Category Archives: Golf Swing Fundamentals

The Stack and Tilt Swing: The Definitive Guide to the Swing That Is Remaking Golf

  By golfer | May 22, 2010 - 3:36 pm | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

Co authors Andy Plummer and Mike Bennet together authored this ground breaking golf instruction book called the Stack And Tilt Golf Swing. Why is this golf instruction book so different? Because the traditional concepts of teaching golf are based on what is commonly known as the fundamentals of golf. These fundamentals are the way golfers grip the golf club, and the way we stand to the ball, in a line with the intended direction we want to hit the shot.

The stack and tilt golf instruction model teaches that this approach is largely irrelevant for you and me because if you watch one or more good golfers hitting their shots on the range, they all appear to be doing things differently. They grip the club differently, they stand to the ball in different ways, and they play their shots differently as well.

In the stack and tilt golf swing video, Mike Bennett explains that they look for what all these golfers, hitting the ball in their own ways, have in common. And the first thing they all do is hit the ground in the same spot. So you need to be able to do this. How many of you reading this can do that? I cannot. Not consistently at least.

The second characteristic all these golfers have in common, is the ability to hit the ball far enough to give themselves the chance of scoring well. If you were learning this method you would then need to know how this is done.

In the last piece of the learning jigsaw, the Andy Plummer stack and tilt method goes into all those “acquired feels” that the good players have.

If you watch the stack and tilt golf swing video you will see that there is good evidence to show that the spine does indeed move around during the swing, rather than stay in the same angle as it was at the address. The term ‘stack’ comes from the shoulder position in the back swing, and this in turn comes about as a result of the spine tilting during the swing.

The stack and tilt golf swing teaches you to hit the ball further, straighter and shoot lower scores.

With those three objectives in mind, the Stack And Tilt Golf Swing instruction book is worth a look. Click here for more about this book.

You can watch the Stack and Tilt Golf Swing video here.

Ben Hogan Five Lessons – The Modern Fundamentals of Golf

  By golfer | April 26, 2010 - 2:30 pm | Books By Ben Hogan, Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

The Modern Fundamentals of Golf by Ben Hogan is one of the classic golf instructional books. The book was first published in 1957 and has been reprinted many times since. This is testimony enough to the longevity of the golf principles taught in this book.

The Ben Hogan Five Lessons book is a must have book for the keen golfer, and one to keep for handy reference in the years to come.

I remember being glued to this golf instruction book as a boy, when I was first learning to play golf. Who can help but admire and envy the Ben Hogan golf swing. It is absolutely wonderful to look at. Thankfully there is plenty of archive footage remaining to see this golf swing in action today.

I came across an interesting golf video of Ben Hogan demonstrating the golf training exercise on pages 81 to 83 of his Five Lessons book.

If you would like to own a copy of this book, click the link here
.

Breaking 80 Golf Score – A Milestone Of Achievement At Golf

  By golfer | March 31, 2010 - 8:58 pm | Golf Mental Game, Golf Swing Fundamentals, Golf Swing Tips - The Short Game
Comments Off

Perhaps you are close to breaking 80 at golf right now, or perhaps you are scoring over one hundred. The same principles apply to both levels of competence required to break 80 on the golf course. Breaking 80 is a milestone in every golfers dreams. Believe me, it is a terrific achievement, and not all golfers have the ability to shoot below 80.

Let me run through the characteristics of the golfer who breaks 80 regularly.

1. Sound fundamentals. The grip, stance, etc. are proven and tested to stand up to playing the golf game in a variety of weather conditions, and levels of competition.

2. Golf swing. The golf swing is solid and dependable. Tried and tested under pressure. You have the ability to play a variety of shots, such as bending the ball to the right or left as desired, so to avoid trees, water, etc. This calibre of golfer can play the long irons and wood clubs out of bunkers, to gain distance when the opportunity presents, from those hazards.

3. Short game. Putting and chipping close to the flag stick. Very rarely taking three putts on a green, and getting down in two from the edge of the green.

4. Mental golf game. The mental challenges of playing the game are demanding, and you must have the mental strategies to cope with them.

None of these characteristics of the golfer who breaks 80 is very easy achieved, but they are the hallmark of that level of scoring. A lot of practice and dedication are called for if you are to play golf at this level. Are you up for the challenge of breaking 80 at golf?

Golf Swing Tips – Hitting Longer And Straighter Golf Shots

  By golfer | March 29, 2010 - 10:33 pm | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

Wouldn’t it be great to hit longer and straighter golf shots? If you have just started playing golf and are finding it a bit confusing because there are so many things to remember in the time it takes to swing the golf club, then stop trying to remember them. You will do a lot letter and enjoy your golf more by concentrating on a few important things only.

So rather than try one golf tip after another its best to build up a sound, dependable golf swing as early on in your golfing career as possible. If you can achieve that you will start to improve your golf game.

But how do you build a dependable golf swing? Here is the way I look at it. Stop trying to clutter your mind with too many dos and donts, and concentrate instead on swinging the golf club. After all, that’s all you have to do. Why make it complicated?

The second thing I did was to find a golf grip that I was comfortable with, and keep to it. I shortened my back swing as well, to three quarter length, so that with a driver for instance I never had my hands higher than my right shoulder on the back swing. That stopped me from over swinging and made me concentrate more on hitting my golf shots. It also stopped me from hooking and slicing my golf shots as much as before.

Thirdly, I made sure I had a full shoulder turn in the back swing. I was aware that failing to turn my shoulders fully at the top of my backswing was costing me distance so here’s what I did.

Why not try this golf drill and see the results for yourself. I held a golf club behind my neck and across my shoulders. With the feet apart, and holding the club in position, I turned fully to the right, as I would in my golf swing, then reversed the swing through to the left side, as I would in a normal follow through.

When you try this for the first time, don’t overdo the shoulder turns, you don’t want to hurt yourself.

These golf swing tips have helped me hit longer and straighter golf shots.

How To Improve Your Golf Swing – Keeping It In Line

  By golfer | March 26, 2010 - 10:35 am | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

It is usual for the average golfer to spray the golf ball all round the course. We are expected to. But have you ever thought to yourself how to improve your golf swing and hit more consistent golf shots? Its much easier to say in words than it is to do out there on the golf course. If you take some time to line yourself up properly for each shot, you would be surprised what a difference it can make to your score card.

When you consider that most golf faults, in particular hooking and slicing, stem from bad alignment you begin to understand how important it is to playing good golf. Here is a golf swing drill you can use on range to practice lining up correctly.

1. Lay two golf clubs on the ground, one close to your feet, the other about two feet away from the first club, and parallel to it, so that they form a channel.

2. Position the golf ball in the middle of the golf clubs, which should be pointing at the target, and stand square to the line of flight, and the two golf clubs.

3. Practice hitting some shots with this setup.

If you have been hooking or slicing most of your golf shots, standing square to the ball can feel strange at first. This means you have unknowingly allowed your stance to become too open or too closed, and you have also become comfortable standing that way. Look on this golf swing drill as a reality check, to bring your golf shots back into the correct alignment.

As you get used to standing square to the line of flight, you give yourself the best chance of playing good golf shots, and you are well on the way to improve your golf swing.

How To Improve Your Golf Swing

  By golfer | February 13, 2010 - 7:31 pm | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

The answer to the question of how to improve your golf swing, is not going to be the same for every golfer, for obvious reasons. Golfers vary in playing ability and experience.

Some players might have just started playing the game of golf, others may have been playing golf for many years. Few golfers stay at the same level of competence for years at a time, as they are always looking for ways to improve their golf playing skills.

Lets take the beginner. He or she wants to learn the game of golf as quickly as possible. At this stage of the game, the emphasis is on learning the basics of a repeatable golf swing, and soon after that, to start hitting consistent golf shots. These two objectives are closely linked together. The main focus of golfers at this stage will be on how to achieve these goals as soon as possible.

You can either book a block of lessons from the local golf professional, or you can take a chance and try to work it out on your own, by piecing together the wealth of golf instruction that is available on the internet and in golf books. Personally, I have learned a lot from the many golf video instructions there are. There is no substitute for actually seeing what you are supposed to be doing. The written word is only as good as the clarity of the message it is trying to get across to the reader.

Any internet search on your golf problem, selecting the videos option from the top of the screen, will yield some interesting results. Plenty to look at and digest. My tip is to check the number of ratings and start with viewing only those with the highest number of views.

Golfers who have been playing between one and two years probably have more specific needs on how to improve their golf swings. You might need help with one or more golf faults, and it depends how much time you can spend looking for the solution to your particular problem. The quickest way is always to have an experienced golfer have a look at your swing and make some recommendations, which might be to take lessons, or simply to try a golf tip.

Low handicap golfers tend to discuss their golfing problems among themselves, and this is understandable and sensible. Players of this level of ability know more about the game, and are better equipped to improve their golf swings if anything goes wrong with it.

All this leads me to the conclusion that, in reply to the question of how to improve your golf swing, the answer lies in the degree of knowledge you have about the mechanics of the golf swing in general, and applying this knowledge to an analysis of your own golf swing in order to be able to improve it.

For the rest of us, I suppose its down to reading about golf tips and watching golf video lessons.

The Golf Swing Follow Through

  By golfer | February 6, 2010 - 5:57 pm | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off


The golf swing follow through tends to rank low in priority whenever you see discussion and articles on golf instruction. True, the follow through in the golf swing does not occur until the swing has almost finished, and it is usual to start talking about the golf swing in general, beginning with the set up position.

That said, the follow through is important, and it is a challenge to try and hold the finish position, with the hands not moving, until the ball plops down on the fairway. An interesting exercise is to think only about the follow through when you are about to play a golf shot. Decide, by experimenting with your swing, where you want your hands to be after the shot is played. Specifically, you need to decide how high you want your finish to be.

If you need convincing of the importance of the follow through in the golf swing, think what would happen if you were to hit the ball without there being any follow through. You would then just be stabbing at the ball. The plain fact is, the golf swing generates quite a lot of clubhead speed, which needs to be channelled somewhere after impact. It is important to follow through properly after the ball is hit, because this is where the power and accuracy of the shot comes from. So it is worthwhile working on this part of the golf game.

What should the correct golf swing follow through look like?

How often do you see high handicap golfers swishing away at the ball, then once the shot is on its way, the golfer finishes the swing with the weight on the right side. Sometimes you see golfers nearly fall over after hitting the golf ball. This is obviously incorrect. What needs to happen is for the weight to be transferred to favour the left side in the downswing, with the hips leading the hands and arms into the impact zone.

Once the left side is cleared out of the way, the hands and arms play catch up, the ball is struck, and then you follow through, keeping the club head close to the ground, with the right arm extended. As you do so, the head will start to rise as the right shoulder brushes under the chin. This will force the head to come up slowly.

The golf video lesson I have included with this article specifically relates to the follow through with the driver, but the principles are the same whatever club you play.

It is well worth your time to practice the golf swing follow through, especially with the driver and the other distance clubs, as this will give you vital extra yards on the golf course.

The Easy Golf Swing

  By golfer | January 31, 2010 - 7:07 pm | Golf Swing Fundamentals
Comments Off

The easy golf swing becomes one continuous swing once it is set in motion. To the novice, it might seem as if anyone could pick up a golf club, swing it, and hit a golf ball without any difficulty whatsoever.

As all golfers know, this is not true. Make no mistake, there is a lot going on in the golf swing, and it all needs to be in harmony when you strike the golf ball.

So what is the easy golf swing? If someone were to ask you how to define the term, what would you say? Well, I don’t have your reply to this question, so here goes. I would start with the golf grip. The golf grip needs to be learned, simply because the mechanics of the golf swing make that necessary. As we know, there are many variations of the golf grip, but that belongs to another topic.

Next comes the way you stand to the ball, which is known as the golf swing stance. You need to stand to the ball with the correct golf stance. This does not mean to imply that there is a proper golf stance, rather it varies as to how tall you are. That makes sense when you think about it because golfers with shorter arms need to stand closer to the ball then those with long arms.

When you are ready, the club is taken back. This is called the back swing. When you reach the top of the backswing, some golfers pause very briefly, others do not, and the club begins its descent, returning the club face to the same position as it was at the address. Note, I am describing what should happen if the result is to be a straight golf shot. As many golfers know to their cost, it does not always happen this way.

After impact, if the golf ball flies straight on target, give yourself a pat on the back. Well done. For many of us though, the ball bends to the right, called a golfers slice, or the ball bends to the left, which is called a golf hook shot.

For an excellent example of an easy golf swing, look no further than this golf swing video clip of Bobby Jones.