Start right to finish right.
Best place to begin is how you set yourself up for your golf swing.
These include Posture, grip stance ball position and alignment.
Let’s begin with posture. Good posture allows you to make good golf swings!
These include Posture, grip stance ball position and alignment.
Let’s begin with posture. Good posture allows you to make good golf swings!
Problems in golf swings begin at the start.
In 99% of the golf lessons i give the problems that people have start with a bad body position at address and then multiply.
Posture at set up directly influences direction of turn, sequence of turn, arm direction, swing radius, shaft direction, what hands have to do.
Most commonly i see upside down/inverted upper body angle (Front View) and standing too upright then having to bend the back in order to see/reach the ball.
Note that I’m talking about the shape of the body and where it bends not alignment.
Any ideas you have about your arm/shaft direction, weight shift or turn, are totally compromised and influenced by the position you started from.
Same turn from inverted set up puts you in a totally different spot than from good set up
Difference in turn and shaft direction from bar stool(shaft too far behind or flat), good(on Plane) and too over(too verticle)
In 99% of the golf lessons i give the problems that people have start with a bad body position at address and then multiply.
Posture at set up directly influences direction of turn, sequence of turn, arm direction, swing radius, shaft direction, what hands have to do.
Most commonly i see upside down/inverted upper body angle (Front View) and standing too upright then having to bend the back in order to see/reach the ball.
Note that I’m talking about the shape of the body and where it bends not alignment.
Any ideas you have about your arm/shaft direction, weight shift or turn, are totally compromised and influenced by the position you started from.
Same turn from inverted set up puts you in a totally different spot than from good set up
Difference in turn and shaft direction from bar stool(shaft too far behind or flat), good(on Plane) and too over(too verticle)
The one common denominator you see among all good players is their posture.
You might never hit it like tour pros do, but there's a part of their technique you can mimic: the address position or posture. When your body is angled properly at the start, you have the foundation for a repeating swing. It allows you to coil around a constant axis and swing the club up and down on the proper track.
You might never hit it like tour pros do, but there's a part of their technique you can mimic: the address position or posture. When your body is angled properly at the start, you have the foundation for a repeating swing. It allows you to coil around a constant axis and swing the club up and down on the proper track.
Where does bad posture come from?
For the most part it comes from trying to feel balanced and stable at address, in the hope that this will give you balance and stability in your swing.
Unfortunately balance for standing is not good balance for golf.
Good posture for golf is not symmetrical for two main reasons – trailing hand on bottom of grip and what a hitting position is. Demo
In the position we like people at address you are already behind the ball and in a hitting position – from here you don’t have to do very much to get to a good backswing position.
Good posture and going around that shape means that you won’t need a compensating move in your transition to get your posture back into a hitting position – you’re always in it. Compensating moves in transition nearly always give the club a bad direction in the downswing
I get our students, beginners through to A grade & tour players to use a mirror and practice their set up and motion while watching themselves – in this way you are depending on a look not a feel. Feels only work in the short term because they are relative to what it felt like yesterday or last week. The look lasts in the mid to long term.
I use a drill we call the aeroplane :- Arms out from shoulders – lean a little forward (one or two cm) to target – tilt upper body(left hip and shoulder higher than right side) - bend from waist – a little bend in knees and let arms hang down.
The point of this position is that you are already behind it and don’t have to make any excessive movement in your backswing and you have created enough room under your body to allow your arms to work freely.
Shimmie drill – This motion occurs after arms have passed right leg. If you move a little in this shape maintaining your spine angle in both directions (front view and back view) then add you arms to it that is a behind the ball loaded position but to all of you that feels like a half swing I would guess.
The simpler you make your motion the more repeatable it will become and in this game we are all striving for more consistency.
For the most part it comes from trying to feel balanced and stable at address, in the hope that this will give you balance and stability in your swing.
Unfortunately balance for standing is not good balance for golf.
Good posture for golf is not symmetrical for two main reasons – trailing hand on bottom of grip and what a hitting position is. Demo
In the position we like people at address you are already behind the ball and in a hitting position – from here you don’t have to do very much to get to a good backswing position.
Good posture and going around that shape means that you won’t need a compensating move in your transition to get your posture back into a hitting position – you’re always in it. Compensating moves in transition nearly always give the club a bad direction in the downswing
I get our students, beginners through to A grade & tour players to use a mirror and practice their set up and motion while watching themselves – in this way you are depending on a look not a feel. Feels only work in the short term because they are relative to what it felt like yesterday or last week. The look lasts in the mid to long term.
I use a drill we call the aeroplane :- Arms out from shoulders – lean a little forward (one or two cm) to target – tilt upper body(left hip and shoulder higher than right side) - bend from waist – a little bend in knees and let arms hang down.
The point of this position is that you are already behind it and don’t have to make any excessive movement in your backswing and you have created enough room under your body to allow your arms to work freely.
Shimmie drill – This motion occurs after arms have passed right leg. If you move a little in this shape maintaining your spine angle in both directions (front view and back view) then add you arms to it that is a behind the ball loaded position but to all of you that feels like a half swing I would guess.
The simpler you make your motion the more repeatable it will become and in this game we are all striving for more consistency.
The key to a good setup is to tilt toward the ball from your hip joints (pelvic tilt), not your waist. The difference is quite noticeable when seen on video re-play., but bending from the waist causes the back to get rounded (above, right). It's tough to make a good swing from this un-athletic position. While a hunched setup posture is not swing fault in itself, it causes so many poor movements that it simply has to be considered as problematic. Hunched posture basically consists of a combination of a forward head position, forward and inwardly rotated shoulders and a rounded upper back. It is becoming more frequent and starting at much younger ages due to long periods of time with a fixed focus on phones and computer screens.
Targeting the tight muscles that are dragging the posture forward — pecs, biceps, abdominals. Once these muscles have been loosened up (under the guidance of a fitness trainer), the next step is to look to activate the essential postural muscles that were switched off: upper back muscles, lumbar erector spinae, deep neck flexors and deep core. With appropriate activation drills work on good posture can be done at home with minimal equipment and can double up as a great pre-round warm up.
What is meant by the muscle “switching off” is that the neural connection between brain and muscle has been under-utilized and control of the muscle is far from ideal. Thus resulting in being literally unable to use that muscle for the purpose for which it was intended, in this case holding us in good posture.
Besides working with your TAC fitness trainer, here are my tips for better posture for golf.
Stand tall in front of a mirror, (above, left). You should feel athletic and relaxed.
The posture of the spine, shoulders and hips that is used for most everyday activities is unsuitable for golf. This is because the right hand is below the left when the club is gripped. It takes some practice to get used to, but a correct posture will greatly assist a golfer to avoid many common swing problems.
Stand tall in front of a mirror, (above, left). You should feel athletic and relaxed.
The posture of the spine, shoulders and hips that is used for most everyday activities is unsuitable for golf. This is because the right hand is below the left when the club is gripped. It takes some practice to get used to, but a correct posture will greatly assist a golfer to avoid many common swing problems.
Method
1.Stand parallel to the target line, use a club across the front of your toes as a guide.
2.Hold a club across the top of your thighs, positioned lightly across your hips joints.
3.Push the club into your hip joints to help promote bending from the forward from the hips, maintaining the shape of your spine.
4.Move the left hip toward the target and up slightly, until the left shoulder and left hip are higher than that on the right and in line with your left hip (kind of like if your left side where leaning against a wall. This will tilt the backbone so that the base of the spine is closer to the target than the top. The left shoulder is now higher than the right without any tension in the upper body.
5.Make sure you maintain parallel alignment whilst making these moves.
6.Unlock your knees so that your kneecaps are level with the joints of your toes. Ensure that you are balanced on the balls of your feet
7.With your weight evenly distributed and maintaining posture angles, rest the club against your legs. Raise your arms to a horizontal position with the palms up (this will help keep you shoulder blades from rolling in).
8.Let your arms relax and fall in front of your body. The right hand will be closer to the ground than the left. You have now established your posture and arm position.
9.Maintaining the feel of the posture, grip the club. The key thought is to feel the base of the spine closer to the target than the top. The length of the club will determine how far you tilt forward towards the ball and the distance you stand from the ball. The middle of your shoulder should be in line with the front of your knee and the back of your toes (when looking from the side view).
Try to re-create this hip-hinged position when you play. You'll look like a pro, and hit it more like one.
1.Stand parallel to the target line, use a club across the front of your toes as a guide.
2.Hold a club across the top of your thighs, positioned lightly across your hips joints.
3.Push the club into your hip joints to help promote bending from the forward from the hips, maintaining the shape of your spine.
4.Move the left hip toward the target and up slightly, until the left shoulder and left hip are higher than that on the right and in line with your left hip (kind of like if your left side where leaning against a wall. This will tilt the backbone so that the base of the spine is closer to the target than the top. The left shoulder is now higher than the right without any tension in the upper body.
5.Make sure you maintain parallel alignment whilst making these moves.
6.Unlock your knees so that your kneecaps are level with the joints of your toes. Ensure that you are balanced on the balls of your feet
7.With your weight evenly distributed and maintaining posture angles, rest the club against your legs. Raise your arms to a horizontal position with the palms up (this will help keep you shoulder blades from rolling in).
8.Let your arms relax and fall in front of your body. The right hand will be closer to the ground than the left. You have now established your posture and arm position.
9.Maintaining the feel of the posture, grip the club. The key thought is to feel the base of the spine closer to the target than the top. The length of the club will determine how far you tilt forward towards the ball and the distance you stand from the ball. The middle of your shoulder should be in line with the front of your knee and the back of your toes (when looking from the side view).
Try to re-create this hip-hinged position when you play. You'll look like a pro, and hit it more like one.
