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How To Break 80 Newsletter
January 3, 2007
"The Web's Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter"
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In this issue we'll discuss...
1) Ladies-Increasing Your Power
2) Pitching: Achieving Pinpoint Accuracy
3) Question of the Week- Correcting Pulls and Slices
4) Article- Practical Golf Lessons: Second-Serve Golf
5) Article- Five Things To Keep In Mind For Proper Practice
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1) Ladies-Increasing Your Power
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One reason women don't hit a golf ball as far as men isn't because they aren't as strong as men. Sure there's a strength factor to hitting a golf ball for distance. We can't deny that. But many women fail to generate power because they use little or no wrist action during their swings. Instead, they "stiff-arm" the ball.
If you're a woman who wants to hit the ball farther, here are 4 tips on how to do it.
1. Change to a two-handed grip
2. Cock your wrists on the way up
3. Uncock them on the way down
4. Re-cock them on the follow-through
First, change to a pure two-handed grip. It improves wrist action and creates more clubhead speed and power. Just place your right hand (right-handers) below your left on the club, just like you were holding a baseball bat. Don't interlock your fingers. This grip gives you a feeling of more power because it places more emphasis on your stronger right hand.
When you start swinging the club, focus on cocking your wrists as you take the club back, and uncocking them when you come down with the club. Focus, also, on cocking your wrists through follow-through. Cock and uncocking your wrists during your swing generates additional power. Take some practice swings doing this until you feel comfortable doing cocking and uncocking your wrists.
Now do the following drill. Take a short iron and stick a tee into the end of the grip. Make half-swings, swinging the club freely back and forth, cocking and uncocking your wrists. When you cock your wrists on the way up, make sure the tee is pointing to the ground. Next, hit some shots off the tee with your mini-swing.
After doing that for a while, take your driver, grab it by the head, and swish the end of the grip through impact as loudly as you can, without swinging our of sync. The louder the swish, the more power generated.
Work on this drill next time you're on the practice range. Doing so embeds the correct wrist action in your swing. You'll be amazed how far you hit the ball just by correctly cocking and uncocking your wrists.
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Pitching: Achieving Pinpoint Accuracy
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Good pitching requires pinpoint accuracy. You have a small margin for error when pitching, so you need to make good contact with the ball. The only way you can do this well is by swinging the club down and into the ball on the correct path and angle, not around your body.
Since you're usually using one of the most upright clubs in the back to pitch with, the angle into the ball must be steep. Otherwise, your shot will be off and the results will not be good.
Here are 5 tips to achieving a steep swing angle:
1. Hinge your wrists
2. Sense the shaft moving vertically
3. Make ball-turf contact
4. Make the follow-through a mirror image
5. Think about a smooth rhythm
Your wrists are keys to pitching accuracy. As you turn and move the club away from the ball, allow your wrists to hinge vertically, both on the way back and on the follow-through.
Sense the shaft moving vertically, not horizontally, as you make the shot.
As you practice hinging your wrists, you'll begin to feel that the club is much more on line approaching impact as your body turns through the shot. Work on achieving solid ball-turf contact. And aim to make your follow through a virtual mirror image of your backswing position. Think about achieving a smooth rhythm, too. It's critical on pitch shots.
To ensure your swing is on the right path and plane, try this drill:
- Set up for a normal pitch shot. Then put an umbrella or an old shaft in the ground about two feet outside your right foot, in line with your right heel. Place another one outside your left foot, keeping it in line with your heel. Then swing the club without touching either of the umbrellas or shafts. As you swing back hinge your wrists and try to set the club on its end. so that the grip points to the ground. Do the same in the follow-through. Now hit a few shots.
Practice this drill often. It will pay off with more accurate pitches. And remember, with pitching there's a small margin for error, so need to be on the correct path and plane to be accurate.
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Question of the Week- Correcting Pulls and Slices
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From Don Silver
Correcting Pulls and Slices
Q. Hi, Jack. I have trouble with my irons. I pull to the left, which makes it hard for me to hit the greens. Thanks. Keep on sending the good info it really helps.
A. Thanks for the question, Don. Pulls and slices are two of the most common swing faults in golf. While different, they stem from the same flaw-swinging out-to-in. Check your divots next time you play. If they point left of target, you're swinging out-to-in, instead of in-to-out.
The deciding factor, as far as whether you slice or pull, is the position of the clubface at impact. If the clubface is closed you'll pull the ball. If it's open, you'll slice it.
To eliminate pulls, you need to (1) swing the club on an in-to-out swing path and (2) change the position of the clubface through impact. Below are three ways to do both:
- Close the overall alignment of your body. Aim your feet, hips, and shoulders to the right of the target and move the ball back a little in your stance.
- Visualize yourself standing on a clock face, with the ball in the center and 12 o'clock representing the target. When you swing the club, it should feel as if it was traveling from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock.
- Hit balls from a sidehill lie. Just make sure you position the ball several inches above your feet.
Any of these three techniques will help you overcome a pull. Try all three. Use the one that works best for you.
If you've got a golf question you'd like answered, send an email to us at
questions@howtobreak80.com and we'll review it. I can't guarantee that we'll use it but if we do, we'll make sure to include your name and where you're from.
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If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out:
http://www.HowToBreak80.com
P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you
would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank email to
break80ezine@aweber.com
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About the Author
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Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book
"How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!". He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game.
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