Accuracy is the overriding goal of every golf swing. That's why you pick out a target on every shot. Picking out a target is a key fundamental every professional golfer executes before swinging his or her club. Once you've done that, you must be able control the shot's distance, direction, and trajectory to reach the target. If you can hit your target consistently, you'll increase your chances of achieving a low golf handicap.
But how do you do this? Take golf lessons? Study golf tips? Hit balls at the range? While these are effective ways of learning to improving ballstriking, there's another important element to achieving solid contact—using body-sequencing drills. With body sequencing, you must move the different body segments in the right sequence to achieve solid contact. It's not always easy to do. But small improvements here often lead to big improvements on the course, as I say in golf instruction sessions.
Learn What Solid Contact Feels Like
One reason body sequencing drills work is because they teach you what making solid contact feels like. Unfortunately, many golfers don't know what that feels like—even after years of playing. But once you've learned it, it's easier to achieve time and time again. Practicing body-sequencing drills like the one descried below is something you can do at home.
In my golf lessons I have students use a 7-iron, but you can use a 6-iron or 8-iron. After addressing the ball, simulate impact by first putting weight on your front foot. Your front leg is straight and your back knee is in toward the target. Your hips are open, about 45 degrees, your back shoulder is a bit lower than your front shoulder, and your head is just behind the ball. The club's handle is slightly ahead of the clubhead and your front wrist is flat.
When practicing this drill, focus on achieving the right angle of forward shaft lean. The club shaft must be angled forward at impact to achieve solid contact. Why? It's simple. If the shaft on a 7-iron is leaning slightly backwards when you make contact, you turn the club into an 8-iron. If the shaft on your 7-iron is leaning forward slightly, you turn your 7-iron into a 6-iron. That can add as much as 20 yards to a shot.
Practice To Improve Contact
If you practice this drill daily, you'll quickly learn what making solid contact with a middle iron feels like. Once you've learned that feels, you'll find yourself getting in that position during the swing without thinking about it. The next step is to learn what it feels like with your other clubs.
Another key to achieving solid contact is getting your upper body working together with your lower body. It's another most common error I see in golf lessons. Below is a second body sequencing drill to learn this fundamental:
Put your left hand on your hip and extend your back arm, as if you were holding a club with this arm. Now simulate a backswing, taking the back arm to the top. Then come forward with the back arm, simulating your downswing. Your arm and your front hip should move together. Practice this drill daily.
In addition, keep this additional golf tip in mind for making solid contact: Many golfers take back their clubs extra slow the first few feet, then rush forward on the downswing. It's more important to achieve an even rhythm throughout the entire swing. Concentrate on achieving smooth consistent speed all the way through your swing and you'll make solid impact more often.
Hitting your target is the goal of every golf swing. To hit a target, you must control the shot's distance, direction, and trajectory. The best way to do that is to focus on making solid contact. You can learn this by practicing the body-sequencing drills described above. Making solid contact more often can't help but shave strokes off your golf handicap.
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 handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
