One thing most golfers have heard about is grip pressure with your golf club. I can tell you firsthand, I have always, and I mean always gripped it way too tight, and have really struggled to have a full release of the golf club through impact.

When you talk to both golf instructors and good players, they will tell you all types of pressures from gripping it like you’re holding a tube of toothpaste; or holding a small bird, to gripping it much tighter, and giving it a rip.

Swinging A Baseball Bat

I don’t know if you ever played baseball, but I want you to picture how tight your gripped the bat. I know for myself, it was VERY light, and mostly in my fingers. I never really thought about it when I played, but now that I look back, I can’t imagine gripping a baseball bat tight, and then trying to swing it at a high speed, let alone be able to react to a fast ball coming at you.

You would NEVER grip a baseball bat tight.

How About A Tennis Racket?

Same thing goes here. I don’t know if you’ve ever played tennis, but just watch the professionals serve some time. Watch how lightly the racket grip is in their hand. It almost looks like it could fly out. And remember. Even the women are serving at well over 100mph, so if you can grip a tennis racket that light and hit it that hard, you can surely grip a golf club lightly.

Golf Grip Tip

Here’s something fun to do. The next time you go out to the range to hit balls, I want you to really grip the club tight. On a 1-10 a solid 10. While gripping it that tight, try to hit a golf ball. How’d it go? I’ll bet it felt really strange, and you hand no zip on the ball.

In fact, you might not have even hit it with any power.

Now right after that shot, grip it as light as you can. Nearly to the point that it feels like it’s going to fly out of your hand when you swing it. What happened? Did you hit it pretty good? If I were a betting man, you struck it solid, with even a divot AFTER the ball.

So What Should The Pressure Be?

Again, you’re going to get a lot of different answers, but I know for myself, I grip it around a 3-4. And, I’m trying to get it a little lighter than that.

So the next time you practice, really focus on how relaxed your fingers hands and wrists are when you swing. Try different variations of tension, to see what one works best for you.

The bottom line is what another instructor or golfer says, may not be for you, but until you go to the range and do what I mentioned above, you’ll never know what your grip pressure on the golf club should be.

To hit longer golf drives your body must be able to produce higher clubhead speeds. Golfers seem to think this will happen all by itself, or by just swinging harder. Has that worked for you yet? The human body cannot magically produce higher clubhead speed. The ONLY way to improve it from your current level is to implement simple, easy and effective golf exercises specific to rotational strength and flexibility.

I have spent the past 15 years developing golf exercises any golfer can do no matter age or current physical ability. I have found that many older golfers disregard their declining physical abilities, and doing simple golf exercises regularly can quickly stop this decline, and in fact, reverse it in many situations.

I have put together a Golf Swing Exercise Program that takes ONLY 3 minutes a day, and it is a 30 day golf swing training program that I am sure will add yards to every club in your bag.

Here is one of the fun, simple and very effective golf exercises in this INSTANTLY DOWNLOADABLE golf ebook.

Instructions:
• Grab ball, start in golf posture in front of mirror.
• Slowly swing ball into backswing with arms extended.
• Reverse motion into follow through. No swaying to side.
• Without stop swing back and forth 20 times total.
• One backswing and one follow through equals 2.
• It is critical to keep head still. No up or down movement.
• Keep hip rotation to a minimum to increase torque.
• After 20 rest for 30 seconds and repeat cycle twice more.

Benefit To The Golf Swing:
• Improves range of motion in backswing & follow through.
• Creates bigger turn with less tension for increased distance.
• Develops more width in swing for higher clubhead speed.
• Improves stability for increased golf swing consistency.
• Repetitive swing improves swing technique with aid of mirror.

This is a shameless plug, but I want to see you get improvement in your golf swing. To learn more about this golf swing exercise ebook, click here!

If you’re a beginner golfer looking to take a lesson, the very first lesson should cover golf swing fundamentals.

These fundamentals may seem very basic, but they are critical to your long-term success in golf. Like any other sport, if you don’t get the basics (fundamentals) down, you will struggle with consistency, as one swing will be different from the next, and the next, and the next.

Have you experienced that already? You can make a good swing and contact, then the very next shot is just horrible, and you’re left wondering, “how the heck did that happen?”

One swing fault I am dealing with at the moment is an immobile right knee on my backswing. Having a solid right knee in your golf swing is critical to consistency, ball striking, and distance. The right knee moving around (especially laterally to the right) will cause many swing faults.

When you can correct this mechanically incorrect movement of the right knee you will be shocked at the amount of compression you’ll have on the golf ball. You’ll be able to finally get to your left side at impact, and really pound that golf ball.

The key is to really keep the right knee still, and turn into the right hip, with no lateral motion away from the ball at all. This is very difficult for me, as my right knee is bone-on-bone from a track injury (major knee surgery) back in college.

Golf Training Resource

A golf training aid I found that has really helped me is the Power Leg Strap. This golf swing aid has helped me tremendously and is specifically used for this swing fault.

Click on the image below to learn more!

When you think of ball striking, who comes to mind? I know for me it’s Ben Hogan. If you want some tips for better ball striking his very popular book, Five Lessons is a pretty good start. Most amateur golfers don’t know what it’s like to strike golf ball solidly. I know for myself, it’s a rare occurrence, as most of the time, I will hit it off the toe, thin and then fat. How about you?

Ball Position

You’ll hear many different approaches to ball position, and lord knows I’ve tried them all. What I have found is playing a consistent position off the left foot, and then depending on the club moving the right foot wider. So wedge the right foot is closer to left, mid-iron, right foot is further apart, then driver at its widest. This will give the illusion the ball is back in your stance with a wedge, but all the time it has stayed consistent off the left foot.

Another thought is playing the ball in line with your left armpit, as this is where your swing will bottom out and start to ascend (go up).

Impact Position

In my opinion, this one is HUGE! Impact is everything. If you can get your club back to the ball, relatively square, and with a forward leaning shaft, you are going to hit a good golf shot, and be considered to be a good ball striker.

I know I’ve struggled with my impact position for years. With some swing flaws that caused my to flip at impact, my hands never got ahead (until now). I’ve been working on my swing mechanics and came across a fantastic training aid called the Tour Striker Impact Trainer.

This training club ingrains the proper impact position with your hands ahead, resulting in ball, then turf contact. When you hit the ball first, then take a divot, you are compressing the golf ball, and will get maximum distance and penetration through any wind.

Because you actually hit balls with this swing trainer, I think it’s one of the most effective training aids to hit the market in the last decade.

Golfers seem to want one thing. To discover the secret of how to hit longer golf drives. Just like in baseball, people want to see the big home run, in golf everyone talks about the long drive of the day, not the awesome “up-and-down” someone pulled off.

I am a firm believer in training your body to not only increase your driving distance, but to improve your consistency for 18 holes. Lack of consistency coupled with a shorter than accepted driving distance is the 2 main issues with most amateur golfers in my opinion.

In the below golf video, I show you a simple, and affordable power golf swing weight trainer, that I put on the end of my driver, to add resistance when I swing it. This training aid can go in your bag and you won’t even notice. The great thing is to take it with you to the range and before you play, as I use mine for a golf-specific warmup.

If you would like one of these golf training aids, or want to learn more, just click on power golf trainer right now.

When you learn how to improve your golf swing width, you will see a dramatic increase in distance. Unfortunately, it’s not just a matter of hitting more balls, or making your body do it. It’s training your golf muscles to be both strong and flexible enough to do it for 18 holes of golf.

I’ve put together a golf exercise video tip showing exactly how you can achieve more width in your golf swing.

This exact golf exercise is out of my new golf training ebook. I’ve put together unique and very fun exercises and stretches that I know will quickly improve your power and distance.

If you want to learn more, click here now!

I’ve been receiving a lot of emails lately from golfers who are struggling with their golf backswing. Not being able to make a full turn, and losing a ton of distance with their driver. This is something I see a lot with golfers who are later in life. As we get older, we lose both strength and flexibility, unless…we make a concerted effort to stay on top of it.

One of the key golf muscles to focus on is the rear section of your lead shoulder. This little area is the main culprit for golfers struggling to complete their backswings. I’ve put together a video, with a simple golf stretch that will dramatically improve this deficiency if you do it consistently.

If you want a total golf stretching guide, you’ll want to take a look at our Golf Stretching Ebook.

I invite you to comment below with your feedback.

Most golfers know that stretching is a must if you want to hit long golf drives. The ability to fully stretch (load) specific golf muscles, so that they unload with maximum swing speed through the golf ball is a key component to longer drives.

One of the most important things to do is make a full shoulder turn. This is an area that most golfers (especially over 50 years of age) are deficient at. Do you struggle to make a bigger golf backswing? If so, you’re not alone. The culprit is tight muscles that get only tighter when you “attempt” to make a complete backswing, and you’re not physically capable of it.

Stretch Your Core

One of the main areas to stretch if you want longer drives, is your core. This is the midsection of your body; and I include the lower back when I discuss stretching for a bigger turn. This is purely a rotational movement, so any stretch you do for this should ONLY be rotational. Does that make sense? Do a straight on stretch will gain you no more turn in your backswing.

When you stretch your core area, you must isolate either your upper body or your lower body to gain the biggest stretch and improvement in rotation. A great example would be sitting in a chair, and reaching around the back of the chair with both hands. Notice because you’re seated, your lower body stays still, as you rotate your upper body back. This is a perfect example of golf stretching that will get you longer drives.

Dynamic Golf Stretching

Another very effective method of stretching for golf is dynamic stretching. This is movement type stretches that are similar to your golf swing, but you take them beyond your normal range of motion, with a little bit of momentum from the movement. A good example of this (see picture above left), is to get in your golf posture, grab a club on the shaft with your hands wide. Now make a backswing with this wide grip of your hands on the shaft. Bring it back down, and swing it back again, but take it farther. So you progressively go further and further back, and eventually when you play, you will be making a much bigger backswing, an increase clubhead speed, and hitting LONGER DRIVES!

Consistency

Like anything else worth achieving in life, you’ve got to stretch consistently and keep it up to see the results you want. There is no short cut. If it were easy, every golfer would be crushing their drives over 270 yards, but we know that’s not the case don’t we? Golf stretching is an excellent way to fix shoulder turn in your golf swing issues.

Stretching for even 10 minutes daily, with specific, golf stretches will result in a big improvement in your ability to make a consistently big shoulder turn, with no effort.

If you want a complete golf stretching guide, I recommend you read more about our Total Golf Stretching ebook.

Learning how to correct a golf hook shot is a must if you want to keep your ball in the fairway. You must fix a hook, as it can easily run off the fairway after it lands due to the overspin on the ball. A fade is much easier to control and keep in play than a hook any day!

Cause Of A Hook Shot In Golf

As you can see in the picture; typically a hook is caused by an in-to-out swing, coupled with a closed clubface, creating a strong topspin (right to left) rotation on the golf ball. The closed clubface is the real issue, as in inside to out swing is a good thing, not a bad one. Learning how to square your golf clubface at impact will be crucial in correcting your hook in your golf swing.

Another cause of a hook shot is the stopping of your upper body rotation before impact, and the hands take over, which closes the face prematurely. If you are hooking the golf ball, a great tip is to work your ABT’s. The ABT’s mean…“Always Be Turning”. I can promise you, if you focus on rotating your body (and hips) aggressively through impact, you will not hook the golf ball. If you are, you have a strong golf grip causing it to close to much at impact. Getting the proper left hand golf grip (slightly weaker) will help correct the rapidly closing clubface.

Getting stuck on your downswing is another cause of a hook golf shot. This is something Tiger Woods is notorious of. Getting stuck means, your lower body gets way ahead of your upper body in the downswing, and your hands, arms and club get stuck too far inside, and the ONLY way to make decent contact is to flip your hands through impact.

Learning how to slow down your golf swing is crucial to proper golf downswing sequence. Once you get this right, you will have a perfectly timed golf swing coming into impact. Your lower and upper body will be sequenced to come into the ball with a square clubface, and just a slight in-to-out swing path.

Simple Tips To Correct Hook

1. Square your clubface at impact. Start by making sure it is square at address, and not closed, or even open, which would make you compensate coming down.
2. Weaken your left hand grip. If you’re a right-handed golfer instead of seeing 3 or even 4 knuckles on your left hand, rotate it to your left to only see 2 knuckles.
3. Slow your downswing. If you learn how to slow your downswing, your body’s sequence will be much better. You will come into the golf ball with the face square, and both upper and lower body nearly matched up, and not one ahead of the other.
4. Work your ABT’s. As mentioned earlier, focus on aggressively rotating your upper body through the shot. That way your hands will never want to take over.
5. Get your right should to come out not down. This is for the more advanced player, as the fault is coming inside too much on downswing, and part of that may be an “over-dropping” of the right shoulder in the downswing. So for that player, thinking of the right shoulder coming just a bit out and not down, might be the ticket.

Hope you enjoyed this article on how to correct and/or fix your golf hook shot. If you did, you’ll want to download our FREE Golf Lessons right away!