A common two-way miss that hurts accurate ball striking is hitting the ball both fat and thin.
A fat shot is when the club hits the ground before the ball and the ball flies nowhere. If you’re tired of hitting fats shots, you’ll make some adjustments and begin hitting thin shots, where the club is traveling on its way up and the leading edge of the club hits the ball. That shot feels hard, and the ball flies on the ground and never gets in the air.
Around and around you go with these two misses. It can be maddening.
The reason for this two-way miss is the bottom of the swing arc is behind the ball at impact. One culprit of this is too much lateral movement away from the target from your head and upper body on the backswing.
Too much of an upper body sway shifts your center of mass and bottom of the arc too far behind the ball. In order to deliver the club and move the bottom of the arc to the ball, you’ll need to travel the same distance back to the ball and then even farther to finish rotated and in balanced over your lead foot.
This excessive movement requires far too much timing to do over and over again to hit a golf ball consistently and well. Sometimes you’ll get to the ball and sometimes you won’t.
To prevent your upper body from too much lateral movement, add a little side bend into your rotation during your backswing. Side bend is tough to see when watching the pros on TV but, for many, their spines are actually extending up and tilting slightly toward the target at the top of their backswings.
To create the feel of side bend and to remove excess lateral movement on your backswing, stand tall with your arms stretched to your side, then tilt your upper body to the side and toward the target. Once you’ve created your tilt, rotate your arms and upper body so your back is to the target.
This two-part move allows your upper body to rotate around your center without any excess lateral movement and gives you the feeling of a stretched spine with side bend at the top of your backswing. Practice this move and when you get the feeling of a centered backswing, grab a club and recreate this feeling with your upper body at the top of your backswing.
When it comes time to hit some golf balls, you will find a centered backswing will keep you from excessive movement and, therefore, help get the bottom of the arc around the ball more consistently for better ball striking.
Peter Harris is the director of golf at the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon. His column appears in the weekly Recreation page during the golf season.