by Jimmy Patrick

Created on: September 28, 2010

The best way to build a repeatable golf swing is to maintain a good, fundamental set-up for every shot. Pay attention to your grip, stance width, posture and alignment. Slight changes in those basic elements can cause big changes to the flight of a golf ball and cause golfers to wonder what happened to their swing.

Often, changes to the set-up sneak up on a golfer because something feels comfortable. The two most common are probably the opening of the shoulders and the widening of the stance.

Many golfers have a tendency to let the shoulder closest to the target creep open, or point farther to the left of the target for a right-handed golfer, because it feels comfortable and powerful. It can happen so gradually that the golfer will look down at his shoulders and not even realize they are lined up to the left. The result of the open shoulders will usually be short-iron shots pulled to the left of the target and longer clubs delivering big slices.

The widening of the stance is another aspect that gradually changes because it feels powerful and more stable. When a golfer's feet get wider than his shoulders, it causes the swing to move laterally instead of turning in a circle. The hips will begin to slide instead of turn and the impact zone will shrink, causing fat shots, thin shots and usually hooked shots or even shanks. The key is to make sure the feet never get wider than the shoulders.

 Grip, posture and tempo are three more keys to a repeating swing.

Get a good gripand don't ever let it change. A strong, natural, relaxed posture will enable your body to work and move in a natural, balanced motion. Tempo is all about rhythm, and if the timing and rhythm of the golf swing changes, so will the golf shots. It must be the same each time.

 Finally, and one of the most important factors in a repeating swing is balance. If the golf swing is not in balance, any number of things could go wrong. Losing balance enough to make the golfer's front foot twist or teeter is enough to throw the club off plane and cause hooks and slices.

The most common balance problem is the reverse pivot, in which the golfer lets his weight shift to his back foot during the swing instead of the front. Usually the reverse pivot will cause slices, but it really can cause any number of bad shots and will make it impossible to create a repeating swing.

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