* Your stance should be about shoulder width apart and your feet should be pointing slightly out but not too much!
* Let your arms hang naturally down from your body and place the club behind the ball. If your shoulders hunch or you have tension in your arms, you are probably too close to the ball. Stand back a little bit.
* Place about 70 percent of your body weight on your back leg.
* Straighten your spine and have a bit of bend in your knees.
* Keep your eye on the ball during your entire swing
* Grip the club as if you are holding a small, delicate bird. You want to keep the bird in your hands, but you dont want to crush it either. Thats how you should hold your club.
* A good golf swing will be a fluid, easy motion with your shoulders turning slightly in the backswing and your follow-through complete.
* Make sure you keep your feet planted and slow down in your backswing. Most problems with a golf swing are cause by swinging too quickly in the back swing and then not accelerating through the ball.
* You will want to hit the ball in the sweet spot or the center of the club. Hitting it anyplace else will cause your ball to travel in directions that you really dont want it to go in.
* Then grip it and rip it!

It might help for you to take a lesson or two on the golf swing or even watch the way the pros do it on television. There are numerous articles that exist on the Internet that can help you with your golf swing, so always look for information and take as much advice as you can get.

Learning to swing a golf club takes years of practice as any avid golfer will tell you. There are a hundred things to know and they all have to be working in exactly the right ways at exactly the right time to a have a good, consistent golf swing. Sometimes this just doesnt happen, but when it does, it certainly is a great feeling!

There are many sports out there where teams fight the clock.  This helps to add to the anticipation and excitement of the game, building tension as the minutes and seconds tick away.  However, this just isn’t the case in golf.  There’s a reason why there’s no clock or referee to rush people along – you should take your time getting set up, addressing the ball, getting a good grip on your clubs, and so on.  While you don’t want to be rude to anyone playing behind you, you also don’t want to create tension for yourself when there’s no need for it.

Tension is a mortal enemy of golf – when you’re tense mentally and emotionally, you become tense physically.  This will lead to a very bad swing no matter what.  So slow everything down, including your own attitude, and you’ll no doubt do much better.

When you’re trying to improve your swing of course it’s easy to get distracted with the many elements of your grip and swing and follow-through, but it’s also good to choose one area of the swing and concentrate on that.  Focus on one area on which to improve and then you can see how they’re all connected.  Your grip will keep your arms in proper alignment which in turn will help your follow-through, and so on.  But if you allow yourself to get overwhelmed with everything at once, your entire swing will suffer.

It’s also very easy for a player to slide back into old habits or to feel that muscle memory returning; they then no longer focus on the instruction they’ve been given and without this focus, that instruction becomes useless.

Golf is more mental than probably any other game out there.  Any game of skill is; you can’t power the ball down the fairway, not if you want to keep it on the course!  Mentally focusing will enable you to improve your entire swing overall, so don’t lose your focus.

There is no substitute for actually hitting a golf ball but this doesn’t mean that practicing your swing with a club in your hand is pointless.  You need to practice your grip, your backswing, your follow through, and everything else.  You can certainly do this at home when not on the course.

Remember too that for many, the off season lasts several months which means you can easily become physically stiff and lose that rhythm that’s needed to maintain a good game.  On the other hand, if you keep up a good routine even in the winter months you’ll be physically looser and will be able to work out some of those major points of your swing that will then help you when you are ready to actually start hitting real balls again.

It’s interesting how often people will fight reality and go by their feelings alone.  If you have a slice then you must be doing something wrong, correct?  And yet people will fight the tendency to correct their swing because they “feel” they’re doing it right, and wind up slicing time and again.

Muscle memory has a lot to do with feelings versus reality as well.  Your muscles feel that a particular grip or swing is right and that’s what you use, despite the fact that you’re very conscious of how wrong this is.

Many instructors note that it’s very difficult to get clients to switch from what they feel is right to what they know is right.  You an have an edge on any other player if you’re aware of how to swing properly and actually do this, as opposed to swinging the way your body “feels” is right.

Most golfers apply what can be called the band-aid approach to improving their swing and their game.  They want a quick fix, a secret little flick of the wrist or new way of holding the club that will magically improve everything they’re doing.

Learning the proper swing in golf is like learning a new language.  Many people struggle with new languages because they need to move their mouth in tongue in ways that are awkward and even embarrassing, and they get frustrated very easily when the sounds don’t happen easily.  A new language means time and patience and all those embarrassing moments; it doesn’t come easily.

A proper golf swing is much the same way.  There needs to be time and patience and learning new, sometimes awkward movements.  Often a golfer will need to go through a lot of badly hit shots before he or she learns the correct way of doing things.  But that “quick fix” approach will not do much to improve their score, at least not by much.

There is also a certain amount of work involved in learning a proper swing.  Practicing once or twice for a few minutes each in the backyard probably won’t do it for most people.  You need to practice for hours and you need to do this regularly.

On the other hand, practice does make perfect or at least will improve your swing tremendously.  Going through all that awkwardness and embarrassment can be like learning a new language – it’s well worth it when you realize that you’re fluent in that language.  Everything pays off in the end; it’s also true with learning the proper swing and stroke in golf.  If you decide that you want much more than a quick fix or that band-aid approach, you may find that all the hours you’ve spent practicing have all been worth it as you see your game consistently improved.

Recommendations from other golfers is also important.  They may provide you with recommendations or you may get those comments personally from other golfers.

But of course the real test of a golf instructor is whether or not your swing and your game actually improves.  It will take time – few see an improvement after just one or two lessons – but you should see a better swing with more control and distance soon enough.  If you go a few months and still are not improving, you may need to find another instructor!

There is a wide range of thought when it comes to actual drills.  Some believe that these will not improve your actual swing in any way since a real golf swing involves your entire body and many elements – the grip, the stance, keeping your head down – all need to work together.  Practicing them individually may not do much to improve your swing since improving one element alone won’t do much for the entire swing.

On the other hand, some believe that if you can improve different aspects of your stance, your flexibility, and your coordination then this will help your swing overall.  You might compare it to a boxer that jumps rope – he or she is improving their foot speed and coordination and their lung capacity overall.

What does this have to do with a golf instructor?  A good golf instructor will give you drills to do and will explain their benefit and value as well.  A good instructor will also tell you when they are pointless and when engaging in them might actually hurt your swing because of putting you off balance or having you learn new movements that are not necessary for your swing.

Many people try drills on their own with little thought as to whether or not they’re beneficial and little knowledge of how to do them correctly.  Learning new habits can give you muscle memory that is hurtful to your swing and may mean that you need to unlearn these things later.

It is true that the right flick of the wrist or tilt of the hip can make a big difference in your swing.  But keep in mind that everyone’s body is different – arms are different lengths, legs are different lengths, some are stronger than others – and this will mean that everyone’s golf swing should be as individual as their own body.  Trying to simply imitate someone else’s swing is going to be a mistake.

Golf instructors can tailor instruction for you personally and do this in a way that you can’t do on your own.  It’s very difficult to be critical of your own stance or swing when you can’t see what you’re doing!  Many golf instructors use cameras and video to record what their clients are doing when at the tee and elsewhere so that they can get a real idea of what is happening with you in slow motion.

By doing this, a golf instructor can then tailor your instruction to your own particular concerns.  Anyone can give generic advice and you can read it on your own, but an instructor can make sure that advice is being applied appropriately.

A good golf instructor is someone that can work with a client on their particular swing.  It’s always better to tailor a swing to a person’s own abilities rather than start from scratch, which is what a good instructor will do.

• When you approach the ball, let your club be your guide for how far back you need to stand.  Lay the club head down next to the ball facing it squarely.  Drop it into your hands lightly at a 45 degree angle and then adjust the distance between you and the ball according to your club length.  Do not walk up to the ball and then hold your club according to how far away you are.  Your club length should determine where you stand, not the other way around.
• Get into the proper stance.  Your shoulders should be square across but relaxed and rounded.  While you’re standing over the ball, your posture should be good with only a slight bend at the waist.
• Grip the club correctly.  This should be loose but firm.  If you’re developing calluses, you’re probably holding it too tightly.  If the club feels like it’s going to fly out of your hands during any part of your swing (or if it ever has flown out of your hands!), your grip is not firm enough.  Your thumbs should be aligned, one behind the other, both pointing straight down the shaft and at the ball.
• Keep your arms straight.  Your golf swing originates from the shoulders, not the elbows.  If your forearms move before your upper arms, you’re not originating your swing from the shoulders.  Your entire upper body moves as one.
• Your elbows need to be in alignment as well.  Unlike in baseball, you do not keep one above the other and should not be pulling them up toward your body as you roll into your swing.  This is very important because if your elbows are out of alignment when you start your swing or at any time during the swing, the club will be pulled out of its proper arc.
• Remember the illustration of swinging inside a barrel.  With your entire upper body, you need to roll around, not sideways, into your swing.  You are not reaching above you and shouldn’t be pulling the club away from your body but are just making a round movement that originates from the shoulders and involves the whole arms and upper part of the body.
• As you come back down from your swing, the arms should remain in that barrel roll.  You are not coming straight at the ball; if you try to do this you may just hit the ground on your way down!  Your entire swing is in an arc, not a choppy motion that is trying to whack the ball.
• Your wrists should cock only at the last moment as you strike the ball so that your arms can continue in their arc.  Don’t make the mistake of locking them or getting them out of alignment when the club is above your head.
• During your follow-through, you need to continue in that arc.  Remember that your navel should be pointing at your intended target when your swing is done.  If your belly is still pointing forward at the end of your swing, you’re probably tossed sideways and your upper body will put your entire swing out of motion.  That last part of your swing is vitally important as it determines the trajectory of the ball.  Those that hook or slice often find that they’ve gotten out of that good barrel roll, not during their back swing but in their follow-through.  Remember that the swing isn’t over until the club is across the body, not when it hits the ball.
• And of course you need to keep your head down through this entire swing.  Would you believe that many golfers actually not only jerk their head up but have a tendency to close their eyes during their swing?  If you do this you may be trying to put too much power behind your swing, closing your eyes against the force of the club hitting the ball.  You need to keep your eye on the ball throughout your entire swing.
• Make sure everything is smooth and relaxed.  Golf is not about power and strength but the easy skill of the swing.  Resist the urge to “jerk” your club around or “smack” the ball upon impact.  Notice how smooth and fluid the swings of professional golfers are; there’s no overpowering the ball or pulling the swing too far with them.

If you keep everything in the right arc and remember to start from the shoulders and keep your entire body working together, you’ll notice your swing improving immensely.  Most poor golf swings are caused by one or two elements working against each other, such as the midsection not moving during the follow-through or the arms moving before the shoulders.  A simple, smooth swing will win out every single time!