Choosing a Ball
A golf ball is 1.68 inches in diameter. There is a rule that says it can be no smaller than that. Balls that are bigger don't go as far, so every ball in the market is 1.68 inches. Advances in technology are making the ball go farther and farther. But many other balls that the pros are hitting on tour won't help beginning players gain distance. You need a very fast swing to get a lot of the effect of the higher end golf balls. When I came out on tour, there were may be five balls on the market. Today there are over 50 different kinds of balls.
The key component in the advancement of ball technology is the ball spin rate. The spin rate is the amount of revolutions a ball makes per minute. Spin rate narrows the field down to two types, low spin balls and high spin balls. A player that hits the ball low should play a ball that really spins to maximize distance and control. The opposite is true for a player that hits the ball high. They should play a low spin ball.
Ten Tips to Follow While You Learn
Here are 10 tips to follow while learning the game of golf. First, find a good teacher and stick with that person, follow a timetable and discipline yourself to work on what you have been told. Concentrate; learn from your mistakes, you will make them. So you may as well make them work for you. Relax and take your time, you will learn and play better. Practice the shots you find most difficult, have goals. Remember, golf is a target game. Stay positive, golf is hard enough; a bad attitude only hurts you. Stop practicing when you get tired, that's how sloppy habits begin, and finally, evaluate yourself after each lesson, are you making progress? Follow these 10 rules and you can't help but get better.
Setting Up to the Ball
Gripping the Club
Now we are going to take a look at this setup and there is nothing more fundamental in the setup than a proper grip. If you have got a proper grip, we are going to be able to hit the golf ball up there long and straight. If you don't, you can have troubles from the onset. So let's start with a good one. Here is what I would like to do.
Just stand here, naturally, let your arms hang to the side, take your club in your left hand and now grip it, see what you've got. Here is what we got. We have got my hand, in the left hand, the grip; the butt of the club is running through the base, well, the little finger meets the fatty part of the hand. That's good and now it goes right straight up to the base of the fingers till it comes out in the middle joint of my left hand, excellent! So it's in the fingers. I am now just going to wrap it around like this and you can see now that this V is pointed over on my right side, over by my right ear. Well, if that is good, that way, let's try it with the right hand.
I am going to put the rubber part of the grip, little finger right at the base and then I am going to put the end of the grip right there in the middle part of the index finger. I am going to wrap them together. I look down another V that I have got in my right hand, there's also a pointing over here at my right ear. Now, how do we get these grips together? Well, there are a couple of ways. One way we do it when we play for a living on the Ladies Tour and the Mens Tour is, we use an overlapping or Varden grip.
Basically, I am going to take the little finger of the right hand, I am going to put it in that group between the middle finger and the index finger to the left, let it rest right there. Grip it in the fingers, put my hand over, excellent! That keeps my hands together, doesn't let them slide down the shaft. Another way you could do it if you have got small hands for ladies or guys with small hands, Jack Nicholas, Tiger Woods use this grip. Let's take the index finger of the left hand off the shaft, little finger of the right, intertwine them, and now with the right hand grab it in the fingers. That really solidifies and doesn't allow your hands to move up and down.
Also, if you are having problems with not much wrist cock, you've got more wrist cock in your golf swing, try this one, it's a 10 finger grip, not too many guys use this or ladies. Put your fingers, all fingers, all on the shaft. This will promote a lot of cocking and uncocking of the wrist. Remember, when you are gripping the club, I don't want it tight like that, I want it nice and easy, just easy enough to hold on to make sure the club head doesn't twist in your hands, do all those things, you will have a proper grip, well on your way.
Aligning to the Target
I have played professional golf in four different decades. I have seen a lot of pro ramps, I have seen one common fault, it's miss-alignment. I do it all the time, that's why I carry these two shafts along with me on every pro event. Alignment is this. We have a golf ball and we have a target. That parallel line, I put this golf shaft down is our target line. What we want to do is aim our feet, knees, hips, shoulders parallel to this line, i.e., parallel to our target line. No one can really get that right. I have got some guests here to show us something here. It's a nice, little game to play, come on over here. We have got Alika, Jack and Arnold.
Okay, here is what we are going to do. This is going to show bad alignment, okay.
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