How to Achieve the Perfect Golf Swing in 4 Key Steps
What Would You Consider the Perfect Golf Swing?
Golf is an extremely complicated game. While it is both beautiful and wonderful it can also be frustrating. The mechanics of the golf swing alone have been enough to keep people away from the game. Which is why we cover how to achieve the perfect golf swing in 4 key steps for this article
When it comes to perfect swings, you likely think about Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Rory McIlroy, and maybe even Michelle Wie. That is because if you have ever seen a Pro player on the Men’s or Women’s tour hit the ball, it is something you likely will never forget.
So How do I Swing Like the Pros?
As complicated as the golf swing seems, there are 4 key components centered around your body movements that separate the pros from the amateurs. Those 4 aspects are the setup, turn, tilt, bend and finish.
Setup is how and where we set our feet. The shoulder turn in the backswing is how much rotation we get. The tilt in the backswing is the angle we hold the club. Finally, the bend and finish in the follow-through is where we complete the swing. These 4 aspects are also four of the easiest movements to improve for any golfer.
1. Setup
Where and how your stance is setup can really be the difference between a good shot and a poor shot. If you begin on the incorrect foot, you have no chance of making that perfect swing.
In order to grasp the best setup position, we have to keep things simple. These setup tips will help you start your successful swing right every time.
Here are the steps to an easy and successful setup:
Approach the ball placing your feet together and lining up the golf ball with the crack between your two feet.
Next, take a step with the lead foot in the forward direction towards the target and do the same with the rear foot but now away from your target. The steps you take should be approximately the same in size.
And that’s all she wrote. That is all folks. Just perform those two steps. What exactly do we accomplish by doing this? First off, this hack for setting up your shot squares your body position up naturally. Also, it puts the golf ball in the middle of your stance. That is right where we would like it for your picture-perfect golf swing.
2. Shoulders Turn in the Backswing
Many times we hear golfers claim that they are not flexible enough or they are too stiff to turn almost 90 degrees away from their desired target like the pros do. However, there are some body movements in the backswing that will help increase how much our shoulders actually turn when done correctly.
Some golfers try to minimize their hips movement and maintain knee flexion with the back leg in the backswing. This is all in an effort to create that coil effect and generate power. By attempting this, they may actually decrease their power and restrict the amount that the shoulders turn.
Instead, you should try to straighten the back leg during the backswing, then both the hips and the shoulders will be able to turn with less restriction. This will generate more power, more consistency and the perfect looking in-to-out swing arc that most golfers crave.
3. Tilt in the Backswing
The tilt or angling of the shoulders in the backswing is one of the most important components of the golf swing. Many amateur golfers never even think about this.
The amateur golfers tend to get to the top of their swing and their shoulders are more level to the ground than that of the average pro. The pros usually have their lead shoulder much lower and tilted more toward the ground than the back shoulder.
If we go back to our last tip of increasing your shoulder rotation by straightening the back leg, doing this can also help in creating more shoulder tilt at the very top of the backswing.
4. Bend in the Follow Through and Finish
The fourth and final simple key to a perfect golf swing is trying to bend your upper body slightly in the backward direction during the follow-through. Ideally, you would also like to extend (or stretch) your arms toward your target. Golfers who hit the ball a shorter distance and also hit it inconsistently tend to do the opposite. They tend to bend the upper body forward more. Their arms stay bent and close to the body.
Shoulder tilt and shoulder turn, especially in the backswing, along with the bending backwards of the upper body during the follow-through are three fairly common elements that almost all good golfers share, regardless of how different their swings may look.
Why does the finishing position matter at the end of your follow through? Especially because the ball has already left the club face and is heading towards the target, it doesn’t seem like it should matter.
The simple answer is that the way you move is affected by where you want to end up. A balanced swing results in a balanced position. The finishing position of a golfer’s swing is a result of the culmination of moves made throughout the golf swing. Therefor you can learn a lot about someone’s golf swing by looking at how their finish position ends up.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are trying to achieve the perfect golf swing, you should think about finishing with your knees very close together. Your hips and body should end by facing the target. But why would we want our shoulders and hips to finish facing the target? This all comes down to clubface control through impact.
When our body stops rotating near the bottom of the swing, our hands will continue to swing through, and then finally roll over quickly. The rolling of the hands forces the rolling over of the clubface. This motion is also known as the flipping of the hands. When we flip the hands we generate a lot of speed and it feels very powerful but if we’re not careful this move tends to cause a good deal of inconsistent ball flight and spotty contact. Rotating the body through impact is a great way to add accuracy and consistency to your golf game. Keeping the hands from rolling over by rotating through and towards the target keeps the clubface square through impact for a longer time. Keep that body rotating through the swing and start hitting straighter shots more often! Come check your swing out on our indoor golf simulators at Sandtrap.
