Better Golf, The Balanced Approach (Video) - by Pete Styles
Better Golf, The Balanced Approach (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, watching any sportsman or anybody doing an athletic performance, you will often see that the ones that make it look easy are the people who have the best balance. That is certainly true in golfers as well. We always say, “He’s got a lovely, rhythmical, smooth balanced finished.” Now, if you don’t feel that you can adapt a balanced finish of your own game, here’s a little exercise that should help you because remember that good balance is good consistent golf swings as well.

So, if you start by having your feet put in together, there is not much balance here. There is no base. There is no stability. So, keeping your feet close together, just have some little practice swings there and feel how your natural movement from right to left is slightly unbalanced, but the more you do this swing, the more you should feel like you can balance.

Now, you can start introducing the golf ball to this drill as well. Feet nice and close together, a few little practice swings then back through clipping the ball and holding your finish. It is quite important that you hold this section and you don’t tip forward or backward. Once you have established that routine, you can do that fairly consistently with maybe a dozen or so shots. You could start to just put a little bit more width back in the feet, another few shots and then back out a little bit wider.

By the time you get back up to your wide stance, you should feel that now you can shift your body weight nicely without the risk of toppling forward or backward, without the risk of becoming off balanced. If when you get to the golf range or to the golf course the next day and you feel unbalanced again, just repeat that routine. Start off nice and narrow and then piece by piece widen your feet out. Each time you get to this position, you should start to feel balanced.

Then on the course for better golf, I’d like you to work on the principle of holding this position all the time that ball is in the air until it lands. When it lands, just check, “I'm over my front foot. My right foot here isn’t taking much weight. My hips and my chest are facing the target, and I can stay still.” Anytime when you’re in this position but you are falling over either way that is not a good sign. So for better golf, I’d like to be able to hit the ball nice and smoothly, hold your finish until it lands, hopefully better balance and at least more consistent golf shots.

 2012-05-10

So, watching any sportsman or anybody doing an athletic performance, you will often see that the ones that make it look easy are the people who have the best balance. That is certainly true in golfers as well. We always say, “He’s got a lovely, rhythmical, smooth balanced finished.” Now, if you don’t feel that you can adapt a balanced finish of your own game, here’s a little exercise that should help you because remember that good balance is good consistent golf swings as well.

So, if you start by having your feet put in together, there is not much balance here. There is no base. There is no stability. So, keeping your feet close together, just have some little practice swings there and feel how your natural movement from right to left is slightly unbalanced, but the more you do this swing, the more you should feel like you can balance.

Now, you can start introducing the golf ball to this drill as well. Feet nice and close together, a few little practice swings then back through clipping the ball and holding your finish. It is quite important that you hold this section and you don’t tip forward or backward. Once you have established that routine, you can do that fairly consistently with maybe a dozen or so shots. You could start to just put a little bit more width back in the feet, another few shots and then back out a little bit wider.

By the time you get back up to your wide stance, you should feel that now you can shift your body weight nicely without the risk of toppling forward or backward, without the risk of becoming off balanced. If when you get to the golf range or to the golf course the next day and you feel unbalanced again, just repeat that routine. Start off nice and narrow and then piece by piece widen your feet out. Each time you get to this position, you should start to feel balanced.

Then on the course for better golf, I’d like you to work on the principle of holding this position all the time that ball is in the air until it lands. When it lands, just check, “I'm over my front foot. My right foot here isn’t taking much weight. My hips and my chest are facing the target, and I can stay still.” Anytime when you’re in this position but you are falling over either way that is not a good sign. So for better golf, I’d like to be able to hit the ball nice and smoothly, hold your finish until it lands, hopefully better balance and at least more consistent golf shots.