Smooth Golf Swing - The Best in Golf Page 6

by Steve Fontaine
Valley Golf
Saginaw, MI
copyright 2003
All rights reserved
FREE Full Printable Version of "The Best in Golf" Golf Tips

Developing golfing skills through training:
The Turning Drill for Improvement on Your Golf Swing (continued)

Why develop the turn first?
The three most important parts of the golf swing are the turn, the arc and the swing path, in that order. If you focus on path first, like most people do, your chances of developing a good turn are slim and none. As soon as you get a good path and then try to turn, the turn throws the path way off. The resulting shots are so bad, that, you stop trying to turn. I'm not saying you can't have a golf swing without a good turn. Swinging without a good turn is physically demanding and you have to be exceptionally gifted to produce a consistent and reliable swing. That rules out just about everybody.
The turn is the big equalizer. It allows the less athletic and less coordinated to develop great golf swings. A good turn is easy on your back, not hard on your back, as some would suggest. If there is one thing you want to be real good at, this is it. The turn drill should get most of your 5 minutes. You can take a good turn to most instructors and they'll be able to help you get your swing in shape. If they can't, change instructors. Change several times if you are not getting good results. Golf instruction is a very difficult and challenging endeavor. The world of golf instruction is full of `know it alls' and each one knows something different.

Enemy of the turn
Lifting or turning the head does not cause bad shots, however, lifting the back does. Lifting the back disrupts your path, changes the clubs face angle, slows the speed of the club and takes your body out of impact position. This is an awful lot of bad for just one swing flaw. Engrain the habit of turning and swinging without your back moving up and down. The last thing I would ever say to anyone is “Keep your head down” or “Keep your eye on the ball”. It's much easier for the eyes to leave the ball and return to it than to wrench your body against its will. Too few have the body shape and flexibility to keep their eye on the ball and still make a good golf move. At best, there's only a minuscule advantage to it anyway. Trying to do things you cannot, causes a lot of the up and down or jerky movements that disrupt your swing.

The tendency to raise and lower our backs, as our arms and club go up and down, is the natural enemy to a good turn. If we're going to be investing our time developing a good turn, we don't want to see it destroyed every time our arms go up and down. The set position drill helps to overcome this tendency. When doing the set position drill, you will be able to get a good idea how strong your tendencies are. If the tendency is strong, you may want to add quite a few of these drills to your routine for a while.

Left-handed version of "The Best in Golf" -- Golf tips for training