In the never-ending search for the perfect golf swing, amateur and professional golfers alike spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on perfecting their golf swing. What is needed to improve your swing is good, basic fundamentals that can be built upon over time through repetition and slight tweaking. Whether you are currently taking golf swing lessons or simply working on your own while at the range, it is good to have some of the basics down before you go any further.
All golf swings should have similar paths that the club follows, both through the takeaway and the down swing. You want to keep the club on an even plane throughout the entire swing in order for good contact to be made once you reach the bottom. However, there is more to finding your swing’s sweet spot than just keeping the club on the same line all the way back and through.
The first aspect of the swing that you want to look doesn’t even involve the actual swinging of the golf club itself. Instead, your setup to the golf ball is just as important in the overall success of finding a working swing as any other step in the process. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart when you address the golf ball. This allows you to have enough leverage to bring your club through the ball during the down swing. It also will help balance you on the follow-through, which is an often over-looked aspect of the swing that people don’t put a great deal of time and effort into.
Once you have your feet positioned where you want them, you will want to take the club straight back at a nice, smooth angle. As a general rule, your back swing should end when your hands are parallel to your shoulders. The best way to visualize this is to purchase a golf swing video and really study how the instructor uses the takeaway to setup the entire swing. Watch where they reach the apex of their back swing, as this will give you a good indication of when you have gone too far.
One final tip is to have good hip rotation throughout the entire swing. While you want to focus on more subtle movements, your hips are what give you all of the power that is necessary to hit long, straight golf shots. It is important not to over-rotate at any particular point throughout the course of the swing, but you do want to leave yourself enough room for your hips to clear when you make contact with the ball.
With these general rules in mind, the biggest step in learning how to find a good golf swing is to just practice and ingrain the movement into your muscle memory. This will ultimately help you to have a swing that is easy to repeat on a regular basis. Keeping the swing as simple as possible is the best way to find what works the best for your particular game.