As always, I usually write a little introduction in my articles, and this time will not be different. But in this case what I want to give you is a little advice about playing golf at this time of the year.
When we play golf with such high temperatures it is very important to protect ourselves from them.
Needless to say that you will have to avoid extreme heat hours to practice or go out to play. It is also very important to hydrate as much as you can and try to find as much shade as possible on the course when you are waiting for the group in front of you or your teammates.
Also take your towel always wet to cool off, without forgetting to use a cap or hat and why not? use our umbrella as a parasol. These are just a few tips that we all have to keep in mind to enjoy a day of golf in these high temperatures.
On a technical level, keep in mind that the courses at this time are usually harder than usual and, therefore, your ball will tend to roll and fly more. You should also take this into account when choosing the right club.
Especially in the Andalusian area, the courses usually do their maintenance of the greens in June, so during that time they may not be very fast, returning to their normal state and even better in a short space of time.
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THE CLASS: Where to put your weight during the swing
How many times have you wondered where to put your weight on the upswing or downswing? Surely many.
In this class I will try to clarify this question, which in general starts on a very common mistake and that many players would have to consider.
I will start by explaining how we will have to do it to work with the irons, as for the driver it may change a little.
The main difference is to confuse the terms WEIGHT AND PRESSURE. I will clarify it with a small summary of the most common doubts. I will give you some tips and exercises to work on these important aspects of the swing.
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SIDE SHIFT
First error. The player thinks that the weight in the upswing has to move to the right side. This will be out of its axis and to hit the ball well will be very difficult, as it will have to compensate on the way down by moving to the left side.
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WEIGHT ON THE LEFT SIDE
Second mistake. If the player thinks that his weight must always be on the left side and starts his swing moving to that side, his body will move in the opposite direction to the club throughout the swing. This will generate less speed and in most cases he will have to recover his balance by hitting exaggeratedly on his right side. This error is also very common and we call it swinging.
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THE KEY: WORK ON THE PRESSURE DURING SWING
Let’s talk about the pressure you put on the ground with your feet, because this is where the key really lies.
Position yourself with a neutral stance, putting a little more pressure on the ground with your left foot, the ball in the center and start moving the club slowly doing less than half swing.
Doing this exercise slowly, you will not notice pressure changes. But if you start to speed up the movement, you will notice that the pressure increases on your right foot on the ground as you bring the club up and on your left foot as you bring the club down.
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EXERCISE 1
The feel at the start of your swing
-Stand in a neutral stance swinging the club slowly (mid iron 6-7) from side to side without going past mid swing.
-Speed up this movement until you begin to feel the change in pressure.
-When you feel it, go up and strike, making sure that the pressure at impact is higher on the left side.
As you will see, it is not about shifting or tilting, because both are very common mistakes and are not natural movements, since the correct and natural thing is that the weight in most of the time remains in the same place, centered.
This will be the correct feeling for our start of ascent, as we will keep our axis centered without SLIPPING OR BASCULAR.
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EXERCISE 2
Weights and pressure at the top of the climb
-Make the ascent slowly with a guide rod in the center of your body and, when you get to the top by stopping the stick, check where you have more pressure. If you don’t exert more pressure on the left side, you will have to correct it to improve.
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HOW THE LENGTH OF THE RISE AFFECTS WEIGHT
The length of the climb is another important factor to take into account. Every day we can see players with shorter rises in the Tour. But the important thing is that you are able to keep your axis centered and the angles of the body well positioned so that you attack the ball solidly, looking for a movement as natural as possible and easy for each of you.
Check after doing this exercise if the sensation you have when you finish doing it is similar to the ones you normally have when you play in the field.
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EXERCISE 3
EXERCISE 3
The ascent (steps to follow)
– With a medium stick ( 6 or 7 iron ) place a guide rod in the ground right in the center and a second rod stuck in the ground at the height of your right back pants pocket.
– Raise the pole to waist height while keeping the head of the pole in the air.
– Turning your shoulders, bring your right hand behind your head.
– Your right elbow will not be able to exceed the rod just behind you, previously placed.
– Lowering your shoulders, bend your left leg a little more to exert pressure at that point.
For this exercise, I recommend you to record yourself from behind
with a mobile device and in slow motion to check if your right elbow passes this point on the upswing or if it stays in the correct position.
This would be the perfect posture with the right pressures in the back swing and the one that will help you when attacking the ball with the right angles.
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THE DESCENT OF
PALO
The pressures are very important because, if we do not apply them in the correct points, the impacts will not be the best. That is why we are going to expand this topic with another exercise where you will be able to check if you are doing it correctly.
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EXERCISE 4
Correct stance and pressure at impact
We start from the previous exercise where we were working on the stance of the upswing, the swing length and pressures. Using the same rod that marked the center of our stance, try to:
Without ball, go down slowly and check that at the point of impact which is the rod we have the right pocket of our pants at the height of the guide rod.
That the pressure is maintained on our left foot.
Try to work on these exercises over time. It may be a little more difficult at first, especially for players who are not very experienced or those who have been doing it badly for a while, but I am sure that when you practice it for a while, your game will improve noticeably.
I would like to publicly thank Doña Julia Golf for her collaboration in the photographic report that illustrates this article, on the 12th hole.
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