Set Up Your Golf Shot: Athletic Golf Swing Begins with Setup (Video) - by Pete Styles
Set Up Your Golf Shot: Athletic Golf Swing Begins with Setup (Video) - by Pete Styles

Does athletic golf swing begins with setup? Now a lot of people I talked to tell me that golf is an old men’s game, and golf isn’t really a sport, it’s more of a past time or a hobby. Well, that’s obviously nonsense, you and I know that. Golf is a proper sport; it’s a very athletic movement. And to have an athletic movement, we need to have a nice athletic address position, particularly when you’re trying to hit the golf ball a long way, and trying to generate a lot of power. So, the next time you take your address position, get yourself in a good start position over the golf ball here. We want a good, wide correct stance, at least shoulder width apart. We want to feel the body weight nicely pressed on to the inside of the feet here. We don’t want the feet sort of rocking on to the outside, that’s not very athletic, so, nicely on the instep. A good bit of knee flex, just a little softness in the knees not sitting on the golf ball, but likewise not straight legged and locked out, a little flex here.

And now make sure that you’ve got a nice athletic spine angle and posture as well. One of the biggest killers of power in a golf swing is a poor posture position at setup, we often see this position at setup which, okay, it might be the right distance away from the ball, and I've got my feet in the right position, but my body position is changed completely. A good way of checking that you’ve got a nice athletic posture position is bring the golf club up to belly button height, so it sits right up at your belly button. Pull your shoulders back and down and stand tall, feel like you’re standing to attention. And then purely tilt with your hips, and tilt forwards, until the club lands on the floor, tiny knee flex, and that should have you in a good, athletic posture position.

Now, I stressed the hips. There’s a big difference between your hips and your waist. If you take this stance here, and then bend at the waist, that happens. And you collapse here, because you haven’t worked here, and you have to bend through your spine because of that. So a good athletic posture position is nice, with the feet, nice knee flex, and then good hip bend. Sit at the hips, bend forwards there, rather than bending at the waist. And hopefully when you achieve that, you feel a lot more powerful in your address position, to wind it up, and release that power through the swing. Get your set up right, and that’s real fundamental for the rest of your golf swing to build on.

 2012-05-23

Does athletic golf swing begins with setup? Now a lot of people I talked to tell me that golf is an old men’s game, and golf isn’t really a sport, it’s more of a past time or a hobby. Well, that’s obviously nonsense, you and I know that. Golf is a proper sport; it’s a very athletic movement. And to have an athletic movement, we need to have a nice athletic address position, particularly when you’re trying to hit the golf ball a long way, and trying to generate a lot of power. So, the next time you take your address position, get yourself in a good start position over the golf ball here. We want a good, wide correct stance, at least shoulder width apart. We want to feel the body weight nicely pressed on to the inside of the feet here. We don’t want the feet sort of rocking on to the outside, that’s not very athletic, so, nicely on the instep. A good bit of knee flex, just a little softness in the knees not sitting on the golf ball, but likewise not straight legged and locked out, a little flex here.

And now make sure that you’ve got a nice athletic spine angle and posture as well. One of the biggest killers of power in a golf swing is a poor posture position at setup, we often see this position at setup which, okay, it might be the right distance away from the ball, and I've got my feet in the right position, but my body position is changed completely. A good way of checking that you’ve got a nice athletic posture position is bring the golf club up to belly button height, so it sits right up at your belly button. Pull your shoulders back and down and stand tall, feel like you’re standing to attention. And then purely tilt with your hips, and tilt forwards, until the club lands on the floor, tiny knee flex, and that should have you in a good, athletic posture position.

Now, I stressed the hips. There’s a big difference between your hips and your waist. If you take this stance here, and then bend at the waist, that happens. And you collapse here, because you haven’t worked here, and you have to bend through your spine because of that. So a good athletic posture position is nice, with the feet, nice knee flex, and then good hip bend. Sit at the hips, bend forwards there, rather than bending at the waist. And hopefully when you achieve that, you feel a lot more powerful in your address position, to wind it up, and release that power through the swing. Get your set up right, and that’s real fundamental for the rest of your golf swing to build on.