Golf is a complex and involved sport, and there are seemingly endless styles, techniques and movement sequences being floated around golf courses everywhere. There are short swings, long swings, powerful swings, smooth swings, compact swings – and everything in between. There are different kinds of grips, foot positions, ball positions, leg and arm positions, head positions – and it seems as if everyone, even the famous players, does things a little bit differently.
So, when you’re making your way through your round, how do you know if you have good form when there are so many different styles and techniques of play out there? How can you tell if you need to improve aspects of your game, or if you’re playing from a solid foundation? Here are a few aspects to consider.
Why do you need to know if you have good form?
Golf places a lot of demands on your body. Your back muscles and spine are put under a lot of pressure, and your shoulder, arm, wrist, hand and leg muscles all do a lot of work in a golf swing. And you need to swing repeatedly when playing or practicing golf. If you’re doing this with poor form, you’ll eventually have to deal with the resultant outcomes – such as niggles, pain, acute injuries and overuse injuries. Not to mention the poor results that are likely to follow. Not what you want at all.
To read more about how to play golf with an injury, click here.
The first step in starting to improve is recognising how good your form is, which is not always easy. Consider these areas of your game.
Results
Results are not everything, but they CAN tell you a fair bit about your form. Sure, we’ve all seen that player who somehow manages to hit the greens consistently despite their “unusual” form. But generally speaking, if you have poor form you can expect that to show up in your results over time. Poor form might lead to inconsistency, where brilliant shots are mixed in with average or poor ones. Or it might just lead to bogeys, poor scores, frustrating shots and lack of motivation. Usually, good form will lead to better results over time – or at least an improvement in results.
Handicap
If you’re playing off a lower handicap, chances are your form is pretty good, and your technique is strong and sustainable. Not always though – as it’s common for people to use poor body positions in their swing but still achieve an acceptable outcome. You may have adapted very well to a flawed technique over the years and may be able to get results – but that doesn’t necessarily mean your form is good.
But results and a low handicap alone are not enough to tell you if your golf form is good – as mentioned above, results are not always dependent on good form. You might have the best form in the world, but your results could be hampered by poor mental aspects, or nerves or an inability to perform under pressure or manage your anger. Poor results do not necessarily indicate poor form – or vice versa. Here are some other signs that your form might need some help.
Injuries
If you’re getting injured often, particularly if they are overuse injuries, there’s a good chance there may be some problems with your form. This is one of the clearest indicators that something in your game is just not right – although not always. You may be getting injuries because of a weakness in your body, or a previous injury that hasn’t healed properly. But there’s a pretty good chance that poor form will lead to pain or an injury sooner or later – and will be something that needs correcting.
Professional opinions
Probably the surest way to get an idea of your form quality is to get a professional opinion every so often. Golf pros are ideally positioned to assess all aspects of your form, and advise you on how to improve it. And it’s not something that you would need to do all the time – it might be enough to book a pro session once a year just to check in on your form and make sure your technique is still strong. Good golfers learn from observation and imitation, and a pro should be able to demonstrate correct form so that you can see it in action too.
Video yourself
An alternative option to getting a professional opinion is to video your own swings from all angles and then assess and analyse your swing. This is very helpful in showing you exactly what needs correcting – for example, you might feel like your back swing is off, when really the problem is caused by your alignment. Watching your swing can show up all those areas that you’re not aware of usually, and allow you to take steps to fix any problems. This is only useful if you have some idea about how to analyse technique, however.
How it feels
You can’t always rely on the feel of the swing as an indicator of your form – sometimes you can feel like you’ve hit the perfect shot, then look up to see your ball flying way to the left or right. Or a swing you’ve performed for years might feel very comfortable, because you’re used to it, yet may not demonstrate particularly good form. Feel isn’t always real, but it can be useful to a point, as you can generally tell when you’ve made good contact. Often when the swing feels right, there’s a lot that IS right about it – and there may only be some small problem to correct somewhere.
The takeaway
Each of these elements, taken separately, is not enough to indicate the quality of your golf form. But when you take them all together and look at the overall picture, you should get a reasonable idea of just how good your form is. Your next step should then be improving any aspects of your form that are problematic. Click here to discover some simple ways to improve your golf this year.
