In this issue we'll discuss...

1) Optimize Your Backswing For More Yards
2) Putting Spin On Long Irons
3) Question of the Week - This Home Drill Improves Your Hip Turn
4) Article - Saving Shots Around The Green
5) Article - Shaking Off The Shanks
1) Optimize Your Backswing For More Yards

Optimizing your downswing and impact position is critical to good ballstriking. Just as important to good ballstriking is optimizing your backswing. In fact, some experts consider it more important than the other two swing elements. The backswing is where you build speed and width—two key ingredients to a powerful swing. To become a great ballstriker, you must first put yourself in position to make a powerful downswing into the ball.

Below are five signs that you’ve made a good backswing:

1. Arms are fully extended
2. Wrists are fully hinged
3. Clubface is parallel to forearm
4. Body is rotated around the back knee
5. Head is behind the ball

Some players think that generating a good backswing means raising their hands high at the top of the swing. Not so. To generate more yards from your shots, you must optimize your backswing. Doing so builds torque, which you need to drive the ball long and straight.

A good backswing features the arms extended, the wrists fully hinged, and the clubface parallel to the left forearm for right-handed golfers. For left-handed golfers, the clubface would be parallel to the right forearm.

In addition, the golfer’s upper body is rotated around the back knee. Proper rotation puts the left shoulder behind the ball and increases weight distribution to the back leg. More importantly, it places your head behind the ball.

Check your backswing in a mirror. See if you’re “faking it”—just lifting your hands above your head. If you are, you’re losing power. To increase this power, hinge your wrists and rotate your body during the backswing. When you hinge and rotate, you shift your weight automatically to the right side, putting you in position for making a powerful downswing into the ball.
2) Putting Spin On Long Irons

Many golfers have replaced their 3- and 4-irons with hybrids. They’re shorter and easier to hit. But some golfers haven’t switched clubs. They’re still using long irons when the situation presents itself. But you must be careful with long irons. The longer the iron the greater the chance of catching the shot thin. Even when you hit the ball solidly, you’re not compressing it against the ground, costing you distance and shot-stopping spin.

Here are five keys to hitting solid long irons:

* Take your regular address
* Shift your hips to the front
* Stretch the club away
* Push your spikes into the ground
* Swing down on the ball

To compress the ball and get the full distance and spin potential from a long iron, you must be on your front side at impact. Using a “stack and stretch” move helps you hit crisp irons.

Take your regular address position. Shift your weight slightly so that your front hip is over your front heel. And keep your shoulders even. If you’re trying to compress the ball, the last thing you want to do is tilt your upper body toward the target.

As you take the club to the top, stretch its butt away from your body as much as possible while keeping your front heel on the ground and your weight on the left side. This is a key move because it puts you in a powerful position.

Start your downswing by pushing the spikes of your front shoe into the ground. Dig them in as deep as you can. This move shifts more of your weight to your front foot before you start to unwind and gives you a strong base that will allow you to hit down on the ball firmly.

To practice the stack and stretch move, wrap one piece of a Theraband around the instep of your front foot and the other around the fingers in your forward hand. As you swing to the top, the Theraband adds resistance, which is what you should feel in your front side as you swing.
3) Question of the Week - This Home Drill Improves Your Hip Turn

Q. Hi Jack, Which drills would help me improve my hip turn in the downswing? My problem is that during the downswing I release the arms and hands before I swift my weight.

Best regards,
José Carlos

A. Thanks for the question, José. It sounds like you’re having problems synchronizing your upper and lower bodies during your swing. The Synchro-Turn Drill teaches body synchronization. It’s a simple drill you can do at home:

Take your stance facing a full-length mirror. Bend slightly at the knees and hips. Assume your address position. And move your hands to your hips, with your thumbs forward. Now pinch your elbows toward each other behind your back, locking your shoulders and hips together.

Start your backswing by turning your lower and upper bodies away from the target. When you’ve turned as far as you can, hold that position for a second or two. You should have turned your hips far enough so that your lead knee is pulled slightly toward you’re back knee.

Start the downswing by moving everything together. Turn as if you’re swinging a club. Move through impact to the finish and stop. Now look at where you are. Your chest should point left of target, if you’re right-handed. Your weight should be on your forward foot. Your back toe should be up for balance and be weightless. And your back knee should be covering your front knee. Repeat this drill 25 times while keeping your head and spine in the same position fixed.

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

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Saving Shots Around The Green
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/saving-shots-around-the-green.php

5) Article - Shaking Off The Shanks
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/shaking-off-the-shanks.php

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.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Golf Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.