Instruction
Posture: The key to good swing dynamics
If I had to choose, I would say that the grip is the most important fundamental in golf. I say that because the grip controls the club face, which controls the direction of the shot. And the direction of the shot is what golfers react to during the swing. So the swings golfers end up with are often the result of their ball flight. That being said, a good grip will not by itself result solid golf shots.
A solid strike on the center of the face with a good angle of attack is crucial to hitting good golf shots, and striking the ball in this fashion is often the result of good posture. Posture is sometimes a forgotten fundamental, even with good players, so let’s take the time and make sure you’re setting up to the ball properly.
Posture is critical because the golf ball rests on the ground, so to reach it we need to bend forward. This might sound simple, but it’s where many golfers go astray. They bend forward from their waist or their knees. Neither of these positions allow the freedom of motion or stability to make a good swing.
The correct way to bend is from the hips. The hips are not far from the waist, but the difference is huge in providing a platform to swing. You’ll notice that the buttocks jut out when you bend from the hips, but not if you simply bend from the waist. This is a key position to maintain balance and retain your axis tilt (or forward bend) in the golf swing. It’s a core-related movement, much like many other physical motions. When the core is engaged and the bend is from the hips, we end up with the “straight back” look you see on the professional tours. Waist bend creates the rounded back look I see too often at driving ranges.
This golfer has too much knee bend and very little bending at the waist.
On the other hand, players with excessive knee bend have little or no angle at the hips. This posture can be very effective in a greenside bunker, but it’s rarely effective on full shots.
We all start at address a certain measured distance from the golf ball: We are X feet above the ball and X feet beside the ball. The only way this distance can be maintained is by keeping the posture we started with, assuming that posture is correct at address. I think of posture as a balance between the upper and lower body. If we bend from the hips, we need to offset that bend by extending the rear end or we would simply be too top heavy. There’s a balance there. That’s why bending from the waist is dangerous, because we don’t always have the counterbalancing move of extending the rear end. Great players start with the weight on the balls of the feet. The correct balance between the upper and lower body maintains that distribution of weight.
Proprioception is a fancy word for keeping your balance. It is the body’s awareness of its relationship to space and other body parts (think of when you were learning how to ride a bike). Everything we do, from walking down the street to swinging a golf club, is based on one simple principle: keep your balance, don’t fall over! Golf is particularly unique in that it is a game played with the golf ball on the ground. So we have to bend over to reach it, and for the 2 seconds or so of the swing we have to stay in balance. Let’s look at how a poor swinging motion is often the result of poor posture.
When the bend is excessively from the knees, the weight is often too much on the heels. This allows the club to work to IN and flat on the backswing (try making an upright swing with the weight back on the heels, you can’t even see the ball). Then, as a recovery motion, the player is forced out and over in the downswing. MOST “in and over” moves I see start with too much weight sitting too far back on the heels.
This golfer has too much bend from the waist.
Conversely, with the too much bend at the waist, the arm hang can be in too close to the body forcing the club up and outside with the weight too much on the toes. This leads to an attempt to drop the club back under, and an early extension of the lower body toward the ball. “Humping” is what I call it.
It is clear that posture at address can START an incorrect motion from where the golfer is constantly trying to recover throughout the swing. Remember, everything the lower body does must be counterbalanced by the upper body and vice versa. That is why getting the weight over the balls of the feet at address is so critical. I personally think big feet are good for golf!
Here’s a drill that can help you maintain your posture throughout the swing. Click on the images to enlarge them.
- Set your rear up against an aim stick placed in the ground behind you.
- Try making some easy swing with the right cheek brushing it in the backswing and the left cheek bruising it in the downswing and follow through.
- If you can do this, there’s a good chance you kept your spine angle throughout the motion.
See the lower body MUST stay under the torso to keep balance and create a consistent attack angle. You will see very few great players “humping the ball,” and almost none of them backing up from the ball. Of course there are exceptions, but every one of them can be explained.
For example, Phil Mickelson pulls his upper body WAY back from the ball and thrusts his left leg and hand path well forward into the ball. News item: None of us are Phil. I teach many of my professionals to actually feel like the hips and rear end push farther back against the aim stick in the downswing to keep the torso stacked over the lower body. If you’re toe-hitting, hooking or drop-kicking shots, there’s a good chance your upper body has backed away from the ball coming down.
There is much more to be said, but the best way to observe your posture throughout the swing is through seeing it on video. It takes discipline, because the correct posture is not comfortable at first, but once you get into it and maintain it throughout the shot the center face contact is well worth the effort.
As always, send a video to my Facebook page and I’ll take a look.
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Instruction
How a towel can fix your golf swing
This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.
For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.
Setup
You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.
While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.
Get a Better Shoulder Turn
Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.
In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.
Stay Better Connected in the Backswing
When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.
Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.
Conclusion
I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.
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Instruction
Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks
You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!
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Pingback: Good Golf Swing Posture | Golf Swing Tips
Eric
Aug 6, 2014 at 11:52 pm
Dennis, great article! Posture is definitely one of the most important factors in playing consistent golf. It is crazy how a little tilt here or a little bend there can change so many different flaws.
Dennis Clark
Aug 7, 2014 at 10:49 am
You got my idea perfectly. A little goes a LONG way when it comes to posture. Ot grip or ball position of course, but when hitting solid shots is the goal, posture rules.
leftright
Aug 6, 2014 at 10:44 pm
Grip? Tell that to Furyk, Tiger, Johnson, Fowler, Johnny Miller in his prime, Palmer, Trevino, Hogan, Fiori just to name a few with grips that would make a teacher cry. To weak, too strong, double overlap, interlock or overlap, overlap or interlock, baseball grip, reverse crosshanded (the senior guy from the 80’s). The only thing that is important is the 12 inches from right before impact and after impact, the rest makes no difference. I think the takeaway is more important than the grip in most cases and the transition is by far the most important. No one that could ever play well had a bad transition, it was always fluid.
Dennis Clark
Aug 6, 2014 at 11:25 pm
Every one of those great players you mentioned had a GREAT GRIP. For them. Cross handed. Triple overlap it matters not even a little. The purpose of the grip is to square the face and they all squared it at a world class level. They learned to match their grip to THEIR swing. If I haven’t heard of a player there’s a good chance they have NOT matched the grip to the swing. But grip remains the connection to the golf club that ultimately squares the face. Take a great transition, takeaway, pre impact position with a grip that doesn’t match it and you have a handicap. I have 4 students playing for a living who all have slightly different grips and they can shoot 68 in a heartbeat. Conversely take Ernie Els beautiful tempo with a bad grip, and we would never have heard of him. Every time I make a change in someone’s motion I have to be sure the grip is compatible with it. That’s the glue that holds it all together. There is no such as THE grip. Just a compatible one. Thx for reading.
Andrew
Aug 5, 2014 at 8:08 pm
Dennis, Thanks, for the posting. How do you find your waist not your hips when bending? I suspect they are very close to each other. Do you push back the hip bones?
Andrew
Dennis Clark
Aug 5, 2014 at 9:06 pm
Andrew
That’s a great question. It is a subtle distinction but an important one. Stand up tall with straight legs. Now stick your butt out and you’ll feel the core engage a bit, and some pressure in the L3/L4 spine area. Then simply “unlock” your legs. Usually a straight back is the difference.
Andrew
Aug 6, 2014 at 12:59 pm
Thanks, Dennis. I’ve been doing it wrong for 30 yrs…bend the knees and then bend from the hips. Can’t wait to try it out. Andrew
Dennis Clark
Aug 5, 2014 at 6:43 pm
I often see the down swing a reaction to a poor backswing, but the backswing error often stems from poor posture. More common than is known.
Golfraven
Aug 5, 2014 at 4:36 pm
Not sure why you guys stand in deep grass with drivers but guess this is to get the contrast in the picture.
Dennis Clark
Aug 5, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Zak and Andrew were kind enough to “demonstrate” postures for my articles. The point is posture is so underrated in golf. We know bad posture when we see it, but don’t fully comprehend the effects on the swing. Thx for reading
Lefty Light Hitter
Aug 5, 2014 at 3:44 pm
I use a chair and get great results when I put it behind me. Keep one in the car and hit balls with it there everyday. It is amazing how much it has helped my day to day contact.
Dennis Clark
Aug 5, 2014 at 6:42 pm
Yea, chair, bag stand, even the golf bag itself, anything that let’s you swing your arms. Thx
Dan
Aug 5, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Always One of my worst faults, can be hard to notice as it creeps in. Especially for taller golfers. I keep telling my kids “Stick that hiney out”………They are 6 so they just laugh!!!!!!!