I've been getting the feeling lately that my posture is too erect for irons. Is there a way to determine the appropriate spine angle for various clubs?

I'm no expert...but just make sure your comfortable when you set up and you can make a descent turn. If your comfortable you won't fight your swing.

Regards,
Tyler

I read a tip about holding your club horizontal to the ground straight out in front of you and then bending your upper body (spine) till the club is soled on the ground. That would be the spine angle for that particular club.

I tried that and with some of my shorter irons, it seems like a very steep spine angle. I feel like I'm bent right over the ball. The problem with golf is that what you think you're doing is very different what you're actually doing. Maybe this steep spine is correct and I'm just not used to it. Maybe with time, I'll get used to it. But before I go down that road, I want to know if the approach that I just listed works.

Study and analyze a variety of tour players...



Look at the relationships between spine angle and the angle of the shaft intersecting the spine angle...



Start there...

mikpga, what I've noticed is that the upper body (spine angle) is often perpendicular to the club shaft angle. That means that the method that I listed would work perfectly. However, when I read articles in magazines and instruction books on the setup, I never read about matching your body's spine angle to the lie angle of the club. They always talk about one common angle. Therein lies my confusion.

Anyone else got any advice? Is the method that I posted acceptable?

rosskoss, on Feb 12 2007, 07:08 PM, said:

I've seen the method used on some of David Ledbetter's DVD's. I think spine angle is more of a function of other parts of your setup i.e. how far away you are from the ball, where you position the ball in your stance, etc. Once you determine those factors your spine angle more or less falls into place. What just as important if not more so is MAINTAINING your spine angle throught your backswing and downswing.

I heard once that a bunch of tour pros were measured and most fell between 35-40 degrees of spine tilt.

jlww3

watch a video of kevin sutherland's swing and go by that

Are you loosing your balance? A balanced stance can indicate a good spine angle.

 Angles2.JPG (37.07K)
: 7

Angles? You want angles? Above are what I consider to be three contrasting styles of angles at setup. The top two frames are from some video of Aaron Baddeley hitting a wedge and a driver; the middle two are of Ben Crane hitting a short iron and a driver; and the bottom two are of Zach Johnson hitting a short iron and a driver Shown are the spine angle (1); the angle formed between the forearms and the shaft (2); the angle formed between the shaft and the spine (3); and the angle formed between the spine and the arms (4).

Since the different clubs are different lengths we have to change one or more of the angles at setup to accomodate for the differences. We can:

1. Use the Baddeley method: keep the forearm angle (2), arm angle (4) and shaft/spine angle (3) consistent and vary the spine angle (1) for every club. Notice his shaft/spine angle isn't 90* (I haven't found a pro yet that is, but there probably are a few that have the right combination of height/spine angle/arm length).

2. Use the Crane method: keep the spine angle (1) and forearm angle (2) consistent and vary the arm angle (4) and shaft/spine angle (3).

3. Use the Johnson method: keep the spine angle (1) and arm angle (4) consistent and vary the forearm angle (2) and shaft/spine angle (3).

I'm not sure which method is best for various swing styles. I personally use the Crane method; I like to keep my spine angle and forearm angle consistent and vary how far my hands are from my body. I've set up my alignment aid so that my ball positions for the various clubs fit this model.

Grounding the whole sole will help I think. I'm a tall guy, and I had problem w/ raising the heel of the club, which affected my posture too. By grounding the whole sole of the club, I'm sure I'm standing to the club the way I'm supposed to, rather than making the club adjust to me.