Many golfers dream of having the perfect golf swing, they think that to do so will solve all of their problems out on the course.
But there is one crucial factor that is missing in the above scenario, you must correctly align your body to the target otherwise how do you expect to ever send the ball there? Having the perfect golf swing is useless without first ensuring that your body is correctly aligned before you play your shot.
However, alignment can be a tricky thing to do, think about it you are not facing the target directly, but are actually standing side on and also behind the line that leads to the target.
A common problem that can occur is to aim your feet at the target instead of the clubhead.
This will result in a closed stance and if you do not play the ball to the right of the target you will stifle the shot and probably pull it to the left.
Alternatively you may already be aware that you have an existing golf swing fault for which you are compensating by aligning your body in such a way to adjust for this fault.
For instance, you may be hitting your balls predominantly to the left and figure out that if you aim to the right of the target you can bring the ball back to center by simply playing your normal golf swing.
However, all you are doing here is to compound one fault on top of another and neither will lead to you developing the perfect golf swing and that most coveted of all golf prizes, a consistent and flowing golf swing.
Developing The Perfect Golf Swing So how do you get to grips with the alignment issue? Well the simplest model is to imagine that you are standing on one side of a train track.
Your club rests on the rail on the far side and your toes on the rail nearest to your body.
The farside track leads directly to your target.
Your body, head, shoulders, hips and feet are parallel to the train tracks.
A good way to check your alignment before you take your shot and aim for the perfect golf swing is to raise your club in front of you flat and parallel to the imaginary tracks.
Move the club from your head down to your knees to check that they are aligned parallel to each other.
You are especially looking to check that your hips and shoulders are in line with each other.
A practice tip that you have probably heard of, but rarely use, is to lay two clubs on the mat at the driving range, one aimed at the target a few inches away from the clubhead, the other parallel to this by your toes.
This is a really good way to check your alignment and get a feel for what proper alignment should be like out on the course.
You will see that the pros use this technique too when practicing.
Such is the importance of correct alignment to the perfect golf swing.