Position Your Back Foot for Better Golf Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Position Your Back Foot for Better Golf Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, in the process of building a good stance, you'll often hear people talk or even write about the positioning of your feet. We'll look at the width of the feet, we might even look at the direction of your feet, your alignment. One thing that's very often missed out and some golfers get this wrong is the actual angle and position of your feet when you setup to the golf ball whether you're penguin toed or whether you're turned in.

Now, a few golfers or few people when they walk down the street have a natural gait, have a little bit open with their feet walking with their feet pointing outside of it. Pádraig Harrington is a golfer, he's probably one of the famous for doing this kind of wobbles down the fairway with his feet pointing out sideways.

It's quite important that when we set up to the golf ball, we don't do this position with the feet pointing too far out sideways because actually when you look at your knees, your knees now point outs sideways. So, as you turn into your right side, your knee has a tendency to sway away to the right hand side likewise a bit through to the left. Now, what we actually need to do is coil into this right side or this rear foot, try and generate some power by turning in to the foot. So, it's quite important your rear foot is facing perpendicular to both the target lines, so it's facing 90 degrees basically straight forward.

Now, your left foot can play ever so slightly and I'll explain that in a second. But as you turn into your right side, you want to wind up against your right knee keeping a lot of pressure on the inside of your rear foot turning into the right hip. If the foot was open, it's a lot more difficult to do that. So, fill out the right foot turns in and you coil against that rear foot but then the left foot, the front foot can open out slightly so that as you turn through that left side, you can actually release onto the outside of your left foot generating power.

If this foot was turned in too much, you would almost feel like you are resisting the follow through action and stopping yourself releasing it full speed. So, Ben Hogan classically talked about how if you chopped a golfer off at his knees, you should be able to see which way he was playing just by looking at the angle of his feet, back foot facing straightforward, front foot opened out a little bit.

So, if you can try and approach the ball with that in your setup, a nice wide stance but also look at the alignment of your feet, then look at the angle and positioning of your feet and avoid the penguin footed position, square at the rear foot, open up the left foot and hopefully that will generate an awful lot more power and balance for you in your golf swing.

 2012-05-30

So, in the process of building a good stance, you'll often hear people talk or even write about the positioning of your feet. We'll look at the width of the feet, we might even look at the direction of your feet, your alignment. One thing that's very often missed out and some golfers get this wrong is the actual angle and position of your feet when you setup to the golf ball whether you're penguin toed or whether you're turned in.

Now, a few golfers or few people when they walk down the street have a natural gait, have a little bit open with their feet walking with their feet pointing outside of it. Pádraig Harrington is a golfer, he's probably one of the famous for doing this kind of wobbles down the fairway with his feet pointing out sideways.

It's quite important that when we set up to the golf ball, we don't do this position with the feet pointing too far out sideways because actually when you look at your knees, your knees now point outs sideways. So, as you turn into your right side, your knee has a tendency to sway away to the right hand side likewise a bit through to the left. Now, what we actually need to do is coil into this right side or this rear foot, try and generate some power by turning in to the foot. So, it's quite important your rear foot is facing perpendicular to both the target lines, so it's facing 90 degrees basically straight forward.

Now, your left foot can play ever so slightly and I'll explain that in a second. But as you turn into your right side, you want to wind up against your right knee keeping a lot of pressure on the inside of your rear foot turning into the right hip. If the foot was open, it's a lot more difficult to do that. So, fill out the right foot turns in and you coil against that rear foot but then the left foot, the front foot can open out slightly so that as you turn through that left side, you can actually release onto the outside of your left foot generating power.

If this foot was turned in too much, you would almost feel like you are resisting the follow through action and stopping yourself releasing it full speed. So, Ben Hogan classically talked about how if you chopped a golfer off at his knees, you should be able to see which way he was playing just by looking at the angle of his feet, back foot facing straightforward, front foot opened out a little bit.

So, if you can try and approach the ball with that in your setup, a nice wide stance but also look at the alignment of your feet, then look at the angle and positioning of your feet and avoid the penguin footed position, square at the rear foot, open up the left foot and hopefully that will generate an awful lot more power and balance for you in your golf swing.