Golf Spine Angle, What It Means And How Can It Help My Swing? (Video) - by Natalie Adams
Golf Spine Angle, What It Means And How Can It Help My Swing? (Video) - by Natalie Adams

What is meant by spine angle and how can it help my golf game? Well spine angle really is looking at what’s called your golf posture. And what we’re looking at here is the angle that you set your spine at in your address position, this is very, very influential as how you're then going to actually subsequently swing the club around you. And your spine angle is crucial because if you set your spine angle too vertically and too upright, you will tend to swing the club because you're setting the shaft quite vertically, you will set time to swing the club quite upright and really use your arms a lot and you won't be able to turn your shoulders particularly well.

So you will have issues generating power and also hitting straight shots because it will become very difficult to swing the club head directly along the target line. If you set your spine angle too far forward again, you will set the club lower to the ground, and this angle now means that you will swing the club much lower and much fatter around you than you would if you were standing at a more upright angle. And again that’s going to make you arc the club head away from the target line rather than swing it down the target line and as you approach the ball you will be swinging from the inside of the target line and you will find it very difficult to swing the club head directly down the target line to hit a straight shot. So its rally important that spine angle is set correctly because it massively affects how you swing the golf club. So the correct way to set your spine angle if we take an alignment pole, just place this pole down the back of your shirt because what we want to do with your spine angle is create a very straight line from the back of your head, down through the shoulders and then all the way down the spine to the hips. So once you have your alignment pole set down the back of your shirt, just tuck into the top of your trousers or your belt and place your head back on that pole, and that will now get you in a very upright position and what we want to do is tilt that position forward so it’s stilting forward from the hips, keeping the back of the head, the shoulders and the spine nice and straight, we’re tilting forward from the hips and then just softening the knees. And we’re tilting forward into a position where the arms are d now going to dangle under the shoulders in a very nice relaxed lose position and that’s a great position to then hit from. If we haven't tilted forward enough, the arms will be out from the body, and because the arms are out from the body and the hands are higher than they would be if we were set correctly, we’ll set the shaft of the club much more vertically giving us a more right swing. If we don’t have the straight line and we try to curve from the shoulders you will really feel that with this drill because you will feel your collar that you're starting to tug your collar. So that’s the time to realize you're not keeping the straight line, you’re dropping your head rather than tilting forward. So if you work on that practice drill with your alignment pole and get in the feel for the correct posture and the correct spine angle you should find that you swing your golf club a lot better and get much better results when you’re out on the golf course. 2014-07-30

What is meant by spine angle and how can it help my golf game? Well spine angle really is looking at what’s called your golf posture. And what we’re looking at here is the angle that you set your spine at in your address position, this is very, very influential as how you're then going to actually subsequently swing the club around you. And your spine angle is crucial because if you set your spine angle too vertically and too upright, you will tend to swing the club because you're setting the shaft quite vertically, you will set time to swing the club quite upright and really use your arms a lot and you won't be able to turn your shoulders particularly well.

So you will have issues generating power and also hitting straight shots because it will become very difficult to swing the club head directly along the target line. If you set your spine angle too far forward again, you will set the club lower to the ground, and this angle now means that you will swing the club much lower and much fatter around you than you would if you were standing at a more upright angle. And again that’s going to make you arc the club head away from the target line rather than swing it down the target line and as you approach the ball you will be swinging from the inside of the target line and you will find it very difficult to swing the club head directly down the target line to hit a straight shot. So its rally important that spine angle is set correctly because it massively affects how you swing the golf club.

So the correct way to set your spine angle if we take an alignment pole, just place this pole down the back of your shirt because what we want to do with your spine angle is create a very straight line from the back of your head, down through the shoulders and then all the way down the spine to the hips. So once you have your alignment pole set down the back of your shirt, just tuck into the top of your trousers or your belt and place your head back on that pole, and that will now get you in a very upright position and what we want to do is tilt that position forward so it’s stilting forward from the hips, keeping the back of the head, the shoulders and the spine nice and straight, we’re tilting forward from the hips and then just softening the knees. And we’re tilting forward into a position where the arms are d now going to dangle under the shoulders in a very nice relaxed lose position and that’s a great position to then hit from.

If we haven't tilted forward enough, the arms will be out from the body, and because the arms are out from the body and the hands are higher than they would be if we were set correctly, we’ll set the shaft of the club much more vertically giving us a more right swing. If we don’t have the straight line and we try to curve from the shoulders you will really feel that with this drill because you will feel your collar that you're starting to tug your collar. So that’s the time to realize you're not keeping the straight line, you’re dropping your head rather than tilting forward.

So if you work on that practice drill with your alignment pole and get in the feel for the correct posture and the correct spine angle you should find that you swing your golf club a lot better and get much better results when you’re out on the golf course.