Swing Drills
There are dozens of tricks for improving your golf swing. Here are some basics:
Stance and ball position
Place your feet about shoulder width apart - slightly less for short irons, wider for long irons and wedges. Imagine a straight line between your position and the target and aim the club directly at the target. This is called the target line. Your body should be parallel to it, while your shoulders perpendicular to the club face.
Imagine that you are standing on a ladder on the ground with your feet on one side and the target line on the other. One rung connects you to the ball. When you’re driving, you will know that you have the ball teed correctly if the top of the ball is slightly above the club’s head. Since the common putter has a short flat face, the club’s head should align along the ladder rung when putting.
Wrists and grip
The grip should be firm for maximum control, but not tense. Your wrist position is essential to creating the most effective impact at the proper angle, which is way more important for distance than brute force. One of the most common mistakes is to allow the leading wrist to collapse at impact.
To firm up the wrists, take a club and raise it just using the wrist, keeping your arm at your side. Point the toe parallel to the ground and hold for five seconds. While it sounds simple, this is a challenging exercise. Repeat until your forearm feels used, then switch the arms and repeat.
Take a few swings with one arm only - it’s not a natural thing to do and it does not improve your swing by itself. By being so different from the normal two-handed swing, however, it helps to develop control.
Body
Take your normal address - the stance and position with respect to the ball before the swing. Hold the club across your shoulders, then turn as if you were making a backswing. Get someone to watch you and verify that the club points four feet or more beyond the ball.
Swing drills
Remember that swing is rotational movement. Key to that movement is to stay in the same plane on the downswing as you were in the backswing - think of this plane as a round table top, tipped on edge and placed on the ball. The bottom half of the rim of that table is the arc your club should go through on the entire swing.
Practice the backswing to downswing movement stopping at the point of impact to verify that the clubface is along the rung of the ladder (see above). If the clubface is open, you’ve rotated your forearm too much.
Place a few tees in the ground a few inches apart along the rung of the ladder. Swing at one, then move forward to the next. With practice you should be able to consistently clip the middle of a tee while staying in the swing plane.
Rhythm and balance
The keys to consistently good swing are good balance and rhythm. You cannot have good rhythm without good balance and vice-versa. The proper position and stance are static aspects of the swing, while balance is dynamic.
Start practicing with the static - you cannot do otherwise. But you need to retain good balance and rhythm through the entire swing.
While swinging, your weight should be evenly distributed between your feet with the spine tilted away from the target at address. Don’t rush your movement - take a smooth pull back and an easy swing down.
As you practice a few swings have someone gently push your shoulder blades, lower back, one shoulder in one direction then alternate - you should be solid and not about to fall at any time. Every portion of the swing should be smooth.