Every golfer would like to achieve a powerful golf swing. Unfortunately, golfers confuse power with swinging the golf club harder. They inherently grip the club tighter causing the muscles in the hands and arms to constrict and thus actually reducing the clubhead speed at the point of impact as well as taking the clubhead off plane.

The key is in recognizing the different aspects of increasing the power of the swing:

A. Gripping the club should be with the fingers not the hands. Hold the club in front of you with the clubhead skyward. Form the grip with your fingers -looking into a mirror you will notice that the first three knuckles are in-line with the last three knuckles of the other hand? By having them in alignment, it allows for the hands to respond to the swinging golf club throughout the swing and reduces any tension. Bring the clubhead down to the ground and your hands are set.

B. Allow the arms to hang freely from the shoulders and avoid creating any tension in this area. Tension will restrict the amount of turning in the upper body and of your body trunk, thus reducing clubhead speed, which limits the distance the ball will travel.

C. The upper body should rotate around an axis at the nape of the neck or top of the spine. To keep this axis centered, the lower spine moves laterally with an upward tilting of the hips -the right hip tilts upward on the backswing, and the left hip tilts upward on the downswing. Any lateral movement of the upper spine will result in inconsistent clubface-to-ball contact and can actually reduce the length of the swing.

These three simple steps should allow you to swing with greater comfort and generate better clubhead speed. The ball will be propelled further and straighter with seemingly less effort. The more relaxed you feel when hitting the ball the more confidence you will gain.