This is the second part of a two-part article. It discusses centering and radius—two of the four common denominators that make for a sweeter swing—one that will dramatically cut your scores and lower your golf handicap. Part I covered plane and face, the other two common denominators.
Professional golfers all have sweet swings. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be professionals. Honed by hours and hours of practice, their swings all have four common denominators—plane, face, centering, and radius. These denominators are critical to a good swing. If you’re serious about developing a swing that cuts strokes from your golf handicap, you must know what these four denominators are and how they affect your swing.
In addition, you must perfect them in your swing. Drills designed to help you practice them are a good way to do that. While these denominators are critical to a sweet swing, they can’t do it alone. They must be combined with other fundamentals, like having a good grip, posture, ball position, and alignment, Unfortunately, written golf tips and personal golf lessons don’t always discuss these denominators.
Below we define centering and radius—two of the four denominators—and provide drills to help master them.
Centering
Every swing has a foundation defined by your head and your spine. If you want to hit accurate shots, this foundation must remain steady throughout your swing. Watch Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, or any of the other pros on TV and you’ll see how steady their heads and spines are throughout their swings. Swing coaches refer to this foundation as your center.
Your center has two angles. One is the angle your spine creates with your hips at address. The other involves your head’s lateral movement. Focus on preventing both your head from moving one way or the other and your spine from moving up or down, and you will be on the road to finding a swing that cuts strokes off your golf handicap.
Right Arm Drill
Set up with your left forefinger (right-handers) in the center of your chest. Swing back with your coil and right arm in sync, just as you would if you were swinging a club. Let the right arm swing and fold into a right angle so the right elbow moves away from your shoulder while you feel the movement of your body-center in the area of your sternum. The arm and the shoulder coil arrive at the top of the backswing together. Now, swing down. Concentrate on swinging your right arm close to your body, coordinating this movement with that of your body-center all the way though to the finish.
Radius
Radius is the distance between the lead shoulder and the clubhead. Swing coaches often discuss maintaining radius in their golf instruction sessions and golf videos/CDs. The key to maintaining radius is releasing your wrists at the right time. If you release your wrists at the right time and execute the proper sequence of movements in the downswing, you’ll maintain radius.
Some weekend golfers release their wrists early, forcing the shaft ahead of the lead arm before impact. An early release causes you to hit the ball thin or mis-hit it altogether. It also causes you to lose the radius of your swing. To maintain your radius, you must take the club back low to the ground for about twelve inches, which triggers a wider swing arc. (Swing arc is a basic concept I’ve discussed in my golf tips.)
Brush-The-Ball-Away Drill
Tee up a ball. Place a tee in the ground about 12 inches directly behind the teed up ball. Set up to the ball with a driver. Push the club back to tart your take away. Try to brush the ball off the second tee by letting the triangle formed by your arms and shoulders control the action. Practicing this “sweeping takeaway” teaches you to maintain the radius of your swing, generating more power and longer shots.
This drill and the previous one are compliments of Jim McLean, the noted golf teacher. The two drills improve two key denominators of a sweet swing—radius and centering. When combined with the other denominators—face and place—and the other basics you learn in golf instruction sessions, they’ll help you achieve a swing that even the players with low golf handicaps will envy.
