Check out Lisa’s List of Swing Tips! 

1. Warm Up: Always warm up before your round. Shoulder Circles, Club Behind Back, Side Bends, Leg Swings and most importantly the twisting stretch.

2. Grip: Do not have it in the palm of your hand. Pick up club like picking up a suitcase/briefcase. Make sure the butt end of the club is visible under your glove.

3. Relax your grip pressure: On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the death grip), your grip should be about a 3 or 4. If your grip pressure is too tight you will not be able to release your wrists, robbing yourself of distance and opening the club face. If you slice the ball, this may be why.

4. Posture: There is a 4 step process to posture. 1. Stand straight with shoulders back 2. Bow at waist (bottom sticks out) 3. Crack the knees 4. Arms hang naturally from shoulder joints. Never REACH for your ball in set up. Let the tassels hang straight down.

5. Ball Position for ALL clubs in Full Swing EXCEPT driver. Put your feet together and line up the ball across from the middle of your feet. Move your lead foot 3 inches or the width of a club head. Move your back foot to comfort.

6. Ball Position for Driver: Tee the ball up off the instep of your front foot. Use the feet together drill, then simply move the back foot (for driver only not irons, hybrids & fairway woods).

7. Fan your front foot to a 45 degree angle to make it easier to clear your hips through impact and takes pressure off the lead knee. Do this for all of your clubs!

8. Develop a Pre shot routine. Use it every time you are about to make a shot. Takes away 1st tee jitters and gets you into a golf mind space. Helps you focus on the shot.

9. Always pick your target from behind the ball

10. Target: Close your NON Dominate eye (triangle drill) and line your shaft up over your ball towards your target, standing behind the ball. Pick an intermediate target 1-2 feet in front of your ball. Line your club face up to that FIRST, not your feet!

11. Start your back swing with your Lead shoulder NOT your hands or your arms. This rotation helps create power and ultimately distance. Think of trying to get your back to face the target in your backswing or girls to face behind you. You need to turn your torso not just lift your arms. The girls will come with you.

12. You should feel the weight on the INSIDE of the INSTEP of your trail foot at the TOP of your back swing. If your weight sneaks outside of this, it is a power leak.

13. Don’t start your downswing with your arms: You will lose all of the coil and torque you have built up. Instead, start your down swing by turning or firing your front hip. This is a turn, NOT a slide. (Swing thoughts: think fire front hip, or front pocket, or belt buckle, or guts.) Push OFF the instep of your trail foot! This will make you turn the lower body first. Turn your shirt in backswing, LEAVE IT, turn your skirt/pants in down swing!

 

14. Dissociation: A great Drill for Turn your Shirt, Turn Your Skirt/Pants… Stand Tall with arms crossed over your chest. Keep your LOWER BODY STILL and turn left and then turn right with your TORSO only. Then repeat but this time keep your TORSO STILL and then turn your LOWER BODY left then right. Finally, repeat those steps but do it in golf posture.

15. If you Pull the ball you may be starting your down swing with your back shoulder or arms. To stop a pull, start your down swing with your lower body first!

16. If you skull the ball (cold top, hit it thin) you have come out of your posture, NOT lifted your head. Keep your chest level through impact if you skull or cold top the ball to prevent it. Do the airplane drill to practice keeping your chest level. Fix to skulling: start your back swing with your lead shoulder and think butt out, butt out, butt out!

17. Swing through the ball: Your club head should be moving fastest AFTER impact. Keep swinging until the finish! Swing through until your club hits your back! This will stop you from leaving weight on your back foot.

18. Finish with your belt buckle towards your target with your weight on your front side in balance! See if you can lift your back foot. The whole bottom sole of your shoe should be visible. Show me come “sole”! At the end of the round, the top of your back shoe should have dirt on it…Dirty Toe!

19. For Driver: You should see at least half the ball over the back of the driver when you tee it up. This promotes hitting it on the upswing.

20. Tempo: With all of your clubs it is important to have a slow, patient back swing. Do NOT RUSH your back swing. Let it wind up! Think of 2 beats in the back swing, 1 beat in the down swing. I use
Er-nie-Els as my swing thought!

21. To hit it longer, for ALL your clubs, NEVER say swing harder. Get rid of that swing thought! Think TURN HARDER. That starts with your guts or pushing off the instep of your back foot. Turn harder NOT swing harder!

22. Distance Tip: Buy a can of Footspray. Spray a light mist on your driver face. Hit a ball and look where the impact mark is. Balls not struck in the center of the club face can lead to losing 20+ yards. If you are consistently hitting balls off the toe you may be standing too far from the ball. If you are hitting on the heel you may be. Learn from your impact marks and work towards center of club contact.

Lisa Longball Golf Town Videos:

Go to the Golf Town You Tube Channel – Golf Town TV @golftownchannel. Click Playlists and look for Facebook Live Clinics with Lisa Longball.

Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk is an 8-Time Canadian Long Drive Champion and Keynote Peak Performance speaker. She hosts her own Golf Schools for Women in Canada and the United States. She can be reached through her website www.lisalongball.com or follow Lisa on her Facebook Page under Lisa Longball or on Twitter & Instagram @lisalongball