– I often think one of
the biggest telltale signs when you're looking for golfers who know what they're doing and golfers that are maybe new to the game
and struggling a little bit is the way they address the golf ball, and particularly the way
they stand with posture. Across the best players in
the world, on the PGA Tour, it doesn't matter how old or
how young the golfers are, you'll often see them focusing on posture to make sure they're not
slipping into any bad habits. So when we address the golf ball, how we angle our spine, our
knee flex and our hip angle is what we'd class as the
posture of a good stance.
Now I've seen so many golfers stood on the driving
range in this position, and then wondering why they
can't hit the ball 300 yards. Well, let me tell you in this position, I don't think I could barely
hit the ball 50 yards, and I'd certainly feel like
an old man trying to do it. This is not a very engaged position without a great deal of power. But a couple of little changes and suddenly I feel like
I've unlocked a huge amount of power and I could hit
the ball a lot further. And that's really why we want
you to focus on good posture when you set up to the golf ball. So let's start with the bottom
half and work our way up. And a good address position
here, I've got my 7-iron and I've got a nice wide
stance and I'm a good distance back away from the golf ball. From this position I want to engage some knee flex. Locked out legs, no power, bent legs like this,
no power, no stability. A little bit of flex is
good and then from here, I engage my trunk, I
push my hips backwards I try and tilt forwards
over the golf ball, and I try and retain a
relatively straight spine angle.
Now, depending on what
your spine looks like, how long you spend in an office desk, how regularly you drive a car, you might feel like you've
got a bit of a predisposition to a bit of a curve in your spine. Try and neutralize that
as much as possible. But I appreciate we're not all
going to stand over the golf ball like Rory McIlroy with
perfectly straight spine angles, because we don't sit in that position all the time at home or at work.
So as much as you can push the hips back, create a good solid spine angle. If you really feel like
you're in this position all the time, and you maybe use a camera where mine is, or even a mirror and you look back and
you just see this curve, try this little helpful
tip, stand up perfectly straight, position the golf club so your nose, your chin,
and your belly button, all touch the club.
So
you stand in that position and you work the club like it's a ruler holding your body perfectly straight. So it's touching and then
we're going to tilt forwards. And there you can see it presents my spine in a much straighter angle.
I'm not able to curve my neck forwards cause it pulls my nose forward and my chin back and my belly button back. So here tilt and then
down over the golf ball. And I'm gonna suggest that if you stand on the first tee and do
that in front of your mates, you're probably going to get
the Mickey taken out of you. And they're going to have a
good laugh at your expense. So practice that enough
times that you do at home, that you start to understand
what it feels like. Then you can alter that technique, so when you stand to the golf ball, you could just tilt forward there. Feeling the same position without actually using the golf club. So once we've tilted forwards, we should feel a lot more engaged
rather than this position. If you ever watch a
start of a running race, you have the Ready, Set, Go position, the ready position the runners
are sort of in the blocks, but they're not really ready to run.
Then they have that set position where they come up onto the haunches, ready to drive off, then go is the bang. If I see a golfer in this position, that's ready, but there's no power here. The set position is that
position and then go, is pull the trigger, hit the golf ball. So make sure when you're
practicing your golf next time that you feel athletic, lively,
ready to pull the trigger. To make better golf swings
from a better posture position..