Tips to Improve Your Golf Swing -- Tight is Right

Let's start out by challenging a dearly held belief that prevents far too many golfers from developing a good golf swing. Way too many golfers grip the club loosely, believing that their golf swing will be stiff and robotic if their wrists are too tight. This is not the case. If you want to improve, get rid of this faulty idea and realize that you will do much better if you develop a tight grip.

Although many golfers have developed a bad swing through holding the clubs too loosely, no-one, except perhaps a few anxious newcomers, harms their swing by holding the clubs too tightly.

Many golfers tend to take a loose grip. This loose grip results in multiple errors that could be avoided easily. These errors are caused by hands opening at the top, the left wrist collapsing (or the right wrist, if you are a left-handed golfer), over swinging and various others.

You want a tight grip! Grab hold of that golf club and hold it tightly in your hands. “Tight is right” is your new mantra.

When you swing, your hands should be tight on the club. However, avoid holding yourself so stiffly that your upper back and shoulder muscles are cramped up.

Although the tight grip may feel awkward if you are accustomed to gripping loosely, it braces against multiple faults such as those mentioned earlier. This in turn helps you carry out the swinging motion most effectively.

This is the correct method. Hold the club tightly enough that almost all fingers grasp the club. If you are a right handed golfer, the last three fingers of the left hand and the first three of the right hand are on the club. Left handed golfers will want to reverse this.

Resist the urge to place the forefinger of the right hand lightly on the club. By this, we refer to the finger that you hook round the shaft just below the thumb on your right hand. Be sure you hook this forefinger around the club firmly. This finger’s tip should connect with the thumb’s tip. Otherwise, at the top of the swing, the club will drop into the Vee that occurs between the thumb and forefinger. When this happens, you lose control at the top, and have to regain this control as the club swings downward.

In short, you want a tight, two-knuckle overlap for your golf swing.

Now, this is the correct way to stand up to the ball for an optimum swing. It’s not difficult, but there are a couple of things to remember.

First, you want to stand in a position that allows you to swing the club back freely before easily arcing the ball downwards towards your feet. Divide your weight evenly between your left foot and your right foot. Slightly flex the knees. You are better off flexing too much than too little when you position yourself for your golf swing.

Bend slightly from the waist. Round or hunch your shoulders. Be sure your head is down. If you are a right handed golfer, you place your right hand further down on the shaft than the left hand. This in tern means that your right shoulder is lower than the left. Reverse this if you are a left handed golfer getting positioned for a golf swing.

Now go for it! Follow these golf tips and you’ll have an improved score.