Grooved Golf Swing - How To Hit Your Golf Ball For Maximum Distance


By Bill Maitland 


I was playing golf with my son who hits a good long ball. On a particular tee, we decided to see who could hit the ball further. In making my swing, I did everything I am going to ask you not to do. I tried to hit the ball, to muscle the ball as hard as I could. The result was quite a long drive and a damaged and very painful 12th rib as I had pulled a muscle in that vicinity. If you want to hit a long drive for example, there are several things to consider. I am going to touch on the two main ingredients in this article and mention the rest in future ones.

The two ingredients are the two most important ones. They are

1. Timing and

2. Rhythm. "I know" I hear you say. The point is that timing and rhythm result in excellent balance.

So the most important thing here is BALANCE

Balance is something that is a known factor of the golf swing but something towards which too little attention is directed by.most average golfers.

If you are one of those golfers who attach huge importance to balance, then congratulations. You must be a very good striker of the golf ball. If not, then here is a great opportunity to improve your ball striking and your game. An opportunity to attain greater enjoyment from every round and satisfaction as you see your handicap begin to fall. When you are faced with a long par five and you feel the need to hit a long drive, by all means hit the ball. Sure you have to give it a good hit to get a good start. However you must always make sure that you play within yourself every time you hit your ball.

Make sure your swing is smooth. When you want to hit a long ball, slow you swing down even more than usual. Your swing should be totally unhurried. In actual fact, when you think about making a slow back swing, it will result in you not hurrying it. It will probably be a much better back swing than you usually make if you are a bit quick. It will make your swing more deliberate.

In doing this, you will make the arc of the swing as wide as possible. You will be sure to go to the top of your swing before starting the down swing. The wide arc results in more club head speed which is the deciding factor in the distance achieved.

When your swing goes off, have a look at your back swing. Very often you will find you are not completing it. You are stopping before you get to the top failing to achieve a full shoulder turn. Then you are starting your down swing. The result is a flick at the ball rather than a good hit.

Often a mis-hit.

Good balance is measured very much by observing the finish at the end of the follow through. If the balance is good here, then the rest of the swing before this has been good too with good timing and rhythm.

So play within yourself for your long drives and what ever you do never try to muscle the ball. As mentioned it is club head speed that determines the length of the drive and not the effect of powerful biceps. Muscling the ball may sometimes result in a huge distance, but your consistency will be terrible.

Bill Maitland is a thinking, inventive golf guru. He thought out and developed simple techniques and tips which enabled him to lower his handicap from 25 to 18, then from 18 to 15, and finally from 15 to 12. He is a passionate golfer, and delights in helping others with their game should they want his help. To receive a valuable weekly golf tip go to his web site Online Golfers Hand Book and subscribe to his free Hole In One News Letter. You will be so glad that you did.

Author of On Line Golfers' Hand Book. An e-Book that takes you step by step to being the best golfer that you can possibly be. The basics in great detail. To learn about his tips and simple techniques and order his book, visit his web site - Online Golfers Hand Book and sign up for his free news letter and receive a wealth of great tips every time. He really tries to tell you everything and leaves nothing out as so often happens. When you sign up, receive his free chapter from his book on bunker play.

Golf Tips For Your Golf Backswing

By Lea Hairson


By the time the swing reaches the top the left hand will have gone from a palmar flexion to a radial deviation without any effort on your part. It is the natural tendency. The only thing you have to watch is that it doesn't go too far and fall into a backward flex.

So why not use the break that brings you to the top naturally in the right position, instead of a break that you have to control carefully or manipulate?

Without going any further into anatomical details, it can be stated flatly that the longer the backward wrist break is delayed on the backswing, the more difficult it becomes to make it correctly. The later this break takes place, the more liable we are to let the left hand bend backward, thus getting it under the shaft at the top and opening the face of the club. So, make the break early.


Start making it as soon as the club leaves the ball and you will find it does a surprising number of things. We'll list them:

  » Sets you in the proper hand-wrist position early. (All you have to do is hold it.)
  » Everything you have to do with the hands and the club, in the way of manipulation, is done early and in your full view.
  » Gives you the feeling that you have plenty of time to go to the top and come down.
  » Starts your swing in the right plane.
  » Brings the right elbow in tight immediately.
  » Prevents a "bouncing" club head at the top.
  » Tends to shorten the swing, thereby providing a brace against overswinging.
  » Gives you a feeling at the top that you have to move the body in order to get the club down to the ball. (Reduces inclination to hit from the top.)
  » Tends to bring the club to the ball with the wrists leading, as they should be.
  » Kills any temptation to pronate or supinate.
  » Promotes-almost insures-a late hit.
  » Promotes a solid contact on the center of the club face.


The first three points are probably the most important. The others stem chiefly from the first three.

One of the hardest things for the average golfer to master is the proper hand and wrist position at the top. At least one reason this is difficult for him is that, with the orthodox late break, he is always trying to get into it after the swing is in full motion. The early break sets his hands in the proper positions by the time they are hip high.

Another value is that this break divorces your mind from the club head. In the orthodox late break, with what has been called the one-piece takeaway, the player is thinking of moving hips, hands, and club head all at the same time. The fact that he is thinking of the club head at all is dangerous.

With the early break completed, there comes a feeling of time to spare. Nothing else needs to be done, except to swing the club to the top and bring it down. The hands will be right, the wrists will be right, the face of the club will be right-all you have to do is swing.

This feeling of what might almost be called serenity, plus points 4, 5, and 6, all contribute to getting you to the top of the swing in an excellent position. And the right position at the top goes a long, long way toward insuring a good downswing.

All Quiet at the Top

One reason that the early break seems almost to keep us from hitting too soon is that with it we reach the top with a controlled, "quiet" club head. With the ordinary wrist break, which is late, the club head moves quite fast in the late stages of the backswing. It moves fast enough, in fact, to exert a strong pull on the hands and wrists as it reaches its backward limit. Its momentum, actually, is checked only by the resistance of the hands and wrists to this pull.

As a result, in answer to this resistance of the hands and wrists, there is a quick rebounding of the club back toward the ball. Try it and you'll see what we mean. Since the average player usually lets the backward pull loosen his grip, he quickly re grips on the rebound, producing, almost, a "bouncing" club head. This starts the head of the club back toward the ball much faster than it should be moving at this point. This is one reason, and a strictly mechanical reason, why so many of us hit from the top.
Lewis is and avid golfer. He has trained ,played and gives expert golfing lessons golf for a number of years.

To learn more about his golfing style check out Golfing Tips

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