How critical is finding the perfect slot position at the top of your swing? Damn critical. Finding the perfect top-of-the-backswing position boosts consistency and increases power. While many talk about achieving this position, few can tell you what it is or how it affects your swing. Even fewer can tell you how to find it consistently. But if you’re serious about cutting down your golf handicap and improving your game, you’ll learn everything you can about achieving the ideal slot position.

To do so you consistently, you must adhere to the certain key fundamentals. Master those first and you’ll find the perfect slot position much easier. Key among these fundamentals is your setup. If it’s incorrect, your backswing is doomed right from the start. Put another way, finding the ideal slot position requires the address and backswing positions flow in the proper sequence. Perfect these moves and you’ll program the perfect backswing and create an effortless, almost automatic downswing, like they teach you in golf lessons.

Posture Is The Building Block
Golf tips in sports magazines stress the importance of good posture. It’s true. Good posture is critical to a good swing. If your body is out of position at address, everything else in your swing will off. So you’ll have to make adjustments to compensate—making a sound backswing difficult to achieve. That, in turn, means the perfect slot position will probably elude you. Check your posture at address to make sure it’s correct.

Then, check your grip and your hands. Many golfers check their grip and hand position at address, like they teach you in golf lessons. But then ignore them during the swing. Gripping your hands correctly at address ensures that they work as a unit throughout the swing. But your hands and wrists can’t turn during the backswing. If they do, the clubface rolls along with it. The chances of your achieving a square clubface position at the top of the swing—and at impact—dwindle significantly.

Swing On The Same Plane
In addition, check to see that the shaft is on the same plane as your left arm during the backswing. For left-handers, it’s the right arm. Midway through the backswing, the shaft should be parallel to the line of play. From there, it should remain on the plane described by the left arm, as it swings to the top. The shaft should not stray from that plane either inward or outward if your want to find the perfect slot position.

Achieving the correct swing plane is the fourth—and most critical—checkpoint for finding the slot. If your arms and shaft are on the correct plane, they’ll swing along the proper swing path with no need for re-routing. You’ll maximize power and control.

In many golf instruction sessions, they tell you to check this position by observing the position of the left arm at the top of the swing. Then drawing a line from the left wrist through the left shoulder to ground. It should intersect the ball. But you can use another checkpoint to assure you that you’ve achieved the correct swing plan Instead of the using the left shoulder, use the top of right shoulder. It should be visible in the “window” formed by the shoulders at the top of the swing.

Keep The Clubface Square
Golfers with high golf handicaps often overlook the last checkpoint—monitoring the clubface throughout the swing. It, too, is a must for finding the perfect slot position. When you’re club reaches waist high, check to make sure the toe is pointing skyward—the ideal position for a square clubface at impact. You should also check the clubface when it gets to the top of the swing. The toe of the club should be pointing almost straight down. This position also produces a square clubface at impact.

Monitoring your clubface through the backswing makes it easier achieve the perfect slot position. So keep all the checkpoints in mind when swinging and you’ll find the perfect slot position every time. This, in turn, will increase consistency, eliminate big numbers on the scorecard, and chop strokes from 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.

In this issue we’ll discuss…
1) Boost Clubhead Speed and Distance
2) Stop Hitting Weak Drives For Good
3) Question of the Week – Getting The Ball To Hit And Sit
4) Article – Five Checkpoints To Find The Perfect Slot Position
5) Article – Five Ways To Zero In On Targets

Jack’s Note: Still trying to get your swing on plane? Get the #1 rated swing plane trainer used by the likes of Arnold Palmer, Mike Weir to name a few. And oh yeah, I’ve made special arrangements with the management so you can try it for fr*e*e for 30 days. See it here.

1) Boost Clubhead Speed and Distance
Clubhead speed generates power and distance. The greater your clubhead speed, the farther the ball goes. But you may be slowing clubhead speed and short-circuiting power by not shifting your weight on the downswing and keeping your head behind the ball. A deadly combination, these moves prohibit you from swinging your arms around your head. Learn to swing your arms past your head and you’ll boost both clubhead speed and distance.

Here are four keys to boosting clubhead speed and distance

* Keep your head behind the ball
* Shift your weight to your front foot
* Swing your arms past your head
* Hit hard with your right hand

To swing your arms past your head, you must shift your weight to your front foot during the downswing without sliding latterly. You must also keep your head behind the ball throughout the swing. If you make a solid move onto your front foot and keep your head stable, you can swing your arms as fast as you want past your head.

Unfortunately, some weekend golfers keep their wieght back too long. They then throw their weight onto their front foot at the last second, prohibiting them from swinging their arms freely, costing them power and control. So learn to shift your weight at the right time.

And don’t worry about when to release the club or how hard to hit the ball with your top hand. You can’t release the club too early, if you shift your weight to your front foot and continue to turn your hips. And you can never hit the ball too hard with your top hand, if everything else is in order.

To generate more clubhead speed and distance, concentrate on shifting your weight correctly on the downswing and keeping your head behind the ball. These moves enable you to swing your arms fast past your head, boosting clubhead speed and distance trying to consciously muscle up. It’s like coiling and uncoiling your body.

2) Stop Hitting Weak Drives For Good
A tight left arm at address produces weak drives. It “scrunches” your hands toward your body and pushes your left shoulder (right shoulder for left-handers) upward and inward, as if you were pushing it up to your front ear. This position leaves little room to swing the club and prevents you from freely extending your arms. It also forces you to fall back onto your right foot, causing weak toe hits.

Here’s a five-step procedure to correct the problem:

1. Approach the ball from the side
2. Have the club in the left hand
3. Let your arm hang freely with the club
4. Place the clubface behind the ball
5. Add the right arm to the club

The key to eliminating a tight left arm is creating enough room to let your arms extend freely during the swing. To do this, stand further from the ball with both arms equally relaxed. Have as much distance between your left shoulder and left cheek as you have between your right shoulder and right cheek, and have your right shoulder lower than the left.

Here how to achieve this set-up: Approach the ball from the side, with the club in your left hand and your arm hanging freely. Place the club behind the ball by extending your arm, not by lifting your shoulder. Line up the clubface along the target line. Now add the right arm by lowering the right side, not lifting the left. This technique extends the arms away from the body and creates room to swing the club trough, producing better centerface contact and longer drives.

If you find yourself hitting weak toe hits off the tee, you could have a tight left arm. Have a friend watch you swing. If that’s the problem, use the procedure described above to correct the problem. Once you’ve ingrained the correction, you’ll find yourself hitting longer, straighter drives with fewer toe hits.

3) Question of the Week – Getting The Ball To Hit And Sit

Q. Dear Jack, My question is this: How do you hit a shot that hops and stops on a dime? Let’s say, I’m 10 yards off the green and there’s a sand bunker in between my lie and the hole. I have maybe 5 yards of green to work with and it’s running away from me. I need to make the ball go over the bunker but land soft with no run at all. It is possible to do that and how would you go about it?

Thanks
Virginia

A. Thanks for the question, Virginia. Getting the ball to sit on a green is a great way for weekend golfers to cut strokes from their scores.

To get a ball to hit and sit, you need plenty of backspin. But first you need a clean club—with some grip on the clubface—and a good ball, preferably new. Ideally, you also need good fairway with dry grass. In addition, the green must be in good shape to hold the ball when it hits. A softer green works best.

To put backspin on the ball, hit downward on the ball’s bottom half with a lot of force, striking it at a steep angle and making clean contact. Ideally, you want to “pinch’ the ball between the club and the fairway. That sends the ball upward with a lot of backspin.

Combine these factors—angle of attack, significant force, clean contact—in the right amounts, you’ll put backspin on the ball and get it to sit when it hits. It takes practice to master this shot, but it’s well worth it. It can save you a ton of strokes and help whittle down that your golf handicap.

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.

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/newsletter03182009.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article – Five Checkpoints To Find The Perfect Slot Position
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/five-checkpoints-to-find-the-perfect-slot-position.html

5) Article – Five Ways To Zero In On Targets
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/five-ways-to-zero-in-on-targets.html

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, go to http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter.htm

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.

Sometimes you have to play when the weather is bad. Unfortunately, the USGA makes Studying the pros is a great way to improve. PGA pros must bring their “A” games to the course every day to compete on the tour. To do that they spend hours and hours honing their mechanics and analyzing their swings, as well as taking golf lessons from swing gurus. It makes sense to study what they do. Gleaning a golf tip or two from a pro can help you improve your swing and cut strokes from your golf handicap.

Driving is one area where studying the pros can really help. Bad driving adds unnecessary strokes to your scores by leaving you difficult approach shots, as many weekend golfers know. Eliminating bad drives from your repertoire cuts strokes from your scores and your golf handicap. Let’s take a look the kinds of things you can earn from studying three top PGA pros.

Delivery Is Key
Maintaining level shoulders while rotating your the left is one of the keys to Shigeki Maryuama’s outstanding ballstriking capabilities. A smaller player, he drives the ball as well as much bigger players like Ernie Els, who stands well over six feet. Maryuama keeps his left foot planted on the ground while his right knee kicks in slightly. This let’s him leverage the right side of his body against a firm left side—a great way to generate power. He also keeps his shoulders level while his lower body rotates out of the way—producing quality ballstriking whether hitting a wood or an iron.

Know Your Swing
Jesper Parnevik is a different story. Unlike Maryuama, he’s lean, lanky, and flexible. In fact, he’s so much so that his hips often clear his upper body too quickly. Since Jesper also uses a strong grip, he tends to produce a hook when the clubhead is fully released. Having watched his swing on video, he knows he must prevent the clubhead from rotating through impact, if he wants to hit it long and straight. In other words, he knows his swing and the adjustments he needs to make when his swing brakes down.

Learn from Jesper Parnevik. Take some video of your swing. Get to know it well. Get to know the feel of a good swing. Doing so will help you generate accuracy and power. It will also help you determine the adjustments you must make to correct swing flaws when your swing beaks down.

Drive The Club With Your Body
Anthony Kim is a third story. He hits them long and straight off the tee by driving the club with his body, not the muscles of his arms. Kin has really mastered this. In addition, his swing is simple and fundamentally sound. It features an almost perfect sequence of movements, which helps him hit them longer and straighter—and he, like Maryuama, is not a big, strapping guy.

In essence, Kim builds torque by stretching his body against itself and unwinding it at just the right time, producing a sort of “cracking of the whip.” In doing so, he exhibits many of the same swing attributes as Ben Hogan. Hogan, who also was rather small, drove the ball great distances. Like Kim, he created great clubhead speed and power by combining strength, flexibility, and great mechanics.

These golf tips are typical of the types of golf tips you can learn by studying the pros. If you’re going to improve, you must perfect your swing. Studying the pros on TV is one way to learn how to do that. Sometimes, it’s just as productive as taking a golf lesson. You never now when you’ll learn something that will help you lower your golf handicap a few strokes.

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

Want to know the key to consistency? Correct your own swing flaws as soon as possible. It’s the best way of becoming a really competitive golfer and of achieving and maintaining a low golf handicap. Correcting swing flaws helps PGA Tour pros achieve such great consistency. They correct their flaws as soon as possible. Otherwise, they become ingrained.

Fortunately, there are different ways learning about the golf swing. They include reading golf tips in magazine and taking a golf lesson or two from your local pro. Both are good sources of information on correcting swing flaws. But ultimately, correcting a swing flaw comes down hitting balls on the practice range. That’s where a tried-and-true exercises help.

Eliminating Long Game Problems
Swing coaches use a variety of exercise to help golfers root out swing flaws in their long games. In fact, if you talk to five swing coaches, you’ll probably get five different exercises to correct long game problems. One thing these exercise all seem to share is that they all start short, and then go long. In other words, they help you eliminate the flaw first in your short clubs and then in your long clubs.

In fact, the best approach to correcting long game difficulties may just be hitting 40-yard wedges, stopping often to check the club’s position during the swing. For best results, use a pitching wedge to execute this drill, not a sand wedge. The sand wedge has too much loft, making it hard to see the spin on the ball—a critical component to this drill. A PW provides a better idea of the ball’s spin, making it easier to manipulate when hitting draws and fades.

Achieving A Square Clubface Throughout
Another critical component to this exercise is achieving a square clubface throughout the swing. A square clubface starts with the right grip. Too strong a grip, results in a closed clubface halfway back and at the top. That, in turn, results in a hook, if no adjustment is made on the downswing, or a slice, if your body over compensates by opening the clubface through impact. Using a weak grip also has its problems.

Use a neutral grip instead. It helps you keep the clubface square halfway back, at the top, and through impact. When hitting short wedges, check the clubface’s position halfway back in your backswing and at the top. Continue hitting short pitches and check these positions until you ingrain the feel of a square clubface. Then gradually move to a 9-iron, and then an 8-iron. Continue moving down the clubs.

Hitting Slices And Fades
If you want to practice fades, start again with 40-yard wedges, but open your stance to the target line by bringing your front foot away from the target line. This causes the clubface to come across the ball. If you want to practice draws, hit 40-yard pitches, but close your stance by bringing your front foot forward to the target line. This causes the clubface to put the right spin on the ball.

The benefit of hitting short wedges is that it lets you focus on your swing, not the distance the ball travels—a common distraction among golfers with long game problems. Too often golfers focus on how far their shots go instead of putting a good swing on the ball. Hitting short wedges eliminates this tendency.

It’s only a matter of time before you develop a swing flaw or two. So monitor your swing constantly. When you detect a flaw, fix it immediately—before it becomes ingrained. In addition, read golf tips in magazines and take golf lessons from a local pro to learn more about the golf swing. They both provide good information about it—information that can help you achieve consistency and keep your golf handicap in check.

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.