If you are an adult, and you want to learn to play golf, I’ve put together what I believe is the correct process.
Golf is a complex game, and it is much more difficult to learn to play golf well as an adult for the simple reason that our bodies don’t allow us to just learn by imitation. Children are able to learn that way since they are still growing and developing.
But, since adults have a much more difficult time imitating athletic movements, more work is involved.
With this in mind, I felt it necessary to produce a step by step process for learning how to play golf. If you are patient, and willing to put in a little bit of effort, you’ll be much better off in the long run.
Let’s get to it!
Step One – Ball Flight Laws and Club Design
The first step is to gain an understanding of how the club works, and how swing path and face angle combine to produce the direction that the ball will fly.
Many new golfers don’t understand how the club is designed to get the ball in the air, and as a result, their golf swing reflects the fact that they are trying to help the ball get in the air.
What ultimately happens is the opposite…by trying to lift the ball in the air, they catch the ball on the upswing, and by doing this, they don’t utilize the club properly. The end result is that they either top the ball, or hit a low shot.
Step Two – Golf Swing Sequence
Once a golfer learns the ball flight laws and how the club is designed to work, the next step is to learn the proper golf swing sequence. This is also referred to as the proper “kinematic” sequence of the golf swing.
The reason that most golfers are incapable of hitting consistently solid shots that travel in the intended direction is because their swing is out of sequence.
Many golfers are focused almost entirely on what the arms are doing in the golf swing, when in fact, the arms are just following what the body is doing.
I typically train beginner students, and students are unable to break 90, how to move the body properly, without a golf club in their hands.
It is virtually impossible to hit consistent, quality golf shots if you don’t have the proper kinematic sequence. And, the kinematic sequence has nothing to do with how the swing looks.
Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods have very similar kinematic sequences, but obviously, their swings look nothing alike.
Learn the proper kinematic sequence, and you’ll be well on your way to hitting good golf shots.
Step Three – The Fundamentals
Once you gain an understanding of the proper kinematic sequence, it’s time to learn the actual fundamentals of the golf swing.
First, you must learn a proper grip. The grip is the most important fundamental after the kinematic sequnce, since it is the grip that controls the club face at impact.
After the grip, the set up is the next most important fundamental. You will rarely, if ever, see a good golf swing evolve from a poor set up.
A proper set up generally means setting up in an athletic stance with proper alignment. Deviations will lead to the need for compensation in the golf swing.
In conjunction with the grip and set up, it is necessary to learn about the swing plane. The grip will control the angle of the club face at impact.
The club face angle is responsible for 80-85% of the initial direction of the golf ball. The other 15-20% is a result of the swing path.
With this in mind, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the swing plane, and how the plane affects the path of the swing through the impact zone.
After you’ve learned the proper grip, set up and the swing plane, you can then combine those thoughts with your knowledge of the kinematic sequence. Then you can start building your golf swing.
Step Four – Building Your Golf Swing
It is my personal belief that it is best to start building the golf swing with the short shots, chips and pitches, around the green.
These shots will help you learn how to make proper contact with the golf ball. Gaining a feel for solid contact with these short shots will serve a couple purposes. 1) You’ll get a better idea of what proper contact feels like in a full swing shot and 2) You’ll develop your skills for those shots around the green more quickly, and that is what will help lower your scores.
With this in mind, I highly recommend that your first few practice sessions involve these short shots around the green, rather than full swing shots on the driving range.
Then, it is time to proceed to developing your full swing on the range with the “9 to 3 swing.” (This will be a 3 to 9 swing if you are a lefthanded golfer).
The 9 to 3 swing is essentially a half golf swing where, if you are a right handed player, you swing the club until your left arm is parallel to the gound, or pointing at 9 o’clock, and then your follow through ends with your right arm pointing at 3 o’clock.
When you are able to make consistent contact with this swing at half speed with a sand wedge, you simply begin to increase your swing speed. You can then proceed to a longer swing at half speed, and as long as you can make consistent contact with the ball going in the proper direction, you increase the speed, and then work your way up through the bag.
Advanced Golf
These four steps are just the beginning of how you will learn to play golf. From there, as your skill develops, you’ll develop putting skills, short game skills, and full swing skills where you’ll learn how to shape your shots on command.
Naturally, all of this requires a good bit of practice, but it doesn’t mean you need to spend hours on the range every day.
You can literally improve your skills over time with just 15 minutes each day. Just be sure to be focused on what you are doing for those 15 minutes, and you’ll see significant improvement over time.
As I mentioned, golf is a complex game, and you really can’t stop learning. Even the best players and instructors continue to learn over time.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. On my Free Golf Training page you can find much more detail on the topics I’ve discussed to help you get started.
Thanks for reading!
