Golf swings are athletic moves. While the game may not be played at as fast a pace as some other sorts, it’s still an athletic endeavor. And if you can’t incorporate athleticism into your swing, you won’t have a ton of success.
That athleticism has to be harnessed in the correct ways, though. While explosiveness is important for generating power, you can’t be wild about the way you go about it. In order to get the consistency that’s required for golf, you need to move in a way that’s repeatable.
GOLF Top 100 Teacher Sean Foley, featured in the video below, has taught some of the best players on the planet (including Tiger Woods!). His philosophies have helped turn out some wildly successful pupils, and he’s done so by sticking to his core principles. Chief among them? A stable body throughout the swing.
“I’ll see a lot of amateurs when they’re swinging a club, there’s a lot of side movement with a lot of sway,” Foley says. “The pelvis is moving to the right and the body is moving to the left in the backswing. In order for them to feel like they’re making a backswing from there, they have to stand up.”
All of this extra movement during the backswing has to be undone during the follow-through, and with all the moving parts, it makes it difficult to get the clubface back to square at impact.
To get more consistency, Foley recommends imagining there’s a pole running through your spine and coming out of your tailbone. When making your swing, allow your torso to turn around that point.
“If you do that, I assure you if you’re patient and you do it over enough time, you’ll find that your contact, your accuracy, and your trajectory will improve,” he says.