Once you have the grip right the next thing
to focus on is your stance. We will start with the feet and in particularly
the width of the stance. The insides of the heels should never be more
than shoulder width apart for the driver and the stance will become narrower depending
on the length of the club – the shorter the club the narrower the stance, but the width
is more of a feel thing and there is no exact rules to it. An important rule about the feet is they really
shouldn't be pointed straight ahead. You should turn them out at about 20 –30
degrees which gives you a lot more freedom to swing back and forth.
If they are pointing straight ahead it restricts
your motion so makes sure they are about 20-30 degrees out. The next part of this stance which is very
important is the ball position. Starting with the 1 wood, the ball should
be placed opposite the inside of your left heel. With the 1 wood you actually want to have
an ascending blow so you are hitting the ball on the way up. The bottom of the swing should be directly
opposite the sternum and that's how we get the ascending blow with the driver because
the ball is ahead of the sternum at impact. As you get into the shorter clubs, the ball
should be placed further back in your stance until the with the 9 iron it will be about
4-5 inches inside your left heel. This creates a more descending blow instead
of an ascending blow. The other reasons the ball position is so
important is that when you are swinging through the arch of the swing, if the ball is positioned
too far back the club face will still be open at impact and you will be pushing or slicing
out to the right.
Conversely, if you put the ball too far forward
in your stance the club head will be facing too far left at impact and thus you would
be hitting the ball to the left. So with the driver it is placed opposite the
left heel. The driver is a slightly longer swing than
the shorter irons so at impact the sternum is just behind the ball, so when you are hitting
the ascending blow and the club face will be square. If you actually had the ball in that position
with say a 9 iron opposite the left heel it's a shorter club so therefore a shorter swing,
you would find that you would come though square and by the time you reach just opposite
your left heel the club face would be closed. So the shorter the club the further back it
should be in the stance to create that descending which will give a much more crisp contact
sending the ball higher in the air.
Furthermore, because it is a shorter swing
your sternum will be further back in the stance at impact. Make sure you get your ball position right. If your shots aren't going where you want
them to it is probably one of the first things you should look at. I bet you if a ball is going right you placed
the ball too back in your stance conversely if you are hitting the ball left too often
it is probably because the ball is too far forward – so make sure you check that if you
are not hitting the ball very well.
The next point in the set up is the knees. When you bend your knees make sure you have
turned our feet outward- the knees should go over the top of your feet and they should
have a slightly bowed look which will mean the knees are directly over the balls of feet. Moving up toward your hips you should have
a slight tilt upwards with your hips your left hip should be slightly higher that your
right hip if your are a right handed golfer. This actually creates the spine angle that
you want. The spine angle should not be straight up
and down it should be slightly away from the target and tilting the hips and pushing them
slightly forwards as well. You should actually bend right from the hips
not from the lower back and stick your bum out a bit to have a nice flat lower back. It is very important that helps you maintain
your spine angle throughout the swing which creates a much more consistent swing. After you have got your spine angle correct
(that is slightly tilted away from the target) the next point to think about is your head
particularly make sure your chin is up and slightly to the right.
This allows the shoulders to turn more freely
underneath the chin. If the chin is down when you turn back, your
head has got to turn with it. So if you are going to keep you head relatively
still you won't be able to make a full shoulder turn. Make sure the chin is tilted up and slightly
to the right we will talk about this a bit more later but you also have to make sure
the eyes are still parallel to the target line as well. It is important at address that your elbows
face inward and upward that is to say that are not pointing outwards where the left elbow
is pointing toward the target and the right is pointing away from the target.
Make sure they are in this position where
if you draw a line from the elbows backwards it would hit your hip and that is on both
arms, your right and your left arm. so they are in a position like this not like
so bring them in this important on the left arm because when you come back through impact
you at the square of the club face a lot more easily if the elbow is pointing out towards
the target it is very easy to leave the club face open when coming through impact also
with the right elbow pointing in towards that helps it fold correctly on the back swing
if is pointing out to far that way you are going to get what is known as a flying elbow
like so – so make sure it is pointed toward your hips — you will be able to fold it correctly.
Now the thing a lot of golfers get into trouble
with is the distance that the ball should be placed away from the their body a good
reference point is that the upper part of the arms should be touching the chest if no
part of the arm is touching the chest like so the ball is too far away if your entire
arm down to your elbow is touching your body the ball is in too close so it should just
be the upper part of your arms touching the chest and you know you are in the right position. Now another really important part of the set
up is that you make sure you get those angles right at address and then throughout the swing
and even until after impact you maintain the angles that is the angles here that is a very
important part of the swing if you get that right your ball striking will be much more
consistent, Now the next part of the set up that is of
crucial importance is your alignment now assuming that you are hitting a straight shot your
alignment needs to be parallel to the ball target line now your ball target line is simply
a line drawn trough your ball to your target whether that be a flag or the middle of the
fairway hopefully not the lake.
Now you need to be parallel to that line not
pointing at the target so make sure you are parallel a good way to practice that is to
put one club out in front of the ball pointing to the target line and one club parallel to
it about where your feet are going to be. Make sure that your feet knees and hips are
parallel to that line and that your shoulders are slightly just slightly open to that line
only a couple of degrees and you also need to make sure your eyes are in alignment with
that they have got to be parallel even when you have lifted your chin up and turned to
the right make sure your eyes are parallel a good way to practice this is to put a club
parallel with your eyes and when you tilt it you can see if you are off to the right
or left or parallel that is very important.
Now of course this may sound simple but you
have got to check every time that your club face is pointing directly at the target that
is of absolute importance Just to show you this from another angle the feet knees and
hips should all be open to the target line the shoulder should be slightly open not too
far not closed just slightly to the target line and make sure the eyes are parallel to
the target line. Now this may seem like an obvious point but
at set up make sure the ball is set up in the middle of the club face not out of the
toe or out of the heel but in the middle also with the wood up on a tee- it could be a 1
wood- start with the club hovering off the ground not grounded..