Great Tips To Improve Your Golf: Section 1E - The Shoulder Tap

Some golfers used to insist when they are learning to swing, that they could not hold the club tight at the top with the straight-left-wrist position. They want the left wrist under the shaft and claimed that was the only way they could hold the club tight.

This is was wrong, of course, but new players have to be convinced. So it is best to hold the club in the left hand alone, in front of them, as tightly as they can. Then we bend the left hand backward and took the club away.

It is easy, because with the hand bent backward, the fingers automatically opened and the grip weakened. The same thing happens when the hand is bent forward; the fist cannot be clenched tight.

But when the back of the golfer`s hand and his wrist were in a straight line, you could not take the club away from him without the use of a considerable amount of force.

Actually, one reason the golfer wanted the left wrist under the shaft was so the club could rest in his left hand.

The strongest possible position is when the wrist and the back of the left hand are in a straight line.

How, you may wonder, can you yourself tell whether you are in the right position at the top?

Without a friend to help you, you cannot tell about such things as the amount of hip and shoulder turn. But there are ways to inform yourself of others.

For instance, you can turn your head and look at your hands. If the left wrist has not collapsed you will see two. knuckles of that hand, no more than two. If you see three it will mean the left wrist has collapsed. You should also see only one knuckle of the right hand.

You can check the tightness of your grip by the feel of it.

You can check how close your right arm is to your side by the old test of the balled handkerchief stuck into your right armpit. Only use a small handkerchief; anyone can hold a big one. If you can hold the small handkerchief, your arm is close enough. If it drops out, something is wrong.

One of the hardest things to determine, you might think, is the proper plane of the swing. Is it too flat, or is it too upright?

There is an easy way to tell. Take your swing but as you near the top, loosen the grip enough to let the club keep moving back until it hits you. If it strikes you on the point of your right shoulder, the plane is correct. If it hits you on the upper arm, the plane is too flat, and if it strikes you on the neck or anywhere between the point of the shoulder and the neck, it is too upright. We call this the shoulder-tap test.

The position at the top of the backswing is important. If it is reached correctly it means you are halfway through the swing correctly. It means that now, at least, you are in a position to make a good downswing and hit a good shot. With most of our pupils we can tell pretty well, as can any pro, whether a shot will be good or bad just from their position at the top.

The position is not an infallible guarantee that the shot will be either good or bad. But a good shot very often follows a good position and a bad shot a bad position. At least with a good position you are ready to hit a good shot. With a bad position you are not.

The flaws we have turned up so far, and the moves and positions we have taught you in getting to the top of the swing, have dealt mostly with the position of the club face.

The grip and the stance did. So did the first move away from the ball, with the early backward wrist break and the retention of the wrist position to the top of the swing.

The best moves so far have been mostly concerned, in a word, with direction and direction is not only half of the long game but perhaps the "bigger" half; there's not much trouble, as a rule, straight out in front of the tee.

The swing taught here, which might be called the Square Face System, produces direction.

But golf is decidedly a coin with two sides. If the position of the club face at impact is one side, the speed of the club head at impact is the other. As we have moved toward the position at the top of the swing we have also gradually become concerned with the speed of the club head.

At the top you have been brought into a position from which you can easily bring the face of the club square to the line at impact and bring it with great speed and from the right direction.

The tightness of the grip and of the whole swinging system, the plane of the swing, and the position of the weight considerably on the right leg have prepared you to deliver a hard, authoritative swing at the ball.

This is the value of the top-of-the-swing position. Having reached this position, you are well on your way to reducing drastically the number of bad shots you will hit. The next move, the downswing, is the payoff.