There are all kinds of ways to help you hit the ball straight but when it comes to golf, there are typically only a few main areas that you want to work with. The main things you want to make sure you're focusing on to hit the ball straight are the alignment of your feet and body, your grip, your take away and follow through. Here's how to make sure they're all working well.
The alignment of your feet is easy to check. Lay a club on the ground pointing at your desired target and set up your toes on the club and take a look at your target and make sure your body feels like it's aimed properly. Your shoulders, club face and feet should all be aimed at your target. If certain areas of your body hurt in this position or you're dramatically offline in one of these areas, it's probably best to get some physical therapy to untangle the guilty musculature. Once things are good in this position, move on to how long you can hold the position.
Try holding the aligned position for a full minute. Take a bunch of looks out to your target and back to the ball and make sure things are holding their position. After this, take a bit of a breather versus trying to hit the ball because odds are you've exhausted the stabilizing muscles at this point which is definitely a bad time to swing the club. Once you're ready, you can set up again, take a quick look and try a few shots. This drill would be a great one to repeat for your first 5-10 minutes of practice. Now that you've got a good idea on how to align your body for a golf swing, let's move on to your grip.
Your grip should be secondary to the alignment we've just set up but let's make sure it's in position and comfortable. Line the club up first, grip it making sure your hands are comfortably touching and see how things go while you hold the club for a length of time. You may be surprised at how soon you have to adjust things. In most cases, a little adjustment will be a good thing as it often fosters a slightly stronger hand position. Once you find your slightly stronger position, re-adjust your hands on the club and make sure that everything else is maintaining its alignment.
If you're debating between the various three hand positions: interlocking high hand index and low hand baby fingers, overlapping them or simply going closed hand to hand like a baseball swing, it would be a good idea to play with each for two to three weeks. They're all going to be awkward for a week or so but after that, they'll show you their true colors. If you genuinely want to figure them out, you've got to put in the full two weeks minimum to see what they're going to do for you. After that, you'll have a very clear cut winner. As a closing note on grip, you should try it 2-3 times a week for the first 2-3 weeks if possible for optimal results.
Now that you've got good basic alignment and a comfy grip, let's take a look at your takeaway. It should be straight back and low for at least the first foot or so before it starts to travel slightly inside the target line of the ball. If you can't get it back there, release some of the tension on your front leg and let it bend backwards in unison with your takeaway. At belt level, your lead arm and the club itself should be parallel to both the aligned club on the ground and the target line the ball is on. The club head should basically be pointing vertical at this point as you open it up to the top of your backswing. This trend can continue until the club is essentially at the top of your backswing and once again in line with the other target lines. You may need a camera or a friend to track your top position to make sure things are lined up which is well worth the extra effort. Knowing you've swung back in line to the right position will increase your chances of maintaining good alignment when you begin your downswing.
From the top of your backswing, it should be fairly easy to get back to the ball comfortably barring any premature attack from the upper body. Stay relaxed and initiate the downswing with your hips and once things are moving, start thinking about your follow through.
You follow through needs to track the target line for as long as you can possibly hold the club on it. This simply means you need to point your club down the target line after you've hit the ball until both of your shoulders come through. Once they've both come through, they'll naturally pull your club off the target line and up to your finish. As a side note, if you're a powerful player, if you hook and push shots a lot, you may need to start swinging stiffer shafted clubs.
Practicing these above golf swing alignment tips will definitely have you hitting the golf ball much straighter. Add them to your game along with all the other great golf tips you can find at Better Golf Secrets. Click the link and find out what you've been missing and keep on swinging!
Cheers,
Ty Cooper
Ty Cooper is an Advanced Human Kinetics Sports Pro who focuses on golf and teaching golfers real tips, tricks and techniques to truly take their golf game to the next level. Feel free to visit his blog at Better Golf Secrets for more info on Ty and his teachings.
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