Three Ways To Lose Your Golf Balance (Video) - by Pete Styles
Three Ways To Lose Your Golf Balance (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we’ve established that a golfer really needs to keep good rhythm and good balance during the swing, we can look at one of the major causes why golfers have – sometimes they have bad balance. And then there’s probably three main reasons for this. The first one I think, and I know we’re probably all familiar with this from time to time, is trying to hit the golf ball too hard and we’ll even see what with the best golfers on TV when they really go after a drive and try and nail it or they try and drag the ball out of the long heavy rough. They sometimes look a little bit out of balance so set up to the ball nice position and they really give it one – and they give it a bit of a spin around and the foot starts spinning on the ground and they sometimes fall off the ball. That really is not how we want to be swinging the golf ball. We want to swing the golf ball or the golf clubs so every time we hit it, we’re perfectly balanced, nailed, held until the golf ball lands. And that three or four seconds of holding your balance until the golf ball lands, is great opportunity for you to get some feedback from your body, “Did I do it in the right way? Did I hold my balance?” This is the classic case of somebody falling off balance that we see on a regular basis. They hit the ball, they fall over, and they pick the ball about the same – or pick the tee peg about the same time. They almost use the fact they’re off balanced as an excuse to go and pick the tee peg up and it becomes a habit that they always fall off balance. They always pick the tee peg up and then they start realizing how important balance is.

So I want you to next time you go on play or practice, hit the ball, hold your balance three or four seconds until the ball comes down, then go and pick the tee peg up. Hold your balance better. Other areas where you might be causing yourself bad balance would be swaying off the golf ball. So if from the set up position here, we'd find that in the backswing, there’s a swaying element. The body shifts too far to the right and now, my little toe on my right side, I’m going to struggle as I hit down on the golf ball to shift back to the center. So I’m going to cause myself problems by swaying too much. And one last area particularly with the shorter irons is golfers who try and help the ball up into the air. So they set up and then they try and lean back and scoop the ball up into the air, and in that respect the body weight is too much on the right leg. They’re trying to lift it up into the air and the body weight falls on to the back leg. We all know that from a good position, we should turn through to the balanced follow through and hold this position. So those three key elements, don’t try and hit it too hard, don’t sway to your right, don’t try and scoop the ball up in the air. If you do the opposite of all of those things, you’ll have much better balance. 2016-04-21

So if we’ve established that a golfer really needs to keep good rhythm and good balance during the swing, we can look at one of the major causes why golfers have – sometimes they have bad balance. And then there’s probably three main reasons for this. The first one I think, and I know we’re probably all familiar with this from time to time, is trying to hit the golf ball too hard and we’ll even see what with the best golfers on TV when they really go after a drive and try and nail it or they try and drag the ball out of the long heavy rough. They sometimes look a little bit out of balance so set up to the ball nice position and they really give it one – and they give it a bit of a spin around and the foot starts spinning on the ground and they sometimes fall off the ball. That really is not how we want to be swinging the golf ball. We want to swing the golf ball or the golf clubs so every time we hit it, we’re perfectly balanced, nailed, held until the golf ball lands. And that three or four seconds of holding your balance until the golf ball lands, is great opportunity for you to get some feedback from your body, “Did I do it in the right way? Did I hold my balance?” This is the classic case of somebody falling off balance that we see on a regular basis. They hit the ball, they fall over, and they pick the ball about the same – or pick the tee peg about the same time. They almost use the fact they’re off balanced as an excuse to go and pick the tee peg up and it becomes a habit that they always fall off balance. They always pick the tee peg up and then they start realizing how important balance is.

So I want you to next time you go on play or practice, hit the ball, hold your balance three or four seconds until the ball comes down, then go and pick the tee peg up. Hold your balance better. Other areas where you might be causing yourself bad balance would be swaying off the golf ball. So if from the set up position here, we'd find that in the backswing, there’s a swaying element. The body shifts too far to the right and now, my little toe on my right side, I’m going to struggle as I hit down on the golf ball to shift back to the center. So I’m going to cause myself problems by swaying too much.

And one last area particularly with the shorter irons is golfers who try and help the ball up into the air. So they set up and then they try and lean back and scoop the ball up into the air, and in that respect the body weight is too much on the right leg. They’re trying to lift it up into the air and the body weight falls on to the back leg. We all know that from a good position, we should turn through to the balanced follow through and hold this position. So those three key elements, don’t try and hit it too hard, don’t sway to your right, don’t try and scoop the ball up in the air. If you do the opposite of all of those things, you’ll have much better balance.