Making The Correct Adjustments For Golf Alignment (Video) - by Pete Styles
Making The Correct Adjustments For Golf Alignment (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now, if you’ve always wanted to hit the golf ball dead straight, it stands to reason you would always stand in that same dead straight position. If you wanted to hit the same height of shot, you’d always stand in the same position as well. But as golfers sometimes we don’t always want to hit the ball dead straight, we try and manipulate the ball a little bit and here is how changing your alignment can affect that. If we want to hit a fade for example as a right-handed golfer a fade will be a left to right flying shot. If I want to hit the ball left to right I’m actually going to encourage the golfer to stand open in my stance.

So I was hitting the shot, I’d stand open in my stance, so that stand – so I’m aiming down the left hand side that will encourage my swing to go left of the intended target as long as I have a clubface that’s open to that swing path, that ball is going to fade from left to right. Likewise if I was trying to draw the golf ball I would stand in the opposite position. I’d stand with my feet pointing down the right hand side effectively a closed stance as long as I swing along the line of my feet and I have the clubface aiming somewhat left of my swing path direction, the ball should draw, the ball should move from right to left. So changing the alignment of my stance can change the alignment of the shot by changing the alignment of swing path and the ball starts to draw or fade hopefully with some degree of regularity and consistency and control. The other issues that I could do with my stance and my setup, is I could have the ball further back in my stance if I wanted to hit the ball lower and I can have the ball slightly further forwards in my stance if I wanted to hit the ball higher. And again this all changes how the hands come into the ball, changes the amount of loft. So back in my stance is going to hit the ball down a bit more, slightly forwards in my stance is going to hit the ball up a little bit more. And the one last word of warning with both of those changes is to make subtle changes. This isn’t about making massive complete differences, where your swing feels very awkward when you make these changes. These should be subtle changes and also should be changes that you can experiment with so you can try moving your feet to the left just by degrees and then likewise moving to the right by degrees. You can move the ball back in your stance by a couple of rolls, move the ball forwards in your stance by a couple of rolls. And as long as everything else is kept even in your swing you should start to see some fairly big changes in terms of the curvature, but also the height that you hit the golf ball with. And that's how making those subtle changes can change the height and the shape of the golf ball shots. 2016-09-27

Now, if you’ve always wanted to hit the golf ball dead straight, it stands to reason you would always stand in that same dead straight position. If you wanted to hit the same height of shot, you’d always stand in the same position as well. But as golfers sometimes we don’t always want to hit the ball dead straight, we try and manipulate the ball a little bit and here is how changing your alignment can affect that. If we want to hit a fade for example as a right-handed golfer a fade will be a left to right flying shot. If I want to hit the ball left to right I’m actually going to encourage the golfer to stand open in my stance.

So I was hitting the shot, I’d stand open in my stance, so that stand – so I’m aiming down the left hand side that will encourage my swing to go left of the intended target as long as I have a clubface that’s open to that swing path, that ball is going to fade from left to right. Likewise if I was trying to draw the golf ball I would stand in the opposite position. I’d stand with my feet pointing down the right hand side effectively a closed stance as long as I swing along the line of my feet and I have the clubface aiming somewhat left of my swing path direction, the ball should draw, the ball should move from right to left.

So changing the alignment of my stance can change the alignment of the shot by changing the alignment of swing path and the ball starts to draw or fade hopefully with some degree of regularity and consistency and control. The other issues that I could do with my stance and my setup, is I could have the ball further back in my stance if I wanted to hit the ball lower and I can have the ball slightly further forwards in my stance if I wanted to hit the ball higher. And again this all changes how the hands come into the ball, changes the amount of loft. So back in my stance is going to hit the ball down a bit more, slightly forwards in my stance is going to hit the ball up a little bit more.

And the one last word of warning with both of those changes is to make subtle changes. This isn’t about making massive complete differences, where your swing feels very awkward when you make these changes. These should be subtle changes and also should be changes that you can experiment with so you can try moving your feet to the left just by degrees and then likewise moving to the right by degrees. You can move the ball back in your stance by a couple of rolls, move the ball forwards in your stance by a couple of rolls. And as long as everything else is kept even in your swing you should start to see some fairly big changes in terms of the curvature, but also the height that you hit the golf ball with. And that's how making those subtle changes can change the height and the shape of the golf ball shots.