I would recommend fanning your lead foot towards the target slightly, while keeping your trailing foot perpendicular to the target line. With your trailing foot square to your target, you are reducing hip turn. A limited hip turn joined with a full shoulder turn, can create coil and torque that leads to more power. By turning out your front foot, you will be helping to create a fuller finish, as it makes it easier for your hips to clear through impact.

For weight distribution, your weight should be distributed 50/50 between your feet for almost every type of shot. For a short iron you might put 5% more weight on your lead foot while swinging a longer club about 5% more on your trailing foot. If you’re a beginner it will be very difficult to distinguish that small amount of weight so just keep it 50/50 until you get more efficient at your ball striking. You may want to experiment with your stance during practice to see what kind of results you get from the different weight distributions.

Finally, your body weight should be distributed evenly between the toes and heels on the fat part of your foot. Meaning from the ball of your foot to the arch. If you start with too much weight on the heels chances are your going to shift to the toes during your swing to stay balanced.  This means you can very well have some off centered hits towards the heel of the club because you compensated the weight to stay balanced. The same goes if you start with to much weight on the toes, you’ll compensate during the swing to get the weight on the heels leading to strikes off the toe of your club.

Tension will destroy any fluidity and smoothness in your swing and make your rhythm, tempo and timing very inconsistent. Remember to “Swing em’ and fling em’. And what I mean by that is to let your arms “swing” and let your shoulder “fling” your arms. They work together. Notice a beginning golfer and how they are all tense in the arms when trying to “hit” a ball. Where as the accomplished player not only “flings” the arms back and up by rotating those larger shoulder, chest and upper back muscles they also swing their supple arms in conjunction with the upper body rotation.

Being tension free has a numerous positive effects for your swing. One benefit is extension. Notice the word “extension”, take away the “ex” and all you have remaining is “tension”. If you “ex” the “tension” you get “extension”.

Imagine hanging soft ship rope from your shoulders. If you rotated your upper body back and through, the ropes would extend as far as possible from the center of the swing. In your back swing don’t try to keep your left arm (right-handed player) straight, however keep it extended instead by being supple in those “ropes”. That extension gives you arc width, which generates swing speed. An effect all long hitters benefit from. Rotating creates centrifugal force. Being tense will reduce any built up centrifugal force your rotation has produced. Too much tension will also inhibit a proper release of the forearms, hands and club head. Let’s go back to that rope analogy. Imagine ropes are hanging from your shoulders and the hanging ends of the rope are tied into a knot. The knot represents your grip. In the forward swing the knot would turn counter clockwise following the rotation of your upper body and your arms swinging down and forward. That counter clockwise turn of the knot would represent your grip. Another words, your right hand would turn over your left hand producing a clubface that went from open (pre-impact) to square (at impact) to closed (post-impact) in the forward swing.

Countless students that I have worked with on this have told me that they feel as though they have no control. That is good because they are now swinging the club instead of hitting at a ball. They are transforming a feeling into their swing that they are now getting out of their own way. Pay attention to your tension and you too will gain control by letting go of your so called control.

Split Handed Drill

Split Handed Drill: Split your hands apart then swing the arms, hands and club to get the feeling of the proper release of the right wrist (for right-handed players) rolling over the left wrist through impact. Do this enough times and you’ll incorporate this feel when you need it, during your swing on the course.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall Drill: I can’t over emphasize this enough. Look in a mirror at your set-up, down the line, face on and during your swing. You will see the difference of what you think your doing and what your actually doing.

Rehearsing Impact Drill: Take a mid-iron and find something solid like the corner of a wall and take your set up and press your club head against the wall making sure your club face is square to the direction of the pressure. Be aware of your flat left wrist, left arm against your chest, hips open in respect to your target line and shoulders slightly rotated in the same direction.

Weighted Club Drill

Many of you are puzzled when I suggest you practice at home without a ball, simply rehearsing your swing and doing drills. So many of my students are under the false impression that constructive practice has to involve pounding thousands of balls. On the contrary, the majority of golfers would improve their game extensively if only they would set aside a few minutes during the week to run through some chosen drills at home. Without the concern of making a “hit at the ball”, it’s easier to focus on the finer points of technique, develop a repeating method and build so-called muscle memory through repetition of good moves.

Part of the skill in learning the game of golf is to understand your own tendencies and weaknesses, and using your practice time wisely. When you are making contact with a ball and working on a new move, try to focus on the execution of the new move at hand and not so much on the result of your shot.

Your bodies pivot is crucial to consistency. And if you want to get the most out of your swing you have to know what your body is doing.

Here are some quick tips to make sure you are pivoting correctly. Look in a mirror or on camera to see what your body is doing……..

in the Back Swing:

• Let your head swivel behind the ball a little.
• No swaying of the hips in your rotation back.
• Hips rotating on a fairly level plane.
• Chest and upper body weight over your right thigh.
• Left shoulder over your foot.
• No straightening or buckling of the right knee.

in the Forward Swing:

• Start your forward swing from the ground up.
• Your weight moves over to your left thigh.
• Head is staying behind the lower body.
• Hips, lower torso, upper torso, chest, shoulders and arms are rotating or pulling to the left and in that order.

Making the correct body pivot will promote proper weight shift, encourage acceleration of the club head and induce proper release of the forearms and club. These principles will result in better consistency and longer distance in your shot.

I’ve had several students ask me whether they should wait until after January 1, 2010 on purchasing new clubs with the new grooves or buy clubs now that have the sharper edged grooves which induces a higher spin rate on your golf ball. It will depend on whether you play in Major/USGA events or on the PGA Tour. I’m sure you would love getting paid to exhibit your game of golf regardless of how good or bad it is, but have a more efficient means of making a living than taking your chances on qualifying for USGA events or the PGA Tour. But if you would like to try and qualify you will have to use the new grooves because the USGA has decided to regulate the size of the grooves on the club face. They’re reducing the maximum groove capacity by around 25% from what is currently allowed while also limiting the groove edges that are considerably duller than what is now allowed. The intention is to limit the effectiveness of shots from the rough.

Either way, it’s still remarkable how particular some golfers are concerning the level of club design. Grooves are the horizontal canals engraved into the clubface. During those valuable few microseconds at impact when the ball and the clubface actually meet, grooves amplify the friction, and impart more spin to the golf ball.

Well, before to long, club makers started to experiment with the depth, width and sharpness of those grooves in an effort to claim that their grooves spin the ball more than any of their competitors clubs could.

It’s been a proven scientific fact that the U-groove induces more spin than their V-groove predecessor does. The USGA has finally stepped in and on January 1, 2010 the USGA will implement the new limits on edge sharpness for all grooves manufactured after 1/1/10. These limits will decrease backspin and increase launch angle and ball roll out. If you want more backspin you can continue to play with the square or U-grooves until 2024 or could be forever. However if you purchase clubs manufactured after 1/1/10 it will have grooves with spin performance at or below V-groove levels. Those grooves will limit you to average spin performance.

Here are some performance implications:

• Spin rate is reduced by 30 to 50%
• Launch angle increases 7-20% or up to 5º higher
• Roll out of the ball after impact on the green is increased from 9 to 15 feet

Fundamentals of the Pre-Swing
The set up you produce before you swing the club has the most influence on your direction, distance, and trajectory of your balls flight or pattern. To hit a straight shot you have to combine these pre-swing fundamentals to match your desired result. When any component of the set up is flawed, swing manipulations are required to gain control of the shot.

Grip The grip is the device that maneuvers the clubs face angle at impact.

Think about your grip as the devise that maneuvers your clubs face angle. The intention is not to enhance power, but to direct the clubface and its angle at impact. This influences direction and trajectory; two of the three objectives for every golf shot. The grip is the only connection you have with the golf club and you must have your hands positioned clockwise or counter clockwise on the golf club in the correct relationship to the clubs face.

Key Points:
(Right-handed)

• 1½ -2½  knuckles visible (index finger and middle finger knuckles visible on the back of your left hand).

• A line between the thumb and index finger (short thumb) pointing to your right eye in your left hand.

• An infant babies bottom visible in the left hand on top of the handle of the club (in the fingers).

• In your right hand the letter V forms between your index finger and thumb on the very top of the grip. (No palming or hammer grip with the right hand under the grip handle).

Stance The stance will encourage mobility and stability.

The golf stance refers to the fanning and the width of the golfers feet at address. This dimension is evaluated from the instep of each foot. The stance encourages trajectory in a golf shot by influencing the angle of the swing arc. This angle or swing plane is upright with a narrow stance and flattens with a wider stance. Your stance should be wide enough to encourage balance and stability, yet narrow enough to provide a weight transfer.

Key Points:

• Fan the feet no more than 35 degrees.

• Weight should be on the fat part of the foot (ball to arc) and slightly inside each instep

Posture Posture for the golf swing is a universally athletic position.

In particular, the joints that bear all the weight should be in alignment, knees flex slightly with the spine bending forward at the hip joint (not the waist) to support a natural hanging of the arms. Posture at address should prepare the body for a dynamic motion during the swing and should grant a stable base from start to finish. Your posture at address and throughout the golf swing has a significant impact on how well your shoulders can rotate around your spine.

Key Points:

• Feel like your sticking your butt out.

• Put the hands in front of the hips while looking forward and up, then bend from the hip joint not the waist.

• Put a golf shaft on the tailbone and up between the shoulder blades with the shoulders feeling slightly back behind the neck, then bend forward keeping the shaft in the same place.

Ball Position The ball should be in a middle position between the ankles.

Ball position refers to the golf balls relationship between the instep and how near or far from the feet at address. The ideal ball position should be slightly behind the very bottom of the swing arc. In a correct set up, this position should be centered in the stance or one ball width to the target side of center. This position should be marked with the ankles or the left armpit. Ball position has a large impact on trajectory, distance and direction in a golf shot. Secondary influences include grip and alignment. How near or far the ball is in respect to the feet is determined by what club is held at address, be it a driver or a wedge.

Key Points:

• Position the small ball (golf ball) to make contact  before the big ball (earth). This is slightly behind the bottom of the swing arc.

• Move the ball position back (right) to encourage a lower trajectory and forward (left) to promote a higher trajectory.

• The butt end of the grips handle for every club should be directly over a line drawn across the knees while at address. This will determine how near or far the ball is, in respect to your feet.

Aim Construct the set up around the aim of the clubface.

A wood is aimed properly when the top line on the face is at a 90-degree or perpendicular angle to the ball-to-target line. An irons clubface is aimed properly when the leading edge of the clubs face is at a 90-degree or perpendicular angle to the ball-to-target line.

Key Points:

• Hold the clubhead at eye level with the top edge of a wood or the irons leading edge hanging vertically. When lowered to the ground behind the ball, the edge of either club should be perpendicular to the ball-to-target line.

• Pick an intermediate spot directly in front of the golf ball and directly on the ball-to-target line. This could be a blemish on the ground from a broken tee to a blade of grass. Point your clubface directly at that spot. This is called an intermediate target. The smaller the spot (a single blade of grass) the more precise the resulting aim.

Alignment Alignment of the body is parallel to the aim of the clubface.

The lines formed by the heels, knees, hips and shoulders represent body alignment. Their correlation to the aim of the clubs face affects direction, distance and trajectory.

Key Points:

• Imagine a set of railroad tracks with the outside rail the ball-to-target line and the inside rail being the body line. Both are parallel to one another. The farther away the target the closer together the rails look. They never meet but they look like it. This is called parallel left.

• Set a club shaft on the ground parallel to the ball-to-target line. Align the heels, knees, hips and shoulders to the shaft on the ground.

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These fundamentals for preparations to a golf swing should be practiced in a mirror, on camera and on the practice or lesson tee. The more repetition the better your habit becomes at getting properly prepared to make a swing of the club.

Stretching is a good starting routine a low-handicapper will begin with and so should you. After stretching, they execute their first swing on the range with a wedge. And you can bet it’s not going to be a full swing, either. They warm “up” moving “down” into the clubs. Swinging a dozen shots with a half to a three quarter swing is a good “routine” for the range. Then slowly moving into full swings and lower clubs. It’s amazing to me to see an amateur walk up to the driving range and pull out the driver. Man, that’s got to hurt, unless you’re a twelve year old. And when you move “down” into other clubs it shouldn’t be more than 2-3 clubs at a time. In other words, don’t go from your pitching wedge to your four iron. A good “routine” should get you “down” into your woods about three quarters of the way into your practice time. Don’t forget to warm “down” back “up” to your wedges, either.

So a good “routine” would look like this: Stretch, warm up moving down into your club set, swinging the woods about three quarters into your practice time, warm down moving back up into your club set. The only difference on the range between practice time and warming up to play is, you don’t warm down when you’re going out to play. Finish your warm up routine with the club your going to swing first on the #1 tee.

This “routine” will be undemanding on your body and more productive on your practice time.

Let me simplify what the club causes at impact to produce these effects. There are five causes that effect the pattern to your golf balls flight.

• Club head speed
• Club head path
• Face angle
• Angle of approach
• Center-ness of hit

Club head speed:

Or the speed to which the club head is traveling during impact. A no brainer, the faster the club head goes through impact the more velocity or speed the golf ball will have, providing you make contact (sorry, I couldn’t help it). If I throw a baseball with fast moving hands the baseball will have more velocity or speed. We call that a “fastball”. If  I toss the baseball underhand with slow moving hands, well, we usually reference that to “slow pitch softball”. So, more club head speed (cause) the more golf ball velocity (effect) which produces a shot that goes farther.

Our first goal: To end up with a long ball flight by generating more club head speed. However, long can be wrong, let’s move on to the next law of ball flight.

Club head path:

This is the path of the club’s head traveling through the impact zone. Now, let’s make an imaginary ball to target line by getting back behind the ball, straddle that imaginary ball to target line with our feet and look straight down that line towards our target with the right foot on the outside or to the right and the left foot on the inside or to the left of that imaginary ball/target line. So, if the shot starts to the left (a pull effect) the clubs head was traveling along a path from the outside to the inside (cause) in respect to our imaginary line during impact. The opposite holds true for a shot that starts right (a push) of the imaginary ball to target line. The clubs head traveled from inside to outside with respect to the target line. That doesn’t mean that if the ball started right or left that it will stay right or left, that is determined by the spin of the golf ball.

Our second goal: To end up with a long ball flight by generating more club head speed with a shot that started straight by producing a club head path that was down the line at impact. Now you cringe and utter, “Geeeezz, well it started straight, why the heck did it turn to the right!” Well, let’s move on to the curve of the ball.

Face angle:

There are three face angles. Open, square and closed. Two of them (open and closed) to various degrees. Really open, really closed, just a little open or just a little closed. Square is square. But it’s the position of the clubs face angle in respect to the club heads path that is going to determine the spin or shall I say “the curve of the golf balls flight”. For a right handed golfer, an open clubface (cause) produces a curve to the right (slice effect) and a closed clubface (cause) produces a shot that curves to the left (hook effect). Just a little open or closed with respect to the club heads path would impart less spin to the right (fade) or left (draw).

Our third goal: To end up with a long straight ball flight by generating more club head speed, producing a club head path that was down the line and achieving a square face at impact. “Yeah baby, that’s 300 yards straight down the middle!” “No that was only 200 yards down the middle.” “You may have gotten 300 yards had you got the ball up in the air.” Lets move on to getting it airborne.

Angle of approach:

Another term for this law is “angle of attack”. There are three angles the clubs head will approach impact. Descending down into the ball, ascending up into the ball or level through the ball. One way to think about this is to draw a circle. The circle represents your club head arc. If you were to draw a line straight down from the center of that circle you would intersect the lowest point of the circle. That represents the lowest point of your swing arc. If the ball is just behind or left of that lowest point the club would descend. If the ball was directly at the bottom of the arc, your clubs head would approach the ball on a level arc. And if the ball was just in front of that lowest point or to the right the clubs head would approach the ball ascending up into the ball. You want your clubs head approaching down or descending into the ball with wedges and irons to create backspin so the ball stops on the green. You want your putter ascending up into the ball to create top or forward spin so it will roll to the hole. When you swing the driver, which has less loft than wedges and irons, your ball rests on a tee 1-3 inches off the ground which is placed just in front of your bottom most portion of your swing arc. That way the driver swings through impact at a level approach to slightly ascending so you create less backspin than an iron or a wedge. So with the driver, when the ball lands it can reverse its spin and tumble over to create roll.

Our fourth goal: To end up with a high long straight ball flight by generating more club head speed, producing a club head path that was down the line and achieving a square face at impact. Remember create backspin by hitting down on the ball rather than scooping or trying to get the club under the ball to try and lift it up in the air. This is probably the most important issue regarding ball flight law for the beginner. “You mean I’ve gotta hit down on the ball to get it up in the air?”, my students ask. “Yep, golf’s a game of opposites, lowest score wins”. Lets move on to efficiency.

Center-ness of hit:

You can contact the ball on the toe of the clubface (the farthest part of the clubs face from the golfer) inducing a hook shot. Or, contact can be on the heel (the closest part of the clubs face to the golfer) inducing a slice. God forbid you hit it on the housel (where the shaft is inserted into the head of the club) inducing a …, well I won’t even completely spell it much less say it. It’s golf’s dirtiest word, starts with sh___, but has three letters, not two. You could whiff it. Which still counts as a stroke, but one stroke better than long and wrong into OB (out of bounds) territory. I think most readers of this article understand it’s better making contact in the middle of the clubs face (sweet spot) than anywhere else on the club. The golfer will get a more dynamic efficient strike on the ball by making contact on the sweet spot of the clubface. This does take practice. Lots of good practice.

Our fifth goal: Causing a flight of the ball that was long (club head speed) in respect to which club is being used, started straight (club head path), then stayed straight with no hooking or slicing from side spine (face angle), getting it airborne (angle of approach) with an efficient strike (center-ness of hit). “IT’S IN THE HOLE!”

In summary, it’s very helpful to first know what your club is telling the ball what to do. If you don’t know what the clubs doing to the ball, how do you know what to do to the club? These five laws of flight are set in stone. They’re based on physics, or the natural order of things. Call it what you will, but you can’t descend down into the back of the golf ball and give it topspin, it’s law. It won’t happen. You can’t throw a baseball forward and have it travel backwards.

You can, however, tee it up with your driver. Swing out of your shoes. Make contact directly under the ball with the top of the driver because it was teed up too high. By doing so, you’ll impart backspin on the ball sending it straight up in the air. When it lands around the same spot it started from, your net result will be a drive that went a negative yard. I’ve seen it. Number 2 tee box, Torrey North. He was a friend of mine more than a student. We were laughing so hard after he created that shot, I said “I’ll give you $100 if you can do that again”. Well he tried, but we would have been there all day.

For the athletically inclined, some think that they can fix their swings themselves. It looks so easy, “I can swing like that Tiger, guy”, one might surmise. Or “I was the high school quarterback” or “I made the tennis team” and “excelled in every other sport I’ve tried”. Then after playing a couple rounds or practicing on the range a few times they come to appreciate the talent of a guy like Tiger Woods, but still think they can achieve a game they’d be happy with on their own.

Some just get ready for their company event or that corporate outing by cramming for a test like a college student who hasn’t studied during the semester. They hit the driving range two or three times a couple days before the tournament trying to get ready and only end up with blisters and sore muscles when the tournament arrives. That’s a hard way to prepare. Now I’m not saying that you might not have some sore muscles after some professional help, but more than likely, they’d be the correct sore muscles.

Some might have tried one lesson years ago and didn’t see any immediate results so they cut short their enthusiasm for taking lessons. To others it might be intimidating to take “Instruction”. Yes lessons can be expensive but some might not know the value of how much a lesson, lesson series or golf school has to offer.

A lot of golfers are perfectly happy with their game and just don’t have the time to improve. But if you or someone you know, gets embarrassed, upset, are confused or frustrated you are ready for instruction. There’s a couple of ways to go if you’re looking to improve your golf swing and your golf game.  If you have the time and would like to broaden the learning process, take private lessons.

Private Lessons

A typical series of private lessons works like this: You take a private lesson every one or two weeks depending on how much you can practice. By the end of a series, you should able to try it on the course. This could be one or two months later, or a shorter or longer period of time depending on your schedule and your commitment to the development of your swing. I teach thousands of private lessons a year. I can’t tell you the amount of times after a lesson or two a student has told me they wished they started lessons a long time ago. Private lessons are not the fastest way to learn the game, it’s the fastest way to learn a swing.

Golf Schools

For the student that doesn’t have a lot of time and would like a game evaluation, a golf school is encouraged. Golf schools can be a half to three and even four days of learning. In a golf school we can evaluate your swing along with your game. In golf schools you learn to evaluate the course, selecting the correct club, etiquette, pace of play, order of play, course management, rules. These are all components of the game and are not usually taught in a private golf lesson.

Most golfers are recreational players and are not competing in tournaments. No golfer, whether they’re a beginner, low handicapper, top ranked amateur, or even a professional  want to go out and get embarrassed, remain frustrated, confused or upset. The #1 player in the world, Tiger Woods, can still get upset or frustrated with his swing or game. When that happens he takes a lesson from his golf professional. So it goes with out saying, if Tiger takes lessons to learn why he’s upset at something, so should other golfers.

Call, email or visit my to set up your Private, Semi-private, Playing lesson or Prepare and Play Golf School.