The Function Of The Spine Tilt In The Correct Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Function Of The Spine Tilt In The Correct Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think for a lot of golfers you should be aware now about how important the setup to the golf ball is. Certainly if you’ve watched any more of my videos, you'll appreciate I'm constantly repeating how important my good address position is. Simply because it's the fundamentals of your swing and any mistake that you make in setup is probably going to be a mistake that you therefore carry the rest of your entire swing. So during the setup position, we talk about posture. Now posture I would refer to as the sort of angle of tilting the spine forwards in this position. So pushing the hips out, leaning forward, trying to create a nice straight spine angle from this angle.

But actually we can add another phraseology into this, another wording which is going to be spine tilt. Now spine tilt we generally want to view from the front arm. Now spine tilt is going to be how your spine looks in the vertical axis. So generally when we stand up straight as we're walking down the street, our spine is going to be vertical head to toe in a straight line. But actually in a golf swing very rarely would your spine be completely vertical. The issue here is actually when you look at your grip; your hands aren’t level on the club. So if my hands were level, my spine could be straight up. But because in a golf swing I have my trail hand lower to the right and my lead hand high to the left for the right-handed golfer. My left hand is high, my right hand is low. So therefore I have a tilt in my shoulders which translates to a spine tilt. So as I set up to the golf ball here if you can imagine I had a jacket on with a zip that ran all the way down to the bottom to my navel here, you'd see that my shoulders tilt from one side to the other. Therefore that zip would tilt slightly backwards. Now the issue with this is it's not going to be the same amount of tilt for every golfer. And it's certainly not going to be the same amount of tilt for every golf club. So if I have a ball that’s more forwards in my stance like a driver would be, my right hand is effectively going to sit more to the right. My right shoulder sits more to the right. My spine tilt would sit a lot more to the right. And then I add about 10% extra bodyweight to my right leg. I've now got quite an aggressive spine tilt. Conversely if I take that back the other way, push the ball further back in my stance for a wedge, lean on to my lead side, my left side. I am going to try and hit down on the ball, bring my hands in front of the ball a little bit more. My shoulders get more level. My spine gets more level and potentially just starts to lean slightly into the left-hand side. It’s difficult to lean at left, but it's going to feel like I'm leaning left with my spine tilt here and leaning right with my spine tilt here. So the easiest way for you to check this is initially start with a mirror where my camera is or a camera. But a mirror is going to work great right where my camera is, looking at yourself from front on and just see whether your spine tilts the correct way as you move through the different clubs. For a lot of golfers they tend to fight this. They want to keep their shoulders level. They want to keep their spine straight up because that's how we stand if we’re walking down the street. But in reality, our spine angle should tilt. It's quite important to create the right swing path, swing trajectory and approach to the ball to hit the best golf shots. 2016-07-08

I think for a lot of golfers you should be aware now about how important the setup to the golf ball is. Certainly if you’ve watched any more of my videos, you'll appreciate I'm constantly repeating how important my good address position is. Simply because it's the fundamentals of your swing and any mistake that you make in setup is probably going to be a mistake that you therefore carry the rest of your entire swing. So during the setup position, we talk about posture. Now posture I would refer to as the sort of angle of tilting the spine forwards in this position. So pushing the hips out, leaning forward, trying to create a nice straight spine angle from this angle.

But actually we can add another phraseology into this, another wording which is going to be spine tilt. Now spine tilt we generally want to view from the front arm. Now spine tilt is going to be how your spine looks in the vertical axis. So generally when we stand up straight as we're walking down the street, our spine is going to be vertical head to toe in a straight line. But actually in a golf swing very rarely would your spine be completely vertical. The issue here is actually when you look at your grip; your hands aren’t level on the club. So if my hands were level, my spine could be straight up.

But because in a golf swing I have my trail hand lower to the right and my lead hand high to the left for the right-handed golfer. My left hand is high, my right hand is low. So therefore I have a tilt in my shoulders which translates to a spine tilt. So as I set up to the golf ball here if you can imagine I had a jacket on with a zip that ran all the way down to the bottom to my navel here, you'd see that my shoulders tilt from one side to the other. Therefore that zip would tilt slightly backwards. Now the issue with this is it's not going to be the same amount of tilt for every golfer. And it's certainly not going to be the same amount of tilt for every golf club.

So if I have a ball that’s more forwards in my stance like a driver would be, my right hand is effectively going to sit more to the right. My right shoulder sits more to the right. My spine tilt would sit a lot more to the right. And then I add about 10% extra bodyweight to my right leg. I've now got quite an aggressive spine tilt. Conversely if I take that back the other way, push the ball further back in my stance for a wedge, lean on to my lead side, my left side. I am going to try and hit down on the ball, bring my hands in front of the ball a little bit more. My shoulders get more level.

My spine gets more level and potentially just starts to lean slightly into the left-hand side. It’s difficult to lean at left, but it's going to feel like I'm leaning left with my spine tilt here and leaning right with my spine tilt here. So the easiest way for you to check this is initially start with a mirror where my camera is or a camera. But a mirror is going to work great right where my camera is, looking at yourself from front on and just see whether your spine tilts the correct way as you move through the different clubs. For a lot of golfers they tend to fight this. They want to keep their shoulders level.

They want to keep their spine straight up because that's how we stand if we’re walking down the street. But in reality, our spine angle should tilt. It's quite important to create the right swing path, swing trajectory and approach to the ball to hit the best golf shots.