Golf Swing Technique: Does It Have To Be Perfect?

Golf, it's probably one of the most difficult sports to play, and there are more people trying to peddle solutions for your problems then you can shake a stick at. If you don't believe me flick on the golf channel for an hour and see how many commercials you see for the next greatest training aid.

Some of these training aids work, I can't argue that how ever I've often wondered if we need to have this perfect swing in order to enjoy the game and shoot a half decent score.

Golf Swing Realities

While we all want to critique everyones golf swing, or at least I do, the reality is all the little things we talk about in not lifting our head, turn our hips, keep your arms straight are all to ensure one thing occurs. When our golf club comes through the down swing to make impact with the ball, that club face is perfectly square so that the ball goes straight.

Now I'm not suggesting that you don't need to pay attention to keeping your head down, feet straight and all those other finer points of the swing. How ever what I am saying is that you don't always need the perfect swing to play a half decent round of golf. So with that being said what does it take to develop a good swing?

Facts about the Swing

Okay so it's not so much facts plural as it is a fact. While your buddies on the course will be very quick to tell you that you lifted your head or you're not aimed correctly there is really only one key thing that must happen to make that ball go straight. You must have the face of the club square to the ball at time of impact.

Of course all those other points your buddies continually bug you about are important but they are all spin offs of that one key point we must ensure the club face is connecting with the ball square on to make sure it goes straight, and as far as possible. So if all of those points we scrutinize over about the golf swing aren't as important as we thought what does it take to develop a good swing?

The Bare Minimum to make it go Straight

There are five points I am going to mention that I think are the lazy" way to hitting the ball straight.

Knees: This might not seem all that important but when you're addressing the ball you should have your knees slightly bent. No so much that your knees are interfering with your swing, but ever so slightly to give you perfect balance.

Back: I see a lot of golfers when I'm out on the course hunched over the ball and trying to whack away at it with no success. With your knees being slightly bent as mentioned in the previous point bind at the hips and keep your back straight. The pivot point should be your hips and you should maintain approximately the same height through your back swing, and down swing until you've completed your follow through.

Arms: This is another difficult one, many of us want to swing the club like a base ball bat or a hockey stick depending on the other sports we play. Golf is a game of finesse no powering through the ball. As you take your club up in the back swing try to think about keeping your front arm (left for right handed golfers) straight. This will help keep the club head on the same plane as it comes through the down swing to impact.

Head: We already touch on this, but keeping an eye on the ball is important. One point to note here is that you shouldn't have your head turned down so much that your face is parallel to the ground. Tilt the head forwards and look downwards at the ball, but keep your chin up enough so that your arms and shoulders can come through as you swing.

Hips: This is where you're going to generate the power in your swing. You don't want to lean forward during the swing, you can to tray and maintain no movement below the waist until you're making contact with the ball. At this point you should make a twisting motion at the hips so that your trailing hip turns through the swing and once completed your belt buckle is pointing at your target.

So, these are the finer" points we'll say about helping to achieve a consistent golf swing. You're not going to be swinging the club like Tiger anytime soon, but as this article has tried to get across do you really have to? As you improve your game, you'll enjoy it more.