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The Ten Best Swing Tips

That You've Never Tried!

This Article Features Photo Zoom

#8: COIL AND THROW


Ever wonder how the pros can hit such crisp, powerful iron shots? Part of it has to do with their ability to coil their body on the backswing over their right leg. Think of it this way. Imagine your right leg is a cork, and your upper body and hips are the corkscrew. As you swing back, you want to twist the corkscrew into that right leg. As you do this, maintain some flex in your knees (both of them) and really drive that corkscrew into that leg! From the top of your swing, you'll unwind and release that tension into the back of the golf ball. Avoid swaying or dipping at the top of your swing!

Another reason better players can hit powerful iron shots is they understand that the clubhead acts more as a slingshot than an extension of the shaft. To better feel this, try this simple drill. Grab some mud, sand, whatever you can find to stick to the face of the club as you see here. Then, from address, I want you to fling the mud toward your target. Keep doing this until you can start to feel the whipping slingshot effect of the clubhead and the added speed in your hands. Then hit some real shots and you'll feel some added speed in your release.


#9: TOE YOUR DRIVES

We can't have a handful of tips without a slice fix, right? Here's one of my favorites. Take a look at this wooden driver. I've cut the toe off and made a face, which sits about 90° from the real face of the driver. I can actually hit shots off the new face, and I do it to demonstrate to my students the importance of closing the face to start hitting straighter shots.


If you slice, here's what I want you to do. I want you to imagine hitting your shots with the toe of your driver. And by toe, I don't mean the toe of the face, but the actual toe of the clubhead! The reason I think this is such a great imagination/visualization drill is because we've become a group of golfers too fixated on having a square clubface through impact. In reality, that's somewhat of a myth. The face ought only be square for a split second, and no matter what, the face should be in the process of closing to the left. So, the more we focus on square faces at impact, the more often golfers will try to prevent the closing of the face. This, folks, is why so many golfers slice the ball. The face should always be closing! 

By imagining you're hitting off the toe of the club, it'll instinctively get you to start rotating your hands more effectively through the shot and close the face at impact. Try it if you're a slicer!

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