Welcome & Thank You!

First off, thank you for grabbing this guide! I’m excited to help you create a powerful golf swing, starting from the beginning. Whether you’re brand new to the game or looking to refine your fundamentals, you’re in the right place!

What You’ll Learn in this Guide

  • The 6 Key Factors that Matter Most: Learn the 6 crucial elements that govern the laws of ball flight and build a technique that’s designed to optimize these 6 impact factors.
  • The 9 Ball Flights & Common Shot Types: Discover the most common shot types you’ll encounter and learn how they are created. Diagnosing your ball flight correctly is crucial to understanding your swing pattern.
  • Launch Monitor Data: Looking at the most common ball flights with launch monitor data and identifying the biggest difference between Pros and Ams.
  • Golf Swing Terminology: Familiarize yourself with key terms to easily reference different parts of your swing throughout the guide.
  • The Building Blocks of Your Swing in Detail: Start from the beginning and break down the essential elements of the:
    • Setup
    • Body motion (The Real Fundamental!)
    • Arm and wrist structure
    • The Kinematic Sequence
  • Actionable Drills: Drills you can taker to your next practice session.
  • Swing Analysis: Learn how to analyze your own swing on video for feedback and identify key areas for improvement.

Lets get Started!

The 6 Things that Matter the Most

Before we jump into the good stuff, it’s important firstly to cover some key terms you’ll be hearing throughout this guide. It was a relief for me to find out many years ago when I began my golf coaching journey that there are indeed laws that govern what the ball flight does, laws that if we get right will produce results, every time.

The golf ball knows only 6 things, and it is our job when developing our intentions and golf swing technique throughout this guide that we apply the best methods we can, to give us the best chance at optimising them.

These 6 things are called Impact Factors. I’m going to be referring to these throughout the guide so I’m going to leave some definitions below for easy referencing when needed.

1.Club Face:
The clubface alignment dictates the starting direction of all golf shots. It can be Square (pointing at the target), Open (pointing to the right of target), or Closed (pointing to the left of target).

2.Club Path:
This is referencing the direction the club is swinging at the moment of impact. The club path can be Neutral, Out-to-In (swinging to the left of target), or In-to-Out (swinging to the right of target). The relationship between the Club Face and the Club Path will determine the Start line and Curve on the golf ball.

3.Angle of Attack (AoA):
This is the up or down movement of the club head at impact. A positive angle of attack refers to the club head traveling up, and a negative angle of attack refers to a club head traveling down. The angle of attack is very influential to our ability to strike the ball. When hitting the ball from the ground, we need a negative AoA, and when hitting from a tee with the driver, we are looking for a Positive AoA.

4.Dynamic Loft:
This is the amount of loft on the club head at the moment of impact. Managing the dynamic loft and AoA will help us create an optimal trajectory and carry distance. Each club already has different amounts of loft; however, the dynamic loft is the amount of loft we present to the ball at impact, and this is influenced by our technique.

5.Clubhead Speed:
Speed will mostly dictate the distance the shot will travel, amongst other things like trajectory and spin. The higher the clubhead speed, the more potential for distance, height, and spin. It seems like this is pretty important, and you’re right; however, how we produce speed is far more important, all of which we will explore further in this guide.

6.Centered Strike:
I know I’ve left this one until last, but that’s not because of its importance. This is crucial to consistent golf, and without it, all the other 5 Impact Factors will be altered. Everything we will cover in this guide will be based on developing the ability to strike the ball in the middle of the clubface.

The 9 Ball Flights

When playing golf you’re going to experience some of the ball flights outlined below, some of them you will enjoy and others you’ll be working to improve. Its vital we know the ball flights and can identify the differences between them as they tell us vital information about our impact and golf swing. Knowing each ball flight will enable us to diagnose and separate swing faults from swing characteristics, and give us vital information about the impact factors we just spoke about. This means you can be much more effective when choosing your technical practice priorities and communicating with your coach.

  • Straight:
    The ball starts on line and flies towards your target without any curvature.
  • Draw:
    The ball starts to the right of the target and curves to the left, finishing on target.
  • Fade:
    The ball starts to the left and curves to the right, finishing on target.
  • Slice:
    The ball starts left of the target and curves to the right, finishing right of target.
  • Hook:
    The ball starts right of the target and curves to the left, finishing left of the target.
  • Pull:
    The ball starts left and travels with no curvature, finishing left of target.
  • Push:
    The ball starts to the right of the target without any curvature, finishing right of target.
  • Pull Hook:
    The ball starts to the left and curves left, finishing left of the target.
  • Push Slice:
    The ball starts to the right and curves further to the right, finishing right of target.

Miss Strikes

  • These are the main 9 ball flights assuming good contact. Often if we miss the center of the club face, the ball will not go in the air, this is called a Thin or Top shot. Alternatively, it’s possible to hit the ground first and miss the ball or have a lot of ground between the ball and the club face, this is called a Heavy Shot.

Gear Effect

  • Just when you thought that was it, there is also the effect of missing the middle of the clubface on the heel or the toe. The effects of this are the most influential when hitting lower lofted clubs, woods, and drivers. We’re not going to jump into this right now, however, if you would like a detailed look into gear effect straight away, let me know and I’ll send over an in detailed guide.

Launch Monitor Data

Launch Monitors such as FlightScope and Trackman have taken the guessing out of the game, being able to measure the ball flight laws means we can get right to the point when looking to improve strike, distance or curvature. In the video section we’ll look at one of the biggest differences between pros and amateurs, the difference in creating a Draw VS a Hook and a Fade VS a Slice

Video Guide Section: Your Visual Learning Resource

Welcome to the Video Guide Section! Here, you’ll find a collection of video lessons designed to help you visualize key concepts from the guide and see them in action. These videos are carefully organized to match the structure of the guide, ensuring you can follow along step-by-step and fully understand each aspect of your swing.

If you are looking for tips on a particular part of your swing, just scroll through the titles, and you can jump straight to the video that addresses your needs.

With over 20 videos packed with valuable insights and step-by-step guidance, this isn’t a ‘quick guide’. It’s a comprehensive resource designed to help you build and refine your golf swing for lasting improvement.

While progress may take time and dedication, if you commit to applying the techniques shared in these videos, you’ll see significant gains in your swing.

I’m excited to be part of your journey, and I hope that with each video, you gain more confidence and skill on the course. Let’s make great progress together!

I Hope the Guide Has Been Helpful So Far!

I hope the guide has given you plenty of concepts to put into action, if you’d like to continue there are another 14 additional videos ready for you within this guide in the Academy.

These videos focus on..

  • The 4 Step Progression to help you train the kinematic sequence, the glue and dynamics that hold it all together.
  • Fixes for the most common pitfalls players run into, so you can avoid making those frustrating mistakes.
  • How to practice effectively, ensuring that every session you spend on the course or at the range counts toward meaningful progress.

Interested in more support and accessing all the resources? I’d love to offer you a 1 Month Free Trial!

If you’d like to take your learning even further, I’d love to offer you a Free 1 Month Trial inside the Online Academy. In there we will…

  • Work together and Analyze your swing in detail and identifying key areas for improvement.
  • Create a personalized practice plan tailored to your unique needs, helping you focus on what truly matters for your game.
  • Provide direct feedback on your progress, ensuring you stay on the right track and make the most out of every practice session.
  • You will also get instant access to all the resources inside the Academy.

If you’re interested, just send me a direct message saying ‘Swing Strategy’ or an email to philliptanham@gmail.com and I’ll be in touch right away to guide you every step of the way.

If you already have golf swings recorded in your phone you could have your first lesson within hours!

Thank You for Taking the Time to Work Through the Guide!

I want to take a moment to thank you for working through the guide. Golf is tough, and it’s not always easy to make progress. But every bit of effort you put in brings you one step closer.

Improvement doesn’t happen overnight, but every swing, every practice session, and every video you watch is another opportunity to refine your skills.

Keep pushing forward,

Hope to hear from you,

Phil