The Four Key Factors in Your Swing

When I mention the word basics in my golf lessons, players start thinking about things like grip, posture, ball position, alignment, and so on. Thats only natural. Golf pros talk so much about these subjects in golf instruction sessions that players assume theyre the focus when the discussion comes round to the basics of a golf shot.

But there are four other basicsplane, centering, radius, and facethat key good ball striking. Players must master the four factors to cut their golf handicaps down to size. These factors, which are sometimes neglected in golf lessons and golf tips, determine consistency. If youre off with these even slightly, youll slice, hook, or mis-hit the shot, regardless of your grip, posture, ball position, or alignment.

Plane:

Plane is the angle your club takes at address. Your swing should have a circular look to it when viewed from a face on perspective. The swing wont be a pure circle, but it will have a recognizable circular shape. Looking from down the target line, the circle should be tilted the same angle as the clubshaft as it sits at address. This area encompasses the most direct and powerful route back to the golf ball.

The club must remain in this defined plane as it approaches the golf ball on the downswing. While your swing plane may change from waist high in your downswing to waist high in your finish, your club must go through the original plane at address to hit straight shots solidly. So while you may see some odd looking swings by Tour players, youll also see that they always return the club to the same plane of address at the bottom of their swings.

Face:

Face is the second important factor. To gain control over the clubface at the moment of impact, your hands must be at the same position when you make contact with the ball as at address or may be a bit forward. Returning your hands to the same position guarantees that your clubface is pointing in the same direction as when you set up to hit the ball.

There are three ways you can hold the club at addresswith your hands on the left side of the grip (weak), the middle of the grip (neutral), or the right hand side of the grip (strong) for right-handers. The best grip is the one you can produce naturally shot, after shot, after shot. If you look closely at the pros, youll see players with different grips, yet they still hit consistently straight shots. Why? Because the way you grip the club matters less than the how your hands are at address. If you have a strong grip at address, you better not have a weak grip when making impact; otherwise, youll end up with either an opened or a closed clubface at impact.

Radius

Radius is the distance from your left shoulder (for right handers) to the end of the clubshaft. In other words, it is the distance from the center of your golf swing to the outer-edge. Your lead arm must be in line with or trailing your arm at impact, known as maintaining radius. Bobby Jones, the great amateur, called this good timing.

Maintaining radius enables you to strike the ball solidly. Many recreational players that I give golf lessons to try to force the shaft of the club past the lead arm prior to impact. This effort causes the clubface to travel up not down, resulting in a fat or thin shot. A loss of radius causes a hook, slice, loss of distance, and wide assortment of other poor shots.

Centering:

Centering refers to the spine and head at address. While you may have some lateral movement of your head and spine in your swing, consistent hitters keep these areas, or their centers, steady. A steady center involves two things. From a down-the-line-look, the amount that you bend forward from your hips at address is constant throughout your swing. From a face-on perspective, your center (spine and head) remains as constant as possible as well. Your swing, as Ive explained in my golf tips, revolves around your center.

While the basics like grip, posture, ball position, and alignment are important, they only prepare you to take your swing. They increase your chances of hitting a golf ball when the more important basics are in order, producing accurate, solid shots. To lower your golf handicap, you must the other basics of the swingplane, fact, radius, and center.

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 handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

Golf Swing - Few Tips To Improve Golf Swing
Golf swing is most important part in whole golf game . If you have a nice golf swing you are a winner. Improving your golf swing is not an easy job . It takes time and practice to improve your swing.There are few basic things you need to know to star...

Quickly Improve Your Golf Game With Golf Swing Software
Every golfer wants to improve their game and there is no shortage of companies that are willing to help you. Of course the main thing that most golfers want to improve is their swing.Having a good swing is the basic requisite for playing well and ul...

Golf Swing Tip - A thought About Swing Thoughts
What is a golf tip, anyway, but something to think about while you are swinging? A swing thought.Whether you get a golf tip from a fellow player, a lesson from your local pro or read an article in a golf magazine or on a website like this one, all yo...

How To Achieve More Distance With Your Shots
There's an old adage that says that distance is related to two things: Clubhead speed and correct ball contact. Put these two things together and you have distance.As with many things in golf, this is not an either/or proposition. Both areas have to ...

How To Swing A Golf Club - A Step By Step Golf Swing For Golf Mortals
Everyone who plays golf knows how to swing a golf club - the obvious problems arise when, having swung, the ball doesn't do what we expected it to do. Perhaps "hoped it would do" is a better term for many of us.The irritating reality is that not all ...

Improve Your Technique by Knowing the Physics of the Golf Swing
You know you have done it. You need to hit your shot just a little farther, so you swing as hard as you can at the ball only to see it go shorter than normal. Swinging harder does not necessarily equate to more distance, but do you know why? It all h...

Golf Teaching Aid
Nothings more exasperating than missing a drives for a fairway on a 40 inch wood. Several factors could include like an unintended hook or a too powerful slice. After all how hard could it be to hit a stationary object such as a ball on a tee. But th...

The Golf Perfect Swing
What is a golf perfect swing? To be frank, its the golf swing that most of us don't have. Or at least don't have with any consistency.The golf perfect swing could be defined as that consistent swing that sends the golf ball the right distance in the...

Golf Swing Trainer - What Is It?
Golf swing trainer is a term you might think of for a training aid that works on your golf swing. Ive come up with a new definition for a golf swing trainer. It happens to be what I do for a living.I wont take up this whole article talking about my...

Golf Swing - Is There An Easy Way to Fix Your Swing?
Most golfers strive to improve their swing every time they play. The biggest difference between amateurs and the pros is that they take the time to learn about their golf swing and how it is affecting their game. Even though you may have some days wh...