Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
Golfers often find that the challenges and complexities of the game of golf get far more difficult when they develop from learning the swing with one club than trying to learn to do it with every club in the bag. So we see golfers who are pretty proficient at standing on a driving range with a ball on the tee and a seven iron and clipping balls away with this swing that they've learned. The balls working quite nicely and then we introduce them to the pitching wedge or the driver suddenly things get a bit more complicated. and one of the key fundamentals that changes from what they were doing with the seven to the wedge in the drive is the ball position and some people get confused with us some people get complicated with us and it can cause inconsistencies particularly with the strike of the shot. So that you still exercise here to try and encourage you to make sure you not only find the right ball position but you keep it consistent I mean something quite large like an umbrella but you can just use another shaft or even a alignment stick or something like that but an umbrella works quite nicely for the cameras and a place that down pointing towards a camera and that's going to highlight where my ball position sits within my stance. So if I was taking a picture in wedge I would play that ball around about the center of my stance I've got a nice comfortable wide stance and the ball sits in the middle during my swing I'm going to be driving down and forward I'm going to have my body weight to the left as a right handed golf for my body to the left during the impact phase some taking it a divot in this area here to the left of the ball so the ball's in the middle I move forward.
I take it a divot to the left of that golf ball then if I change my club to a seven iron I'm going to play the ball in a very slightly different position this time I'm going to play it slightly more ahead of center so as a right handed golfer that's near to my left side near to my front like so you can see this time it's around about one third up towards my left side so in this position it's not in the center left of center that should encourage me again to move towards my left hand side like hit down and through the ball again taking a smaller there. It after the golf ball turning through to a big balance follow through position and one more change probably the biggest change and if you're not used to this probably one of the most awkward or uncomfortable feelings to start with would be to take a driver and to positions a long way off center to actually position it's almost touching that front heel positions he can see my front heel lines up with the umbrella which lines up with the ball then the club is longer some naturally going to stand further away from the ball as well having the ball this far forward in my stance if you have been used to playing everything middle or close to middle having it this far forward can feel quite awkward but the purpose of this the point of this is we're not trying to hit down on the golf ball anymore we're trying to hit more level or even sweep slightly up on the golf ball so as not to be sending blow like it would have been if the ball was in the center of the feet but it's left of center and we sweep up so this time it's a swing back to the low point happens just before impact and we actually sweep up into the ball so having the ball in three different positions creates three different angles of approach and angle of attack and that helps us get the best quality contact and therefore the best ball flight on those three different clubs.
2018-08-20 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
Golfers often find that the challenges and complexities of the game of golf get far more difficult when they develop from learning the swing with one club than trying to learn to do it with every club in the bag. So we see golfers who are pretty proficient at standing on a driving range with a ball on the tee and a seven iron and clipping balls away with this swing that they've learned. The balls working quite nicely and then we introduce them to the pitching wedge or the driver suddenly things get a bit more complicated. and one of the key fundamentals that changes from what they were doing with the seven to the wedge in the drive is the ball position and some people get confused with us some people get complicated with us and it can cause inconsistencies particularly with the strike of the shot. So that you still exercise here to try and encourage you to make sure you not only find the right ball position but you keep it consistent I mean something quite large like an umbrella but you can just use another shaft or even a alignment stick or something like that but an umbrella works quite nicely for the cameras and a place that down pointing towards a camera and that's going to highlight where my ball position sits within my stance. So if I was taking a picture in wedge I would play that ball around about the center of my stance I've got a nice comfortable wide stance and the ball sits in the middle during my swing I'm going to be driving down and forward I'm going to have my body weight to the left as a right handed golf for my body to the left during the impact phase some taking it a divot in this area here to the left of the ball so the ball's in the middle I move forward.
I take it a divot to the left of that golf ball then if I change my club to a seven iron I'm going to play the ball in a very slightly different position this time I'm going to play it slightly more ahead of center so as a right handed golfer that's near to my left side near to my front like so you can see this time it's around about one third up towards my left side so in this position it's not in the center left of center that should encourage me again to move towards my left hand side like hit down and through the ball again taking a smaller there. It after the golf ball turning through to a big balance follow through position and one more change probably the biggest change and if you're not used to this probably one of the most awkward or uncomfortable feelings to start with would be to take a driver and to positions a long way off center to actually position it's almost touching that front heel positions he can see my front heel lines up with the umbrella which lines up with the ball then the club is longer some naturally going to stand further away from the ball as well having the ball this far forward in my stance if you have been used to playing everything middle or close to middle having it this far forward can feel quite awkward but the purpose of this the point of this is we're not trying to hit down on the golf ball anymore we're trying to hit more level or even sweep slightly up on the golf ball so as not to be sending blow like it would have been if the ball was in the center of the feet but it's left of center and we sweep up so this time it's a swing back to the low point happens just before impact and we actually sweep up into the ball so having the ball in three different positions creates three different angles of approach and angle of attack and that helps us get the best quality contact and therefore the best ball flight on those three different clubs.
