« Advanced Golf Training at AHPGA- Philip`s first day! | Main | Philip`s First Week of Advanced Golf Training at AHPGA »
Changing Golf Swing Technique Through Golf Ball Flight
By Tony | April 20, 2008
For the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of working with Zoie Cooper a fine young junior female golfer from Western Australia. After comprehensively testing and assessing Zoie`s golf game holistically last week through a series of technical skills and performance testing we were able to identify certain patterns in Zoie`s golf game. Zoie`s ball flight tendency is a right to left hook shape or a push out to the right of her intended target.
In the image on the right you can see the top of the back swing position before any full swing improvement work. Note the unbalanced position of the arms. Zoie`s left arm is in an upright position and there is too much tension in that arm, which see`s the club in an unbalanced position resulting in an overswing and disconnection. From this unbalanced position at the top, Zoie`s first move is to pull her right arm down into her right side. This results in the club getting too far behind and `stuck`. From here the club approaches the ball on an excessively flat path coming into the ball. Zoie is forced to flip her hands over the ball through impact closing the club face too rapidly. This is resulting in inconsistent contact ( thin contact and contact out of the heel of the club face) and inconsistent ball flight control.
For the past two weeks we have had Zoie working on improving her golf swing path on the down swing and into impact. As a part of Zoie`s daily training plan, she works daily on shaping the golf ball in a left to right shape with a fade.By working on the dynamics required to play a fade with a standard height ball flight this is encouraging an improved connection between Zoie`s body and arms, a body release, hands inside club head through impact and into the follow through and reduced forearm rotation. If you look the image on the left, you can see how Zoie is now becoming more balanced a the top ( note the balanced position of the arms and body).
If you are experiencing a similar inside/flat club head path and ball flight like Zoie was, next time you go to the range try hitting some standard height left to right shaped fades. This will improve your golf swing path and contact, which will improve your control over the ball flight, which means more distance and direction control, which results in lower scores!
Topics: General |