Golf should be just a game, yet competition strives and learning never ends. Whereas lessons with golf professionals will implement good habits and help a player improve, golf tips are available from television, magazines and golf schools.
Hit the Ball Farther with the Pivot Technique
Debbie O’Connell, LPGA Teaching Professional in Stuart, Florida, and co-founder of Ladies Links Fore Golf magazine, knows about the common swing problem created by an unstable back leg. Although the Pivot Pro Training aid will help correct the problem and achieve farther distance, she recommends the following practice:
- Set up
- Brace your back
- Move the knee of your back leg toward your left leg
- Feel the weight shift to the inside of your back foot
- Swing back while keeping the weight on your bent back leg
- Feel the resistance created as you fully turn your shoulder
- Uncoil to a powerful strike from a more stable backswing
Personal Note: I haven’t tried the Pivot Training Aid, but I followed the recommended practice. Whereas it improved my striking with irons, it became a problem with woods. Don’t change what’s not broken! I was frustrated with my irons, not with my woods.
“Turn to Swing,” Says Six-time Champion Sir Nick Faldo
On the hotel channel of any Marriott, Nick Faldo gives mini lessons from the Faldo Golf Institute at Marriott Vista Grande Resort in Orlando, Florida.
Nick Faldo’s first recommendation is to stretch and warm up before subjecting your body to the abrupt motion of the swing. As for the swing itself, he demonstrates how “a pitcher turns on his right leg and then throws to release.”
Personal Note: The importance of the right foot being addressed with the Pivot Technique, the stretch and warm up routine works to “wake up” my muscles, clear my mind and get a game-sense of purpose.
Choose the Appropriate Golf Equipment
Golf journalist Rick Young reminds us in the April 2010 issue of Golf Canada magazine that “Part of playing better golf is finding equipment that fits you instead of trying to fit the equipment.”
If you are new to the sport and in need of equipment, don’t get into intricate considerations. But it is wise to get advice from a pro shop or a golf equipment store before buying online a set of clubs that might never be right for you. One rule of thumb is to try different clubs until you know which feel best.
Personal Note: One thing I know for sure is that when I trust my clubs, an obstacle has been removed. For this reason I have never switched to oversized woods, because they feel and sound different at impact, which makes me play tentatively.
Learn from Golf School Manuals
If you haven’t attended a golf school, you might find such a manual on eBay or perhaps at a garage sale. Keep it in a place where you can look at it often but not for very long, so you only focus on one tip and one illustration at a time.
You will soon experience that repetitive reading and visualizing of a shot will come to your mind when you are at the practice range or on the golf course.
Personal Note: I have a manual from a John Jacobs golf school I attended years ago as a beginner golfer. When something is off, I go back to the basic concept of GASP: Grip-Aim-Stance-Posture.
Get Free Lessons from Golf Magazines and the Golf Channel
Past and current issues of golf magazines are good tools to become aware of bad habits as they show the good ones. As for the golf channel, demonstrations can really guide practice at the range.
Personal Note: Although no longer published, Golf for Women magazines still let me find now and then a tip that still helps.
Jack Nicklaus' quote about the golf swing: "The simpler you keep it, the better it will work.”
Marie-Claude Arnott - Marie-Claude Arnott writes about topics that interest her, from experience and with passion.
