Good posture is the most important part of the golf swing and here is a really simple golf posture drills to maintain good posture, which will protect the back and help strike the golf ball more consistently.
Having good posture prevents injury to the spine as a golfer can spin through a golf ball at upwards of 100 miles an hour. The stresses on the back at this speed are great and so the back, ideally, needs to be as straight as possible at set up, and through the swing, to minimise the pressure on the spine, and to let the muscles around the spine support it correctly.
Good posture gives the golfer a good angle around which the arc of the swing occurs. This means that the club head will swing in a rough circle, dictated by the spine angle of the golfer. Therefore, the maintenance of a solid spine angle allows the golfer to make great rotation and a repeatable swing, allowing consistent and solid ball striking.
Most golfers will use their smaller muscles in their arms and hands to lift the club to the top of the backswing. This is a very weak position and often leads to the golfer’s posture and spine angle to rise upwards with the club and the hands as it is lifted to the top of the swing. At this point, the golfer is now higher than when he or she started the swing. There are two things that tend to happen at this point. One is to turn through the ball and hit the top of the golf ball, as the golfer swings the club head back to the ball, higher than the initial start position. The second is to drop the posture back down in the downswing, sometimes too much, causing the ground to be hit first before the ball as the club head is now lower than the initial start position.
What should occur is that the big muscles in the shoulders and hips are used to turn around a spine angle that is solid through the whole swing. This removes any up or down motion and will give a consistent ball strike as the club head is returned to the golf ball at the same height at impact as it was at set up.
For this golf posture drills, take two tour sticks and lay one on the ground, parallel to the target line to set the feet, knees, hips and shoulders in correct alignment with the target. Take the second tour stick and stand it in the ground, pointing vertically upwards, positioned directly behind where the golf stance will be taken.
When setting up to the golf ball, make sure that at set up, the backside, the bottom of the spine, is touching the stick that is standing vertically upwards behind the stance.
When swinging the golf club, the aim is to keep the backside touching the tour stick throughout the shot until the finish position where the body will come forward to stand straight up. If the backside is not touching the stick at any point, the spine angle is changing through the swing. Therefore, there will be a gain or loss of height at some point. Doing this exercise maintains good posture and removes any up or down motion, allowing the ball to be struck much more consistently.
