The Fundamental Keys to Excellent Ball Striking

If you watch golf on TV, you’re bound to hear one phrase come up over and over again: ball striking.  Commentators are constantly talking about which players are the best ball strikers on the PGA TOUR, but what does that mean exactly?  What makes one player a better ball striker than another?  Is it a matter of who can hit the ball the farthest, or is there more to it than that?

While ball striking doesn’t necessarily have a specific definition, most golfers would agree that it refers to the quality of shots that a player hits when making a full swing.

In fact, there is no exact way to measure the quality of a player’s ball striking.  Instead, when we hear ball striking statistics reported by the major professional tours what they are actually refering to is an aggregate of other more measurable statistics that in theory should more or less tell us how well a player is striking the ball when they take a full swing.  For example, the PGA TOUR determine’s a player’s ball striking statistics by “totaling a player’s rank in both Total Driving and Greens in Regulation.”

Ball striking is basically a category that excludes the short game, so you aren’t talking about chipping or putting when you are talking about how well (or how poorly) someone strikes the ball.  Distance is certainly a factor in ball striking, but it is far from the whole story.  The ability to hit the ball at the target, and the ability to make clean contact time after time, also play a role in the overall ball striking equation.

Why Ball Striking Matters in Golf

Generally speaking, good ball strikers tend to be the most consistent performers on the course.  If you can classify yourself as a good ball striker, you should be able to handle just about anything the course throws at you, including challenging weather conditions.  While players with shaky ball striking and a good short game can post good scores from time to time, it is the balls strikers who will typically show up day after day with a good performances.

Photo via Flickr

Make no mistake – a good short game is still critically important to shooting good scores.  You won’t be able to cash in on your great ball striking if you can’t putt, so you shouldn’t neglect your short game practice just to spend more time on ball striking.

Ideally, you will be able to gradually improve all facets of your game so that you can steadily lower your scores month after month, year after year.

Back to Basics

If you want to sharpen your skills as a ball striker, you need to get back to the basics of the game.  Good ball striking doesn’t require any kind of fancy golf swing methodology or lessons with an expensive coach – it simply requires plenty of practice and a dedication to the basic fundamentals of golf. Below are four of the key ingredients that should be present in your swing if you wish to consider yourself a quality ball striker.

#1 – Balance

Balance is the fundamental that makes everything else work.  Without balance, it won’t matter how much work you do on the rest of your swing, because you will never be able to find the ball at the bottom of your swing on a regular basis.

Think of balance as the gas in your car.  You could have the nicest luxury car on the road with all of the latest bells and whistles, but you won’t be going anywhere without some gas in the tank.  In the same way, you can have plenty of nice elements in your golf swing, but a lack of balance will make the rest of the mechanics useless.

#2 – Full Shoulder Turn

Power is built in the golf swing through rotation, and the key to your body rotation is making a full shoulder turn in the backswing.  It is actually your hips that will drive your body through the shot, but your hips won’t be in a position to do their job if you don’t first make a great shoulder turn.

One of your main practice goals each time you visit the driving range should be to work on maximizing your shoulder turn while remaining on balance.  With a full turn away from the ball successfully in place, you will feel like you have plenty of power available to turn loose in the downswing.

#3 – Relaxed Grip

In order to strike the ball cleanly, you need to allow the club head to move freely through the hitting area.  If there is any restriction in your release at the bottom of the swing, you will never be able to find the sweet spot on a regular basis.

One way to keep the club moving freely through impact is to maintain a relaxed grip pressure throughout the swing.  Your grip should be just tight enough to maintain control over the club, and no tighter.

To find the perfect grip pressure for your swing, start by hitting some chip shots with a light grip and work your way up into full swings, adjusting the pressure as you go until you find a good balance of control and freedom.

#4 – Eyes on the Ball

One of the oldest pieces of golf advice is also one of the best when it comes to quality ball striking.  Keeping your eyes down on the ball will help your ball striking for a variety of reasons, but the most important thing this fundamental will do is allow you to keep your upper body down over the shot through the hitting area.

Here’s an excellent video describing what we really mean when we tell you to “keep your head down” or “keep your eyes on the ball.”  This one might just help clarify a few misconceptions about this idea as well:

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX-ufxoCrdY&start=21&end=394&width=742&height=419[/embedyt]
 
So as you can see from that video there is a big difference between keeping your head “down,” and keeping your head “still,” the latter of which being something we want to avoid.

Final Thoughts on Ball Striking

Great ball striking is actually a lot simpler than most golfers make it out to be.  If you can hit on each of the four fundamentals above in your swing – balance, shoulder turn, relaxed grip, and eyes on the ball – you can begin to strike the ball most consistently than ever before.

While there are still plenty of other skills to master on the course, such as chipping and putting, good ball striking will go a long way toward making you the best player you can be.

Cover Photo via Flickr