This is the first part of a two-part article. It covers plane and face—two of the four common denominators to a sweeter swing that will help you lower your golf handicap. Next week we’ll discuss centering and radius.

The next time you watch golf on TV, take a close look at each golfer’s swing. If you’re watching a PGA tournament, you’ll notice that the players all have something in common in addition to great mechanics: They’ve mastered the real basics of a good swing—plane, face, centering, and radius. These basics are critical to a great golf swing and sound ball striking. Fortunately, you don’t need great athletic ability to master them. You just need to practice some simple drills.

Of course, these basics are really just means to an end. They’re not ends in themselves, so mastering them won’t automatically lower your golf handicap. They must be combined with other fundamentals, like having a good grip, posture, ball position, and alignment, to achieve a great swing. But they’re a critical step. Unfortunately, written golf tips and personal golf lessons don’t always cover them.

Below we define two of the four basics—plane and face—and provide drills to help master them. Next week will cover centering and radius.

Plane:
You’ve probably have heard the term before, but you’re not sure exactly what it is or how it applies to your swing. Plane is defined by the angle your club creates when it’s ground at address. To master accuracy, the club must remain on this plane as it approaches the ball on the downswing. Actually, most golfers have two swing planes—the one formed by your takeaway and the other generated by your downswing, which is slightly flatter.

Of the two, the second is the most important. It’s the most powerful and direct route to the ball, as I’ve mentioned in my golf tips. Coming back to the ball above or below this plane short-circuits your power and causes pulls, slices, and an assortment of other types of bad shots. Ideally, you want to perfect your swing so that you’re always coming back to the ball on plane.

Plane Drill:
Place two shafts on the ground to represent the target line and two tees in the ground just outside the target line. Stick a tee in the grip end of your club before setting up. Now, address the ball and start your backswing. At the three-quarter position of your backswing, the tee in the club’s grip should point to the target line or out to the tee line. If the club’s butt points past or over the target line, the plane angle is too flat, so you need to do more work to perfect this basic. Keep working on the drill.

Face:
Face is another key swing basic. To be a great ball striker, you must rotate the clubface to square it at impact. Most players don’t rotate the clubface enough on the downswing to do this or they rotate it much too late. You must start rotating the clubface just before impact and finish just after it. To test oneself, take a practice swing without a ball and stop just after the impact. Your glove hand should be below your non-glove hand just after impact. If it’s not, you must rotate the clubface more.

Face was a major concern of Jack Nicklaus when he played on the tour. So he used a simple technique to square his clubface at impact, one I’ve written about in my golf tips and discussed in my golf lessons. He turned the clubface’s toe past the heel at impact to draw the ball from left to right. He felt that having the toe beat the heel to the ball encourages the clubface to close through impact. Jack’s tip helps you not only square your clubface, but also shape your shots and eliminate a slice.

Face Drill:
The face drill is one that you can easily do at home. Without a club, grab your left/hand wrist with your right hand. Left-handers need to do the opposite. Assume your golf stance and take the position to the top of the backswing. Hold it. Repeat. Keep doing it until it’s ingrained. The drill helps you develop a one-piece backswing and position the club at the top, so you can deliver the club back to the ball squarely at impact. This drill and the plane drill are compliments of Jim Mclean, the noted golf teacher.

While great mechanics are critical, the real keys to a sweeter swing are plane, face, centering, and radius. This week we discussed plane and face. Next week, we’ll talk about centering and radius. Developing a great swing depends on mastering these common denominators. Work on the drills discussed above and you’ll perfect them, taking you one step closer to a better 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.

If you’re among those weekend golfers that play golf without sunglasses, think again. Sunglasses aren’t just for show or to make you look cool. They’re a critical piece of equipment you should always use—as vital to your eyes as sunscreen is to your skin. They also help your golf handicap. That’s why you almost always see PGA pros wearing them when they play.

Unfortunately, many weekend golfers don’t wear sunglasses when they play—whether it’s bright and sunny or gray and overcast. These golfers remove their sunglasses and store them before playing a four- to five- hour round of golf, putting them at risk every time they step onto a tee. Not wearing sunglasses also leads to a high incidence of eye damage. In fact, golfers have as much as twice the incident of UV-related eye disease as everyone else. Those are sobering statistics.

But you wear a cap, you say. That’s not the same. The cap’s visor doesn’t do much to protect your eyes. About all it does is shade your forehead. Every day elements, like sun, wind, pollen, and dust— can damage your sight, leading to permanent problems you might not discover until it’s too late. Reading golf tips or taking golf lessons won’t correct this fault. That’s why wearing sunglasses is a must for every golfer, in all weather and sunlight conditions.

UV Protection Reduces Radiation
The biggest reason for wearing sunglasses is to block out the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV rays penetrate our atmosphere constantly, causing our skin and eyes to burn. Without protection, excessive exposure to these rays leads to all sorts of problems including cataracts, macular degeneration, and skin cancer around the eyelids. These skin problems are serious and often permanent.

UV rays are dangerous because they don’t travel just in a straight line. They refract and reflect in virtually every direction. Sunglasses block 98 to 100 percent of these rays, protecting your eyes from short-term and long-term damage. This protection comes from a special coating applied to the lens. It has nothing to do with the glasses’ color. So always check the UV rating on the glasses. It makes a difference

Polarization Reduces Glare
Polarization reduces glare and improves clarity and focus—especially near flat, highly reflective surfaces. When light rays reflect off water or flat, smooth surfaces like a fairway, sand, or road, the light bounces off the surface on a horizontal plane—right in the direction of your eyes. This causes eyestrain from glare, and excessive squinting and focusing on long and short distances.

Contrary to popular belief, polarization doesn’t block out UV rays. But it does alleviate eyestrain. It adds a special coating or film to the sunglasses that naturally align on a horizontal lane, blocking out horizontal rays and allowing vertical light rays through. It also limits peripheral vision and increases distortion. But advances in tinting allow different levels of light to pass through, alleviating these problems and letting golfers choose lens that work for any light conditions.

Colorization Improves Sight
Like polarization, colorization doesn’t block out UV rays. Instead, it blocks out high frequency blue light—a major factor in ocular-damage. Research shows that the most favorable formula is to block out 93 to 98 percent of blue light, which lets just enough light in to prevent distortion. Some sunglasses have different tints for varying conditions. Others come with interchangeable lens to help you match your exact needs on a daily basis.

Brown/amber tints help golfers with depth perception by reducing blur and sharpening edges. They’re good anytime. Gray/green tints—the most popular—yield the least color distortion and filter haze. They’re ideal for sunny days. And purple/rose tints are well suited for contrasting against green and blue backgrounds. They’re good for courses with numerous water hazards and few trees.

Wearing sunglasses while playing might is critical. They help protect your eyes from permanent eye damage, like cataracts, macular degeneration, and skin cancer. If you don’t wear sunglasses when you play, rethink that practice now that you know the dangers. You have one pair of eyes. Protect them all you can. They’re more important than any golf tip you read or golf lesson you take.

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.

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Choke Down For Increased Control
2) Unlock Your Lower Body
3) Question of the Week – Surviving A Swing Change
4) Article – Sunglasses Protect Your Eyes, Help Your Golf Handicap
5) Article – Four Drills For Achieving A Sweeter Swing (Part I)

1) Choke Down For Increased Control
Baseball players often choke up an inch or two on their bats when facing hard throwing pitchers. Choking up shortens their swings and makes the bats feel lighter, enabling the players to get the bats around quicker. Choking down on a golf club offers similar benefits for golfers and helps cut strokes from your scores. The trick is knowing why and when to choke down.

Choking down on a club affects your swing and the club’s characteristics in the following ways:

* Makes the club lighter
* Increases club control
* Shortens the radius of the swing
* Makes the swing more upright
* Promotes a sharp, downward blow

Many golf teachers recommend choking down an inch on every club. That’s always a good idea. But here we’re talking about choking down two or more inches. In the right circumstances, the added control provided by choking down is often the difference between making the shot and missing it.

Choking down makes the club lighter. A lighter club is easier to control, making it more useful on certain shots, like delicate chips and pitches. These are situations where both swing speed and club-ball contact must be precise.

Choking down also makes your swing’s shape more upright because the shaft of the club is more vertical, shortening the swing’s radius. It also causes the clubhead to approach the ball on a steeper angle, promoting a sharp downward blow and a lower flying shot. That’s great in situations where you have to keep the ball low, like on windy days where you want the distance of a 5-iron but the trajectory of a 4-iron.

Finally, choking down on a club is mandatory on certain shots, like sidehill lies with the ball above your feet. You could stand farther from the ball or change your posture. But then you’d have to worry about hitting behind the ball. Choking down lets you maintain your normal setup and swing without having to worry about hitting the ground behind the ball.

Choking down is like adding a 15th club to your bag. Take advantage of its benefits when you can. It will save strokes.

2) Unlock Your Lower Body
Ideally, you want to keep your knees flexed from address to impact. But some golfers suffer from “cement legs.” Their footwork is poor and their weight shift non-existent. They’ve locked their lower bodies too much in place. Consequently, their upper bodies bob up and down and their hands get too active. The end result isn’t pretty. Nor is it sound.

But a Tom Watson trick rids you of cement legs. The left knee, right knee move is simple, yet effective. Just point your left knee to the right of the ball at the top of your swing and your right knee to the left of the ball at impact. Left knee, right knee. That’s it. Left-handers, of course, do the opposite.

Watson’s move encourages you to turn your hips and shift your weight back and forth with no conscious effort. Unfortunately, some golfers set up with locked knees, preventing them from shifting their weight. Instead, they point their front knees straight out toward the ball during their backswings. This wrecks their chances of executing a good swing.

In addition, you need to move your knees on short swings. We all tend to hit short chips and pitches using just our arms. But you need some movement in your lower body on these shots as well.

The Mehlhorn Drill
This Drill is good for improving knee action. Hold a club at both ends across your thighs and move your feet and legs as you would during a swing. The shaft must stay against your legs. If it comes away from your knees, you’re not moving correctly.

Next time you’re at the range, check your lower body. If it’s locked, try Watson’s trick. Once you learn it, you’ll see the difference.

3) Question of the Week – Surviving A Swing Change
Q. Hello, I have a question about going through the tough times of a swing change. I am currently transitioning my swing and re-grooving a new swing plane to a flatter one from an up and down plane.

My question is: what do you do to get through the tough times of a swing change? Do you just devote your time to practicing on the range and working with a swing trainer? Or do you continue to play. Playing during this time is rough. My scores are really suffering. I occasionally get that shot off like I intended, but end up in trouble.

Thanks,
Matt
Athens, PA

A. Thanks, Matt. Making a swing change is hard on your ego and your game. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to do it. That’s because you must unlearn the old way—which you may have been doing for years—before you can learn the new. That process is difficult.

When I make a change, I put extra time in on the range, work with a swing coach, find a good drill to practice at home, and look for a game I can play with my buddies. I do anything I can to practice the change. I also build in milestones into my practices, like increasing the number of times in a row I hit the ball correctly during each session. Recognizing small successes builds confidence.

In addition, I use visualization. I set aside time to visualize my swing with the change imbedded. For me, it speeds the learning process.

More importantly, I use the change when playing. You have to do it, even if it means racking up a poor score. It’s the best way to practice a swing change. If you can make it under the pressure of playing, you’ve mastered the change.

Making a swing change is hard. It takes time, practice, and patience. But once you decide to do it, go for it. Don’t flip flop between the old and the new. It slows the learning process. Stay patient, use visualization, and keep a positive mental attitude. In time, you’ll have the change down pat.

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

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter11262008.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Sunglasses Protect Your Eyes, Help Your Golf Handicap
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/sunglasses-protect-your-eyes-help-your-golf-handicap.html

5) Article – Four Drills For Achieving A Sweeter Swing (Part I)
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/four-drills-for-achieving-a-sweeter-swing.html

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

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About the Author
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.