my power training routine, and I can already feel a difference in my flexibility and power.

It’s ONLY a fraction of the cost of a weighted club, and it’s the most portable of all of them!

This is bittersweet!

If you haven’t been following along, I have been blessed to have worked with Morrie Puzzi. A very frustrated golfer who was willing to do whatever it took to see results and get more enjoyment out of his game.

We began a 10 week journey to transform his golf swing and add as many yards to his drives as we could. Along the way we had sickness, holidays and other events, but the journey continued on and Morrie did not let any of these bumps in the road deter him from his goal.

I’m happy to say, Morrie succeeded in many ways!

Morrie my friend, you were a true pleasure to work with, and as I said on the video, we’re not done yet.

If you are interested in doing the very same simple golf swing exercises, stretches and programs Morrie did, I encourage you to check out our Effortless Golf Training System.

We are on Week 9 of our 10 week golf swing transformation with Morrie. Morrie had a frustrating week of golf, but we got him straightened out, and his spirits are back up. We’re on my main blog here, and unfortunately it does not allow comments, but I know your thoughts are with us.

The course and the greens look kind of trashed, but for some reason the video is doing some of this. The greens are much better than the video shows. Do I sound like I’m defending my course <grin>?

The Power Golf Swing Trainer we had Morrie try turned out so good for him, that he bought one right here on the site, and here’s what he had to say about it:

“Mike let me try his Power Golf Swing Trainer the other day…..and wow! It keeps your triangle and right arm in tact all through the swing. I added imediate distance and I could get through the ball with out trying to steer it. I ordered one for my self!

Many of you have been following “Mondays With Morrie” I’m Morrie, and this simple comfortable trainer worked for me in just a few swings I could see the triangle. Check out
my next episode tomorrow….you’ll see some mighty powerful results.”

Want a great golf gift for your loved one, co-worker, even your boss?

I have come across what I know to be the most effective power golf swing trainer to hit the market in a LONG time, that will definitely increase your power and more importantly your driving distance.

Take a look below at how I use this everyday, and can outdrive anyone in my foursome easily.

This is the Perfect Connextion Power Golf Swing Trainer available at Perform Better Golf!

Golf instruction just got a lot easier. Taking golf lessons is critical, but if you don’t have the correct feeling for a connected golf swing, you’ll struggle indefinitely. This swing trainer gives you “instant feel.”

Senior golfers struggle with golf swing mechanics due to declining physical abilities. You have 2 choices. Improve your physical abilities with golf-specific conditioning, or use effective swing trainers like this one to quickly see improvement. The combination of both is best!

Golfers need to understand feel, and feel is learned, not taught!

For any holiday,  Christmas, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Birthday’s, this is a great golf gift!

Golfers want to know the “magic bullet” for a better golf swing. What if I told you the most important thing in golf swing theory was some simple tip that any golfer could apply and see results? I hate to tease you like that, but I can’t do that!

Nobody can! Doesn’t matter if you pay $30 for a lesson, or $500. You have physical issues that are different than the golfer standing next to you. What will work for him may not work for you.

The root cause of your swing faults can be linked to a physical limitation or just bad swing mechanics, due to a lack of understanding of the proper golf swing sequence. Learning the golf swing fundamentals is the first step in understanding the correct golf swing.

Grip, stance, ball position and posture could easily be considered the most important thing in your golf swing, as if they are wrong, you will have no chance at creating a repeatable and sound golf swing.

Once you get the fundamentals down, you should break your golf swing into parts, and completely learn these movements before you move onto the next part (phase).

One-Piece Takeaway

The initial move in your golf swing is your golf swing takeaway. Take the club back in one piece with the hands, arms, shoulders and club handle move together the first 2-3 feet. This will promote a repeatable golf swing with no additional moving parts, like a wrist break or lift of the clubhead too early.

9:00 O’clock Position

When your club gets parallel to the ground on your backswing, it must be also parallel to your target line, and the toe nearly facing towards the sky, but not quite. With the checkpoint, you are on plane and on your way to a solid golf swing.

Top Of Backswing

There are many different ways golfers get to the top, and based on your current physical restrictions, you’ll either get in the ideal position or something hopefully close to it. This position is a 90 degree shoulder turn, with a 45 degree hip turn; the club is again parallel to your target line; your right elbow is pointing down, not out; right knee has same flex in it as it did at address.

Golf Swing Transition

This could be considered a very important key to a good golf swing that you can repeat for 18 holes. Your golf swing transition should start from the ground up. Your weight moves from your back leg to the front. This is not a lateral slide, but there is a definite shift towards the target. The upper body is held back at this point for a split second.

9:00 O’clock Position

We’re back to the 9:00 O’clock position like in the backswing. And we should be in almost the identical spot. Club parallel to your target line; toe of the club facing nearly skyward; right knee kicking inward toward the golf ball; your weight is now 50/50 at this point.

Golf Impact Position

Some of the top pro’s when asked what the most important thing in the golf swing is will say IMPACT. That answer makes a lot of sense, because this is the ONLY time your club contacts the ball, and the result is what your golf ball will do.

Your golf impact position should be as similar to the pro’s as possible. Shoulders back to square (or slightly open); hips rotated open quite a bit; hands ahead of the ball (unless it’s your golf driver); descending blow into back of ball; weight is 80% on your left leg; clubface is square.

Golf Swing Follow-Through

Just past your impact is the 3:00 o’clock position in your follow through. In this position, it should mirror your 9:00 o’clock one. Your club shaft is parallel to your target line; the toe of the club is up; your hands have turned over because you’ve released your club through impact; your hips, chest and shoulders are now facing the target; and your weight is now 90% on your left side now.

Balanced Finish

If you’ve done everything right, you’ll be balanced and completely on your left leg. Everything is facing the target. Your arms are relaxed with your golf club resting over your left shoulder. You’ve just hit a great golf shot!

So given all of this, you make the decision as to what the most important thing in your golf swing is.

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.

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.

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!

The dreaded over the top golf swing, and how to fix it without one more golf lesson.

When we all start this crazy game of golf, it seems we have the wrong idea of how to hit the ball. And the key word is HIT. You see…the golf is a SWING not a hit, so if we have it in our mind we are going to HIT the ball, our mind will tell us to get to the ball as quick as we can, and that is usually the over the top golf swing.

When our eyes are fixed on the ball, we instinctively want to get at it, to HIT IT, to smack it with our hands first. Unfortunately that doesn’t work too well does it? In fact, this is counter-productive to a solid shot in golf.

The best analogy for the golf swing is throwing a rock side arm. Remember when we were kids and we found the flattest rocks and could throw them all day long skipping them across the water? Look at what your body is doing when you throw the rock.

The most critical part is your lower body is leading the way. Then your hips, your core, shoulders and lastly your hand throwing the rock. This is exactly how the golf swing should feel. Like a side arm baseball throw.

The next time you go to the range, before you hit one ball, pick up a golf ball and throw it out in the range side arm. Remember that feeling, and then start hitting balls with the shorter clubs first, so you can repeat this motion. Get it built into your body, so you really know what it should feel like.

If you still can’t do it with your golf club, I can almost bet you have a flexibility (and strength) issue in your core rotational movement. Because the golf swing seems to many as a very unnatural movement, your body actually gets in the way of you swinging the club.

Does that make sense?

I know I’ve fought a lateral slide in my golf swing and I personally need to focus on rotating very early in my golf swing. That’s just me though.

But if you cannot lead your downswing with the lower body first, while staying back with your upper body, you have a physical limitation in your core area that needs to be addressed right away. If you don’t take care of the physical limitation, you will most likely struggle with this swing fault for a very long time.

Doing stretches where your lower body is held still while your rotate your upper body to one side then the other is an easy way to improve your core rotational flexibility. This is a must if you want to fix your over the top golf swing.

Improving your core strength will also allow you to aggressively rotate your lower body first from the top of the downswing while keeping your upper body back for a split second. This allows you to get the lower body out of the way so you can drop your club into the proper slot, coming from the inside. Get this right, and you will NEVER swing over the top again.