losing balance

[moadhia]

I have recently started learning golf. I have this problem in my swing that I tend to lose my balance when I try to swing hard (with 90-100% power). I tend to fall towards the ball.

When I slow down my swing speed, I am relatively stable in my follow through.

So just wondering, should I be swinging slower (lets say 60-70% ) or is there something really wrong in my setup.

What can cause one to fall towards the ball ???

[grantc79]

  chappu said:

I have recently started learning golf. I have this problem in my swing that I tend to lose my balance when I try to swing hard (with 90-100% power). I tend to fall towards the ball.

Just swinging too hard really without seeing your swing its all I could say.

The whole point is you need to hit the sweetspot as often as possible. If you swing a driver 80 mph and hit dead center everytime you are going to get a lot more consistency and distance than someone who swings 110 mph and never hits the sweet spot. A good drill for doing this is sitting at the range taking swings and trying to freeze at the end and hold your finish until the ball lands. Swing as hard as you want until you can't do that anymore, then you know how hard you should be swinging.

[kc8kir]

Over-firing the right hand through impact (right hand takeover) along with a loss of arm-body connect (arm runaway) will cause this. Take it from me, it's not fun and it will eventually lead to heel hits and shanks. Keep the left side steering and the right side submissive. If the right side takes over completely, and straightens the arm too soon, the result is a clubhead moving too much in-out (or conversely, if you combine it with a casting motion, way too much out-in). Note, I'm not saying to discount the right side as a powersource, it's just that it's very easy to shove the club at the ball with the right side and add too much power too soon. Think of it as shoving a kid off a swing from the top of the arc. You wanna push the kid near the bottom not the top.

When I have been doing this (still working it out), I could literally put the clubhead inside the ball, swing, and hit the ball dead center on the face. My clubhead was rerouting outside the target line that much. The result with long clubs is an alternating game of pull, hook, slice, push, pull, hook, slice, push. Lots of heel hits and shanks later, I'm realizing my right elbow needs to return to my side and stay there longer, allowing the left arm and body rotation to pull me around through impact. It's a much different impact condition, but it sure makes square contact a lot easier. Just look at pictures of Hogan, Snead, and Nicklaus down the line at impact.

A drill to test if this is your problem is to swing the club and let go with the right hand just at impact. If you can't manage to swing into a balanced finish, you may have other problems (posture, weight distribution, etc). Releasing the right hand should make the followthrough feel very easy, provided the right hand has not had the chance to shove the club at the ball.

[photobob]

Here's a video drill I found helpful with keeping balance...



Work out the steps as shown then build up to your full swing. See if it doesn't help...

[mirv]

i saw a video on youtube a few days ago of sam snead (who was among the best in the world way back in the day) saying that it is vital that you learn to "swing within yourself," meaning that you don't overswing, you don't try to force some huge, powerful swing out of yourself, that you just swing within what is your natural range. he said that generally, it's when you give about 85% power to your swing. overswinging will definitely throw you off balance, and trying to overpower the swing will do it, too. if you slow the swing down and don't try to muscle the shot, your balance will probably be more stable.

[mako224]

  chappu said:

I have recently started learning golf. I have this problem in my swing that I tend to lose my balance when I try to swing hard (with 90-100% power). I tend to fall towards the ball.

You are a beginner. No is the time to take lessons and nip this in the bud before you build a bunch of bad muscle memory. If you're not gonna take lessons my suggestion for you would be to take a 7-iron or pitching wedge and hit two buckets of balls with no swing ever being more than 40% of what you call 90-100%. Concentrate on making a smooth turn, making flush contact and a nice balanced fish at the end. This will teach you tempo, balance and proper swing mechanics. Don't speed up or try any other club till you have this absolutely mastered. Then speed up to 60%. It is very important at this stage of the game that you build positive muscle memory. Do not, I repeat, Do NOT keep practicing bad full swings. The damage you do now could take years to correct.