Three Ways to Improve Your Ball Striking Skills

Striking the ball is one of the most important aspects of playing a game of golf. The perfect strike is what every golfer strives to achieve. Here are three tips to help you improve your striking skills so you’re one step closer to that hole-in-one you’ve been dreaming of making.

1. Practice your posture. If you move your torso up and down throughout the swing, your strike patterns will be inconsistent once impact arrives. It’s possible to position your arms incorrectly while rotating back, which causes the torso to rise up in the backswing.
2. This makes it challenging to position the torso back into starting position so the club can bottom out in the correct spot. Practice your posture with a weighted vest, and try swinging with a short iron. The weighted vest will challenge your attempt to stand up vertically in the backswing, allowing you to rotate incorrect form and maintain posture.
3. It also helps you stay at the right spine angle during impact. Your core will remain bent over at the right angle through the backswing and forward swing thanks to the vest, which will allow you to bottom out the clubhead for solid contact.
4. Work on your trail shoulder. While in the setup position, take your lead hand and extend away from you. Hold the club like a cane into the ground and use your trail arm to toss balls out to right field through the gap made by the lead arm and club. If the ball goes to the left, the club path is too steep and out-to-in. This practice trains you to move the trail shoulder to the correct path, improving the path of the club.
5. Tilt down. It’s important to keep the correct shoulder tilt in the backswing, as this will help you maintain posture. Don’t be like many players out there that are too flat in the shoulder tilt. Using an alignment rod or club across the shoulders to help guide you on shoulder tilt. Place a club or rod on the ground where your ball would be, and then rotate your shoulders back, pointing the club or rod from your shoulder to slightly outside of the target line. Your posture will remain at the same angle while your lead shoulder will feel like it is rotating underneath the chin.