Maintaining your balance is important in all sports. In golf, better balance throughout your swing insures a solid shot/proper hit. It also means you're in control. The golfer in control is holding all the aces when competing against other golfers who may be slightly out of balance.

Here are two ways to improve your balance which in turn will improve your ball contact and control, easily leading to lower scores.

1. This way of staying in balance simply requires you to limit the amount of force you use when hitting the ball. Too many golfers think they need to use all their strength to hit the ball and this causes severe control problems.

The majority of golf professionals will tell you they only use about 75% of their strength when hitting and/or swinging at the ball.

So in order to do this simply go to the driving range and try to develop the feeling you are only hitting and/or swinging at the ball with 75% of your power.

There are a couple of ways to do this, A. Practice hitting balls with a 3/4 backswing and B. Practice hitting balls shorter distances, say 25% shorter.

2. This way worked best for my students and myself. In it you simply wear the slickest soled regular street shoes or boots possible, whenever you practice. (NO spikes or spikeless golf shoes allowed.)

The smooth soled shoes or boots need to be so-o-o slick that you can actually slide down a "minor" grassy slope. Sort of like when walking and sliding on ice.

Note: Students who only had tennis shoes found they could completely wrap them in plastic and then lay another sheet of plastic on the ground where they would normally take their stance. Then by standing on it, in their plastic enclosed shoes they proceeded to hit practice shots.

It's amazing how fast you learn to swing within yourself, keep in balance and maintain control when NOT doing it could cause you to fall on your butt.

That is exactly why this is such a great way of learning to maintain your balance while swinging the club in golf. This method is so-o-o successful because you don't need to think about anthing other than hitting the ball.

Here's the great news, you will soon notice that your shots are going just as far or farther then they were before because you now hit more shots "dead solid perfect." That's what maintaining balance is all about --- better ball control and solid contact.