Address posture dictates your shots
By Kim Jeong-kyoo
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Don’t hit your ball before you are sure your setup is correct. Your setup is the most important position in golf. Your shot hinges on how you address your ball. To repeat a fluid swing and hit great shots, you need a proper setup. When you polish or fine-tune your swing, you need to let your setup take precedence over your in-swing move.
To hit your ball consistently, you need to swing your club on the proper plane. Toward this end, you need to avoid a poor address position that forces you to lift your club incorrectly going back.
To prevent your head and upper body from bobbing during the swing, make sure you don’t hunch down over the ball. Failing to leave your spine straight at address, you are apt to lift your entire body mistakenly during your backswing.
To avert the faulty bob of your head and upper body, you need to find your neutral spine angle position. You need to know how much you should tilt your spine forward toward your ball at address. The forward tilt of your spine decides the forward angle of your upper body at address. This influences your arm swing and body turn.
Critically, you need to find a comfortable spine angle so you can preserve it throughout the swing. That way you can keep your address posture steady and rotate your body freely without lifting or dipping your body.
The forward tilt of your spine should vary from others’. You need to discover a spine angle you feel easy to hold. Your goal is keeping your posture constant during your entire swing, until well after your ball is in the air. Preserving your spine angle or your address posture ensures you hit your ball solidly on the sweet spot.
Incidentally, purge your head of the myth that golf swing is an up-and-down motion. Your golf swing is a circle. To swing your club right, you need to commit it to memory that your golf swing is circular. That will help you stop moving your body up and down during the swing.
Not less important than tilting your spine forward correctly is bending your knees properly. To use your lower body properly, you need to flex your knees enough.
Bending your legs too little at address, you will overuse your arms and upper body during the swing. That prevents your lower body from working properly on the downswing. That deprives you of every chance to use the ground properly. You will rarely be able to muster your power without using your legs and hips effectively.
Worse, you will yank your club down with your arms and hands from outside to inside the target line. Flailing your arms from outside to inside will inflict odious pulls or disgusting pull-hooks on you.
Succinctly, you need to discover your ideal address posture by trying out several spine angles and knee bends. You may realize you have to stand taller, or have more knee flex and spine tilt. An efficient, ideal address posture allows you to rotate your body freely and fully with the least physical stress on your body. More importantly, you will swing your club gracefully on the correct plane, hitting your ball far and accurately to your maximum.
Overall, just imagine you’re a baseball umpire squatting behind the catcher, and you will be in your ideal address posture. You will naturally take a half-sitting position to create the correct address posture. That way you will feel a slight, springy tension in the insides of your legs and the backs of your thighs. You will also feel a little tension in your waist. Critically, you will see the tip of each shoulder sitting an inch or two in front of your toe. Your hands will rest under your chin, with half the toe of your clubhead off the turf.
To make a fluid swing, you need to keep your upper body free of the tension that tightens your muscles. To this end, you need a proper, crouching posture, to say nothing of light grip pressure.
Remember your grip and address posture are the only parts you can control 100 percent. There is nothing you can control effectively once you start your swing. More important, you need to know your grip and address posture decide your shots.
Once you’ve addressed your ball properly, gently kick your right knee in toward your target to start your swing. You need to take your club back as a reflex of the light kick of your right knee. Complete your backswing so the butt of your grip points toward your ball. That ensures you swing your club back on the proper plane. Equally important is turning your body fully so your back faces your intended target or your left shoulder hits your chin.
Keep your head steady as you begin your downswing. Lunging forward in a faulty effort to hit hard, you will incur diverse poor shots including horrible pulls and slices. Then, pull the butt of your club handle toward your left thigh to whack your ball far and accurately to your satisfaction. That allows you to increase your swing speed to the full. Critically, that also helps you hit your ball square without your conscious effort.