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Improve Your Hands and Improve Your Golf Swing

By Sean Cochran

It seems as though many golfers are unaware of the importance the hands play in the execution of the golf swing. Obviously, we know that the hands grip the golf club and attach the body to the club. But what is the importance of them during the swing?

The answer has to do with releasing of the club. Let�s go back and do a quick golf biomechanics review. During the swing, from address position to follow-through, the hands are active in a passive type of manner.

Let me explain. The goal of the golf swing is to move the club on the correct swing plane to induce the intended golf shot that you want. This occurs through the body�s moving through a series of positions. These positions are found within the different phases of the golf swing.

The phases of the swing are address, take-away, backswing, transition, downswing, impact, and follow-through. During all of these movements the body is performing, the golf club is being moved upon a swing plane. The swing plane is the path upon which the golf club is to travel. Proper impact with the golf ball requires the golf club�s traveling upon the correct swing plane.

In order for the club to travel on the correct swing plane it is necessary for the clubface to open and close. Oftentimes, in golf terms the opening and closing, of the clubface is termed �releasing of the club.� This is where the hands become an integral part of the golf swing.

If you talk to almost any instructor, they will say that any good player has �great hands.� This statement refers to exactly what was described above (the releasing of the club correctly). It�s obvious if you look at players such as Tiger, Phil, or Vijay.

I even remember walking the course at Doral in Miami with top-5 teaching instructor, Rick Smith. One point he continued to return to in terms of discussing the golf swing was �hands.� He stated more than once how any PGA Tour player has great hands. This just provides additional support for how important the hands are in terms of the golf swing.

But what does this all mean? Well, we know the hands are involved in the �opening and closing� of the clubface during your swing. This movement allows for the proper release of the club. As I mentioned, the hands are �active in your golf swing, but in a passive manner.�

Again, to open and close the clubface during the golf swing the hands move back during the backswing, hinge at the top of the backswing, return the club to square at impact, and release the club afterwards. In order for this to occur the hands must be passive!

What do I mean by passive?

You cannot force the hands to move through the golf swing and release the club. This creates tension in the golf swing, affects tempo, and, overall, results in poor shots. If you do not believe me, go to the driving range, grip a club as hard as you can, and attempt to swing. The results will be much less than optimal.

I think Dean Reinmuth, ranked by Golf Digest as a top-30 teaching pro, puts it best when speaking about the hands in the golf swing. He discusses �feel� as an integral part of the golf swing. He states that in order to have a successful golf swing you must be �tension free.�

�Feeling� the club move on the swing plane is an indicator of being �tension free.� And in order to have this feeling, your hands must be relaxed (i.e. passive).

How do you develop good hands in your golf swing?

Easier said than done. In order to develop �feel� in the golf swing, remove �tension� from your golf swing and develop great hands, you must develop three fundamentals.

Fundamental number one is an understanding of the golf swing. In order to know what the body and golf club are to do during the swing you must know the biomechanics of the golf swing. If you don�t, how are you going to know what the body and club are to be doing during each phase of the golf swing?

Secondly, you must develop the mechanics of the golf swing. Your body and mind must integrate the movements of the golf swing into a repeatable movement. This occurs through proper instruction and practice of the correct golf swing mechanics.

Finally, it is necessary to develop the body. Yes, the body! Your body must have the flexibility, strength, endurance, and power to perform the golf swing correctly. If the body is inflexible, weak, and powerless, how are you going to be able to perform the mechanics of the swing correctly?

The obvious answer is: you are not! Developing great hands in your golf swing comes down to developing a �basket� of fundamentals within your golf swing. Understand the biomechanics of the golf swing, develop the proper mechanics within your golf swing, and develop a body to support your swing. These are the keys to developing great hands in your golf game.

About The Author

About the Author
Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA Tour regularly with 2005 PGA & 2004 Masters Champion Phil Mickelson. To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs go to http://www.seancochran.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Cochran

More Information On Weighted Golf training Clubs

You learn to play golf by feel, not mechanics alone. Too much detail is confusing. You cannot think your way through a golf swing. You feel your way!
...PGA professional golf

Wilson Golf Irons

When buying a putter remember that grips and weight are factors with major impacts on feel. Many believe that a thicker grip helps prevent wrist bend, but a
thicker grip won't be comfortable for all. Weight is entirely a personal preference, and you can find putters that run the gamut from feathery to lead-ish in weight.
Get greater distance on your drives with great Slazenger golf balls from our store.

Many swing faults occur from an improper setup. This can cause unnecessary adjustments during the swing. Taking care to position the ball, feet, hips and shoulders properly ensures building a good swing foundation. Testing has shown golfers with open stances show no more tendency to slice than golfers with closed stances. The open stance may give the golfers a little more opportunity to slice, because it allows a little more freedom in the downswing and follow-though. The square stance is used by most successful golfers. Beginners should start with a square stance. As you advance, you can experiment with the advantages of other stances. Avoid extreme stances. Experiment to find the stance that works best for you. Take care to set up consistently on all normal shots.
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Headline News About Golf

Sergio's Spanish conquest

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0100
Here is how it was supposed to work out. Sergio Garcia would leave Carnoustie after seeing his putt to win the Open roll around the edge and so descend into a spiral of self-doubt, self-loathing and sickening self-pity. The Spaniard would never be the same again and would return to this year's Open a broken man, a shell of that swaggering self, his shot at glory wasted, his destiny rewritten.

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Labels: golf swing aid

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Check out Jean Littler's golf book for yourself and learn how to swing a golf club the right way!

By Lee MacRae

How To Swing A Golf Club Properly

One of the first things everyone wants to know when they first take up golf is how to swing a golf club. And this is obviously a natural thing to know since...well, golf is played by swinging at a ball with a golf club!And so a great golf swing can mean a great game. Learning the perfect golf swing becomes a high priority.

For some people the golf swing seems to be a natural thing. Golfers who've played a lot of baseball seem to be able to transfer that swing to the golf course and are very successful. Hockey players who have practiced the slapshot for years, are also able to transfer that motion to a successful golf swing. For others, nothing seems to work. The perfect golf swing seems to be a dream that is unattainable. Which one are you?

No matter how you swing a golf club, the golf swing can be broken down into individual components. You have the backswing, the downswing, the impact of the club with the ball and the follow-through after the impact. Each and every one of these has to be done in a specific way for the shot to be successful. Many people struggle with fitting them all together smoothly. And then many people forget about the pre-shot routine, another aspect of the golf swing that is highly neglected. Take a look at all of your professional PGA golfers and you will see that they have a consistent and usually very brief pre-shot routine. Then visit your local golf course and watch the long drawn out affairs so many people engage in before they hit a golf ball. And if you watch long enough you'll actually see that most people never do the same thing twice. Unlike the golf professional, the duffer has a varied pre-shot routine both in time and method. Neglecting any aspect of your golf swing is a sure fire way to higher scores.

One of the best things we have today to help someone learn how to swing a golf club properly is the video. We can now watch each and every golfer from our Tiger Woods of today to Jack Nicholas and Bobby Jones of yesterday to see exactly how a golf swing should be performed. We are fortunate to be in such an era where the Internet can deliver video on demand for just about every pro golfer on the PGA Tour. We can see exactly how a golf club should be swung for optimum performance.

And if you add in a few golf lessons and use the videos to piece it all together, you can improve your golf swing and your golf game amazingly fast. And if you can't afford a few golf lessons, you can always use the valuable golf books that are available to give you the gist of the golf swing and then use the videos to help you put it all together. Each and every golf pro can become like your personal tutor. One of the best golf e-books I've ever seen is one put out by Gene Littler. Littler won 29 PGA Tour events and had an incredibly beautiful swing. His swing is another one you can see on videos on the Internet- it has been termed one of the best ever by his contemporaries. Today Gene is helping people learn his golf swing by electronically publishing "Master The Golf Swing".

Whatever you decide, use the advantages of video technology along with golf lessons or golf books to learn how to swing a golf club properly. Not spending time to get the fundamental down properly will impede your progress and make the game less enjoyable. Spend a few dollars targeted to the right knowledge and watch your golf scores drop instead!

About the author

Don't hesitate to buy your copy of Gene Littler's How To Master The Golf Swing.! In this book Gene reveals the golf swing secrets that led to his PGA tour success.

Tips On Golf Clubs

Projecting to the target during the swing will not only help create accuracy, but encourage the body motions to swing the clubhead to and through the ball towards the target.
...Learn About Golf

Wedge

Sometimes you can find a brand new set of clubs for less than what that set is selling for used. How does this happen? Say someone buys a set and decides to sell it a year or two later. The set may be in great shape and can justifiably be priced high. But in the meantime, the manufacturer may have steeply discounted new sets due to high inventory, discontinued production or numerous other reasons.
Practice your golf game anywhere with a great golf mat.

Titanium Offset Fairway Woods

If you order your clubs online, you might be able to provide a series of measurements (i.e., arm length) for a "cyberfitting." For those purposes, that's fine. But if you are going to a real clubfitting, make sure it will include hitting balls outside where the ball flight can be observed. Hitting into a net simply doesn't provide the necessary feedback because the pro won't see ball flight.
Improve your golf swing with the great Medicus golf aid!

Control Your Distance-A proper divot is taken just beyond impact, but it should be shallow. Shallow divots allow you to hit your clubs consistent distances, while deep ones don�t.
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Weather at Royal Birkdale was a horror show

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:05:00 EDT
The clubhouse at Royal Birkdale is a sleek, white, art-deco structure that stands out amid the stately courses of upper-crust British golf clubs like Ian Poulter in an Amish village. But for this week's wind-blown British Open, the R&A should have replaced the Birkdale clubhouse with the Bates Motel, because it was a horror show out there.

Stan Hey: 6-5 Against

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0100
Tiger Woods is the winner of three Opens this century and is the immovable object that professional golfers must get around. But he will not be at Birkdale next week. I suspect there will be a giddy feeling among players as they arrive on the Southport coast, with their caddies whispering "you can win this". But even in the absence of Woods, they have to beat the course.

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Labels: golf wedges | golf putters | golf drivers

Headline News About Golf

Golf Article Of The Month

Check out Jean Littler's golf book for yourself and learn how to swing a golf club the right way!

By Lee MacRae

Learn How To Swing A Golf Club The Right Way

With swinging a golf club so vital to playing a great game of golf, just about everyone eventually looks for information or lessons on how to swing a golf club. For many it becomes a quest like the Holy Grail, finding the perfect golf swing.

And for some people, learning how to swing a golf club and swinging it well becomes a very simple task. For others it becomes a very difficult task, finding it difficult to understand how you can keep your arms "straight" and still feel natural, swinging a golf club and driving the ball any distance at all. Anything sound familiar here?

No matter how you swing a golf club, the golf swing can be broken down into individual components. You have the backswing, the downswing, the impact of the club with the ball and the follow-through after the impact. Each and every one of these has to be done in a specific way for the shot to be successful. Many people struggle with fitting them all together smoothly. And then many people forget about the pre-shot routine, another aspect of the golf swing that is highly neglected. Take a look at all of your professional PGA golfers and you will see that they have a consistent and usually very brief pre-shot routine. Then visit your local golf course and watch the long drawn out affairs so many people engage in before they hit a golf ball. And if you watch long enough you'll actually see that most people never do the same thing twice. Unlike the golf professional, the duffer has a varied pre-shot routine both in time and method. Neglecting any aspect of your golf swing is a sure fire way to higher scores.

One of the best things we have today to help someone learn how to swing a golf club properly is the video. We can now watch each and every golfer from our Tiger Woods of today to Jack Nicholas and Bobby Jones of yesterday to see exactly how a golf swing should be performed. We are fortunate to be in such an era where the Internet can deliver video on demand for just about every pro golfer on the PGA Tour. We can see exactly how a golf club should be swung for optimum performance.

But keep in mind that these videos still needs to be used in conjunction with golf lessons. A few good golf lessons with a local pro and then a watching how the PGA professionals put it into effect, can do wonders to advance your game. But what about if you can't afford golf lessons? Well, there are a number of good books on the market that you can read and then watch how the pros apply it. One of the best e-books I've ever seen is one put out by Golf Hall of Fame legend Gene Littler. Littler had a fluid swing I could only dream about. If you don't believe me, you can find videos of this golf legend and see his amazing fluid golf swing for yourself. many have called his swing the best, or at the very least the second-best, golf swing of all-time.

Whatever you decide, use the advantages of video technology along with golf lessons or golf books to learn how to swing a golf club properly. Not spending time to get the fundamental down properly will impede your progress and make the game less enjoyable. Spend a few dollars targeted to the right knowledge and watch your golf scores drop instead!

About the author

Buy your copy of Gene Littler's eBook How To Master The Golf Swing and learn how to swing a golf club the right way! In this book Gene reveals the golf swing secrets that led to his PGA tour success.

Learn More About Golf Irons

You've heard that a golf-specific workout will help you get more distance, so you're pumping iron, jogging religiously, stretching - but you still haven't gained any distance off the tee. What's the deal? An exercise program will indeed help you gain distance, but you also need to have good swing technique to take advantage of your strength and flexibility.
...The Golf Channel

Try Some High-Tech Clothes-We know some of the new materials look a bit different, but they really do wick away moisture and keep you cooler than cotton.
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Womens Golf Drivers And Fairway Woods

Through The Navel. An extension of the shaft at address should point at your navel. This ensures that the body is bent over the proper amount and is far enough from the ball.
Golf collectors can find Clone Golf Equipment

Take it easy! Many golfers hibernate for two or three months during the winter. Due to inactivity their muscles and tendons used in the golf swing lose much their tone and elasticity, so once you finally get to play make sure you stretch and loosen up before you tee off. Golfers with a history of back problems should be particularly cautious, otherwise they may ruin the new season before it even begins.
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