Introductory Thoughts To Your Golf Posture
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Direction Steps:
- Go to your wall station
- Stand at attention with feet shoulder width apart AND firm like a wooden soldier.
- Left arm straight out from your breast bone with thumb up
- Reach right hand out and grab your left thumb
- Drop arms until your triceps rest on front curve of your ribs
- Keeping back and neck "straight" bend at your hip joints (do not lower your eyes or chin to help this bend at your hips. Try bending a little and various angles to about 45 degrees.)
- Bend at your knees until you feel muscles above your knee working to prevent you from falling (like getting ready to sit on a chair)
- Put hands on opposite shoulders in this golf posture
- Firm your body in your new postion
- Go to a mirror (prefer full length or a reflection at a window)
- Repeat the direction steps above
- Study your golf posture – body, limbs, and head
- Stand sideways to the mirror
- Study your golf posture – body, limbs, and head (this is important)
- Stand with your other side to the mirror and study posture
Do not hesitate to take a minute at least once a day to study your golf posture at a mirror. This is how you will FEEL at each golf shot. This is how you will look if someone is helping you or teaching you. This puts you "in the know" of how you are setting your posture everytime you swing or practice swing at a golf ball.
A repeat of goals:
- Learn to make 2 turns in control that are correct for the golf swing.
- Learn to focus on the total sensation of movement through the 2 turns.
- Learn 1 initial thought to trigger the turn away from the ball.
- Learn some responses in your body as the result of your turn away in posture.
- Learn how a controlled turn prepares you for a powerful turn back to the ball.
- Learn the FEELING of where your body should finish in the takeaway turn in posture.
Why The Wall? I Already Learned How To Turn.
You MUST make a precise start to your takeaway turn in your golf posture. There are distractions coming which will cause you to make poor turns. Getting this correct in this lesson is only part of learning a great takeaway turn.
You WILL be practicing this move AT A WALL for as long as you play golf.
A Life Task Connection
Most of you will have used something to shovel snow or dirt out of hole or onto a wagon as examples. You use a posture to prevent back injury. You then do repeated turning motions scooping and throwing the dirt/snow sideways to where it is to go. Your basic movements involve turning in place. You can pretend to have a shovel and try these shoveling motions in your home.
Review Of 2 Critical Points Of Your Spine – Now In Golf Posture Training
There are 2 critical points along your spine which are vital to know. It is around them where so much of your golf swing occurs. Your golf swing is "made" or "lost" at these 2 points. However, what you do in other parts of your body will cause or affect correct or wrong movements at these 2 points.
It is important for you to know this early in your training because all that I teach you involves maintaining your best efforts to execute perfect movements at these 2 points. (More on this in coming posts.)
Take notice of the curvature of your spine.
(When you read or hear the instruction to "stand up straight" or "keep your back straight" this curved position you see in the mirror IS your "straight". You will learn how this curvature affects your golf swing efforts in a future post.)
Your last thought just before you start your takeaway move of a golf shot:
I now FEEL comfortable in my golf posture and I am ready to make 2 perfect turns.
Keep in mind that you can ruin your golf swing within the first inch of your takeaway movement. Making the first move precise will get your backswing off to a successful start.
A very important awareness of your spine shape is discussed in the next lesson. It may be controversial to you. Please read it for the benefit of others who may need to know.
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