Perfecting Your Golf Swing

November 14th, 2009 by articles

Most golfers will say the hardest part of their game is focus. Often overlooked in golf is the mental game. Ever noticed the guy who breaks 80 every single time? Why is that? Practice, they practice. What they don’t tell you, is what they practice at. They practice at mental toughness; golf has often been referred to as 10% Talent 90% mental. When overcoming that mental side of golf, do you try to change your equipment, the time at which you play, maybe even they guys you play with. Here are some tips that are going to help you be, the golfer, you always wanted to be.

The tempo of golf is often a concern for golfers. You are stuck behind a slow foursome, or maybe the guys behind you are rushing you, and you feel that pressure to golf faster. Well Tempo of the game should never affect the tempo of your swing. Swing tempo is important if you want consistent results in your game. How do I find my tempo you ask? A golfer can find their tempo by doing these simple things:

SLOW DOWN!! I repeat slow down, everyone thinks the speed at which you swing dictates how far and accurate your ball will move. This is true is some instances, but, for the sake of this article we will not be discussing those concepts. The tempo we are going to discuss today, is going to deal with how you approach every single shot in your game, you need to have the same back swing, contact, and follow through on every swing. How do you practice tempo? While at the driving range your focus should only be on one club at a time. First hit 20 range balls with your driver, next hit 20 range balls with your 9 iron, Next your 3 wood and your 8 iron follow this method until you have hit every club in your bag. To perfect your back swing come to the same position every time. When you contact the ball make sure you are contacting the ball at the same rate of speed with every club. Some people have the misconception that you should swing harder and faster with big clubs and slower and softer with smaller clubs. You really want to be swinging all of your clubs at the same speed, you will see great improvement on how well you make contact with the ball. When you are working on your follow through it will be the same as your back swing, you will want it to be the same with every club. How you follow through directly affect your accuracy. When you focus on these three techniques you will find that your mental game will improve.

This is a three step process after you are done at the driving range it is time to head to the chipping green. Work with the deep grass tools first then you can work with the sort grass irons. You need to use every club for at least 100 chips. When you start in the deep stuff focus on yout tempo and making sure you land every ball on the green. While working on chipping focus on your tempo, hit the ball the same every time. Chipping is a tool to get to the green, not a tool to keep you from having to putt. Hitting a home run is great but keeping the ball in play has made many great careers. Chipping will achieve greater results if you shoot for the green not the hole. Now take your 8I and 9I over to the short grass and work on your bump and run. Tempo here is the key still but keep in mind that now you have too much club for such a short distance. Block out what is going on around you and focus on your tempo!! It would be like you are still hitting one of your wedges, you change clubs not the tempo!!

Putting Putting Putting! This is so hard to understand but why? Now we have gone from the Driving range to the chipping green to the putting green. While practicing don’t worry about how far or where the ball goes work on keeping your tempo the same every time. You are never going to change your swing for a putt. The only part about putting that changes is the distance. Start by sinking 10 putts in a row from 1ft away after you have done this, move out to 2ft, repeat until you sink 10 in a row from 10ft away. Stay focused on your tempo.

The goal for these exercises is to teach your to go through the same steps every time. You are trying to create a tempo that you are going to follow, now matter what is going on around you. If you focus on the tempo you will see results!! If you want the proven results of the pros you need to create a time line in your mind (90% mental) that you will follow no matter where you are, or whom you are playing with. When your body starts to do the same thing every single time, your mind will become more focused on the task at hand.