7 Days to Better Golf: Day 1
In Golf, Posture is the Foundation fror Success
The author's experience beginning golf past 30 argues for minimal practice of specific actions and maximal playing. This installment: Proper Posture
Golf is a game of energy transfer - any questions about this, just watch the swings of Tiger Woods or John Daly , or for that matter any PGA Tour player - and one of the most valuable things I learned as I grew in the sport was how to transfer more of the potential energy built up via the golf swing to the ball. We’ve all marveled at the fact that a small-framed person with little muscle can hit a golf ball far longer than a heavily-muscled type who generates far more energy. The answer to this puzzle is of course that in these instances the slighter-built person transfers a much greater percentage of the potential energy developed in the awing than the stronger person does.
For an example, consider two players, one of slight build weighing 130 pounds and one well-conditioned weighing 200. For this mental exercise, we will use a force index of 100, where each unit of force transmitted to the ball propels it 4 yards of distance, In this scenario using a driver off the tee, on average our weaker player can generate 50 out of 100, but transfers 90% of that into the ball at impact, for a total of 180 yards. Our stronger player can generate far more force at 90 on the index, but only 35% of this energy is transmitted, and their ball will only travel an average of 126 yards.
This is the plight of those of us that take up the game as adults. Many of us come to golf as conditioned, strong athletic types, and we become discouraged by seeing people who, though we would be superior to them at other pastimes, dominate us on the course. I can empathize because that was the exact situation I found myself in when I took up this great game. After much frustration and without breaking 100 for 18, the light began to come on for me while playing a round as part of a foursome that included an 82 year old man and a petite woman. On almost every hole they not only were more accurate off the tee and with their approach shots, but at least 75% of their drives went farther than mine. Afterwards, I decided to mentally break down what they were doing that worked so much better for them. The common characteristic in their swings was obvious in retrospect – they both had picture-perfect address postures.
To that point, I had aligned myself to the ball in a way that seemed right, but now I know was incorrect. I would lean down toward the ball, as though there was an equation between my distance from the ball and my chances at hitting it harder. I realized later that this compensation came from the embarrassment I had experienced early on in my golf odyssey of whiffing tee balls at the start of a round in front of the usual first tee audiences. I had found a way to make contact, but in the process had given up hope of consistently hitting the ball well.
My bad shots during this time were fat – taking huge divots and getting high, short distance results. Once I realized the need to move my body back from the ball, the golf heavens opened up for me. The trajectory of my ball with metal clubs and irons lowered at least 15-20 degrees. My shots became “thin” – the added roll along with more energy transfer added 50-60 yards to my tee shots, and 20-30 to my irons, Fat shots almost immediately disappeared, and when they rarely returned it was excellent feedback that I had crept too close and my posture was slouching again.
But it wasn’t instantaneous – it took some work. The observation of my two playing partners from that round previously mentioned led me to develop a consistent posture at address. The practice technique I developed is one that any can do at home without using a golf club. Here’s how it worked for me. The first step in the process is to establish a true vertical relationship with gravity. Most of us go through our lives thinking we stand up straight, when we are actually tilted a few or even several degrees to the front. Now this isn’t abnormal for everyday life, but for a consistent golf swing this is a negative. I was able to “feel” my way into verticality by, in a standing position, placing my back against a wall, reaching up until I was at my limit, then finally pressing myself backward into the wall while letting my arms come down to my side. This is a true vertical posture, and it will feel alien to you, but persist by doing this multiple times until it becomes recognizable.
Step two requires that you hinge your knees, which will be vertical with the rest of your legs, slightly. The proper degree of hinge is reached naturally when your body seems to want to stop, like a stop on a gear. You will feel the top of your buttocks pressing firmly into the wall (a door works fine also) if you’ve started in a correct vertical position, and this is the feedback you are looking for – you are in an optimal posture to address the ball. Next, walk away with baby steps from your support, keeping your spine and knees in the same relationship, and take a practice swing. If it feels strange, you have been a victim of poor posture, and your brain is rebelling against what will become second nature to you if you persist with this change.
My prescription for this first day of seven days to improve your golf game is then the following sequence, performed for 20 repetitions: feeling your way into the vertical posture, followed by the slight knee hinge, then walking away with baby steps from your support as to maintain the posture. The repetition will create muscle memory of what a correct golf posture should feel like. This should be done without holding a club, the posture is the point today - the address will be our issue for the second day. Remember, the mantra of the approach that dramatically improved my game is “minimize practice, maximize play”, so these seven days will be the only “nose to the grindstone” phase of improving your game.
Next: Proper address position
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