While the fundamentals of golf are important to learn and use, it's often only one part of a swing that can trip you up, losing you distance and control. Pinpointing these areas and finding their cures may be fairly simple, but remembering to use these corrections when you're on the course is often a problem. Using analogies and other tricks to relate your stroke problems back to their cures will help you lower your score.
"Throw" Your Hip
If you want to hit the ball "hard," you want to hit it with force. Mass comes from the ball and the club---not much you can do there. So, if you want more acceleration, you'll need to get your club moving faster before it hits the ball. One way to do this is to generate internal shoulder rotation where most club head speed comes from during a golf swing. According to biomechanics researchers at the University of Western Australia, as much as 55 percent of racket head speed is generated by internal shoulder rotation during a tennis serve (a striking skill like a golf swing), compared to only 6 percent from the famous "wrist snap" that coaches say provides power. In order to generate internal shoulder rotation, you'll need to open your front hip prior to hitting the ball, which will collapse your trailing shoulder, giving you the significant increase in club acceleration you want. Practice "throwing" your hip at the ball and letting your arms come through rather than trying to generate all of your power with your arms, and pushing your hip forward.
Finish = Start
In order to get more loft on their pitches, many golfers break their wrists to get under the ball and pop it up. This is actually unnecessary since your club head loft should provide you with enough height for this short stroke. To better control your pitches and get the loft you need, try to match the club face angle you have at impact with the club face angle you had during your address. To do this, set the ball slightly back in your stance, let your wrists break slightly and naturally during the backswing, then hit the ball letting your wrists lead, rather than trying to flip your right hand toward the ball.
Cross the Finish Line
While the wrist snap does not provide much power to your golf stroke, it does allow all of the power you have generated prior to contact to make it to the ball. Consider two sprinters in a race. One has to stop at the finish line, while the other gets to run through it. The one who has to stop will lose, because he'll have to decelerate prior to the finish line to stop there. If you don't accelerate your club through impact, you'll have to decelerate prior to contact. Snapping your right wrist into your shot just prior to contact will allow you to benefit from all of the power generated by your legs, trunk and arms.
References
- Golf Digest: Instruction
- Golf: Instruction
- "British Journal of Sports Medicine;" Muscle Activity During the Golf Swing; A McHardy, H Pollard, 2005
- "British Journal of Sports Medicine;" Biomechanics and Tennis; Dr. Bruce Elliot, December 10, 2005
- The 4,000 Watt Tennis Player: W. Ben Kibler; Med Sci Tennis, 2009
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