Free Golf Training Tips – Resources, Videos and Reviews

You’ve been playing golf forever and you still stink when you’re out on the green. You’ve got all the necessary gear, all the training stuff, and you’ve watched videos and tutorials online. So, what’s the problem?

Even if you play golf as a hobby, you’ll always need to be concerned with correcting golf swing problems. There’s nothing more rewarding than noticing that you’re scores are getting lower. You’ll gain more confidence and feel better about your game.

Here are some simple tips for correcting golf swing problems.

Keep Your Eyes Open

When you go golfing with friends, watch them. During the first few holes, check out everybody and see who’s the best player. Don’t worry about all your own slices and mistakes; find out who’s the best in the group and study their moves.

You’d be surprised what you can learn just by watching others play. If you don’t get out to play as much as you’d like to, watch pro golf on TV. Instead of thinking about how impossibly good the players are, watch what the do and pay attention to their technique.

Practice Practice Practice

I can’t write tips for improving your game without mentioning practice. Practice a lot. Okay, I mentioned it, so let’s move on!

Watch Yourself

When you’re doing all this practicing I mentioned above, videotape yourself and watch your swing. This can really help you notice things you wouldn’t have noticed before. When you are practicing, you’re so busy DOING it, that you might not notice a mistake you’re making.

Watching the video back, you might notice that your posture is a little awkward, or your address a little off. You can watch different shots and see how consistent your set-up is. You can see the angles from the outside, and you can even compare your swings with those of your favorite golfers.

Just remember to erase them when you’re done. There’s no reason to keep an archive, and let’s face it, it’s a little weird to have a hundred videos of yourself practicing golf!

If you’re not into the audio-visual side of things, practice in front of a mirror. This will help too, and you can practice your “Nice shot!” face.

No More Slicing

The most common problem with most golfers’ swings is the dreaded slice. The slice is basically when the ball goes veering off to the right of where you meant to put it (of the left, in the case of lefties).

If you slice a lot, you are probably swinging in too much of a downward motion. In other words, your swing plan is too steep.

Try flattening it out. If you flatten it out too much, the ball will start veering to the left (or the right, in the case of lefties). Try to find the right balance between too-steep and too-flat, so that the ball goes just where you want to put it.

Sometimes slicing is caused by improper grip or stance. Make sure you have the proper address before you take your golf swing, and you’ll eliminate this problem.

There’s a lot that goes into making a perfect golf swing, and all of us can stand a little correcting once in a while. Always correcting golf swing problems will help improve your game and get you over the slump to the next level.

Have you ever wished you could talk to Tiger Woods while you’re making bogies? Well, even Tiger needs advice sometimes, and when he does, he goes straight to our source: The PGA tour doctor.

Check out his top 7 tips for a par game.

Although great deal of interest has been recently directed to the amazing game of golf, as in all things in life, golf does maintain a fair part of its own mystery and does indeed entail change and progress. For example, the origin of golf is still open to debate among Chinese, French, Dutch and Scottish, while the golf course has not always had eighteen holes. Whether people will one day agree on who invented golf first or decide to add more holes on the golf’s playground is a matter of time and interest. But, what golf professionals, fans, and spectators in general, undoubtedly attest is golf is an excellent game to exercise the human body and mind.

In fact, the most crucial aspects of the golf swing and the game, in general, all revolve around the building of a strong and solid foundation fro the body, the mind and the basics of an athletic swing. Specifically, the most important concepts that play a critical role in our understanding of what creates a great round of golf, as well as to what contributes to a lifetime of enjoyment of the game, are stamina, stability, strength, flexibility, spirit, sequence and skill.

Although many golfers tend to ignore the cardiovascular element of golf, the great American golf championship Tiger Woods has stated that fatigue can affect one’s focus and cause the player to make a bad decision. If one considers in addition to this comment that golf walkers cover approximately a distance of 4-5 mile in each round, staying in shape is as important as knowing how to golf.

Then, a golfer has to think about stability. Developing strength from the core region of the body outwards, allows forces to be transferred successfully from one’s feet to his arms and thus to his ball swing. Finding and practicing on keeping a specific posture, stabilize one’s trunk and joints, can separate the good from the great golf player. More specifically, strength comes in many forms with regard to the golf swing. Exercising and developing strong back muscles allow the golfer to exercise greater forces on a swing. In fact, experts support that combined muscle strength produces balance and coordination.

Of course, flexibility is perhaps the most crucial physical characteristic a golfer must possess, as it directly influences a golf swing. Maintaining a tight body might result in a restricted swing motion and produce less that optimal results. Keeping a flexible body posture, while being firm and confident is a goal few golf players in the history of golf have managed to attain. Directly affected by the flexibility factor, a true understanding of proper body motion at each sequence will ensure consistency in one’s swing. Essentially, it is the goal of every golfer to manage to develop and maintain a fluid, but repeatable golf swing. But apart from the necessary golf practice, developing good swing mechanics requires the presence of skill. Considered as an absolute necessity, in every sport, skill cannot be underestimated.

Finally, a golfer should keep in mind that a winning and positive attitude is everything in this game. As in every competitive game, what one thinks, says or how one selects to act can contribute positively or negatively to the game’s outcome. Keeping a positive and hopeful spirit when playing golf can be one of those things that will lead you to victory.

As you may already know, concentration is pivotal in all sport performance, not just in golf.  It is so much more than the ability of not being distracted or even visualizing the shot.

Granted, hardly any of the authors of ANY golf training book have comprehensive training in golf psychology, so let me give you some tips for peak concentration on the golf course. I’m not talking about “grinding” out on the course…this will burn you out early in the round and mentally deplete you.

First off, dance with which you brought to the course…in other words, don’t try to fix your swing out on the course. There is plenty of time to fix your swing on the range after the round. Your job on the course is to play golf, not play swing…you need to score!

Your thoughts need to be focused on getting the ball into the cup in the least amount of strokes possible…the object of the game! (How soon we forget this fact) The only things you should be thinking about while you plan your shot is the target, distance, direction, wind speed, your lie…and any other factor that comes into play.

Forget about your last shot and what score you might shoot…

Concentrate on the shot at hand…

You need to discipline yourself to stay in the moment…this takes time to master…if you want to become an accomplished golfer you MUST master this skill.

Once upon a time your ability to concentrate was incredible. Before you could think or understand what words are. This was when you were a baby. Your brain was a sponge. As a baby you could hold your attention on anything in your field of vision without any distracting thoughts.

As you got older and learned how to talk and to think you soon became aware of that little voice inside your head that seems to be with you during every waking moment.

It is that little voice that you can’t quiet no matter how hard you try. It is always telling you that the golf shot is too hard, or the other guy is better than you.

Zen master Dogen-Zenji teaches not to stop negative thoughts in your mind…let them stop by themselves. If some negative thought comes into your mind, let it come in, let it go out. It will not stay long if you are not attached to the thought. When you TRY to stop your thinking of a negative thought, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything.

It may appear as if negative thoughts come from outside your mind, but actually they are only waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. In five or ten minutes your mind will be completely serene and calm. At this time your breathing will become quite slow.

Now that your breathing is slow and your mind is calm, you can nourish your mind with positive thoughts. Your mind follows your breathing, if you are breathing slowly; your mind is ready to focus on only the thoughts that will allow you to play the shot at hand.

If your ego gets in the way and you are thinking of how to impress someone, this thought will get in the way of your objective to play the shot at hand. Let the thought come and let it pass…do not try to get rid of it, let it pass on its own, like a wave on the ocean!