Golf Tips The Golf Swing Golf Spine Angle Drills (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Tips The Golf Swing Golf Spine Angle Drills (Video) - by Pete Styles

For a lot of golfers achieving the correct spine angle in the setup position shouldn't be that difficult a task. Now we've built ourselves a nice setup position, we’ve pushed the hip back, we've created some good posture and we've created a good spine angle. But that's only half the battle, because that for actually to maintain that spine angle, to maintain that posture during the golf swing for a lot of golfers is far harder. So we see a lot of golfers start in this position and hit the golf ball in a very different position, and actually probably not hit the golf ball from some of those positions as well.

The classic thing for a lot of beginners when they start to play the golf ball – sorry start to play golf is topping the golf ball or even missing the golf ball when they hit straight over the top. The issues there, a lot of the playing partners are going to tell them is lifting you had, classic case, yeah, yeah, you lifted your head, you lifted your head. So the golfer focuses on trying to keep his head and particularly his chin down. But actually the head doesn't want to move up on its own, the head is a byproduct of the spine angle lifting. So if we've got a good spine angle to start with, but then during the swing the spine angle rises that's forcing the head up. Now we often see golfers trying to keep their heads down as the spine angle rises and they end up just looking very hunched. They have been told to keep this down, but the spine angle is still lifted up. And the real big problem here is early extension. So we've got good angulation here in the hips, early extension is rising up here too early. We should rise up at the end of the swing as you follow through, but not before. So a couple of little exercises that you could do to try and alleviate that early extension, alleviate that loss of spine angle and the effective lifting of your head the – your playing partners have been telling you about. Now if I can imagine that where that camera is there is a mirror or a glass door or something that I can see myself and I can setup. So I'm facing it, I'm just going to make some practice swings here. So I swing back and I swing through. And as I come through to this position, I should still see there's quite a big amount of spine angle tilt. I'm leaning forward towards the golf ball quite a long way. I wouldn't want to have seen myself pop out immediately. So I'm going to swing through and see that angle. Then I can stand up to a finish. But it's just making sure I don't early extend. Now, another exercise that you could sort of imagine to feel that same process is imagine that there would be a line in front of my knees here like a picket fence. And I put my arms over the other side of the picket fence. And as I make my swing, I want to make sure that my knees don't bump into the picket fence because that would be me standing up. So it would be here and then standing up during my swing, meaning I'm going to top the golf ball. Another great exercise that I like to do here I'm just going to grab a chair. So I can take a chair and I can actually put that behind me and feel like I just sit on to the top of the chair there. I've set myself up and I can make some practice swings feeling like my bum cheek stay up against the chair. And that therefore keeps my chest, my spine angle and my head in position. It would be very difficult to lift the head up without actually pulling away from the chair with the early extension. So it seems strange that sitting on a chair there will actually affect my head and my chest position. But believe me, it does and I can feel like I want to stay down touching the back of the chair. I can then move away and make some proper swings. And I'm going to stay down a lot longer rather than swinging here and standing up too soon. So any of those little practice exercises, any of those little drills will really help you have a good understanding of maintaining your good spine angle through the ball, which should alleviate any issues with lifting the head up too soon, topping the golf ball too much, or any of those general problems that are associated with early extension. 2015-07-15

For a lot of golfers achieving the correct spine angle in the setup position shouldn't be that difficult a task. Now we've built ourselves a nice setup position, we’ve pushed the hip back, we've created some good posture and we've created a good spine angle. But that's only half the battle, because that for actually to maintain that spine angle, to maintain that posture during the golf swing for a lot of golfers is far harder. So we see a lot of golfers start in this position and hit the golf ball in a very different position, and actually probably not hit the golf ball from some of those positions as well.

The classic thing for a lot of beginners when they start to play the golf ball – sorry start to play golf is topping the golf ball or even missing the golf ball when they hit straight over the top. The issues there, a lot of the playing partners are going to tell them is lifting you had, classic case, yeah, yeah, you lifted your head, you lifted your head. So the golfer focuses on trying to keep his head and particularly his chin down. But actually the head doesn't want to move up on its own, the head is a byproduct of the spine angle lifting.

So if we've got a good spine angle to start with, but then during the swing the spine angle rises that's forcing the head up. Now we often see golfers trying to keep their heads down as the spine angle rises and they end up just looking very hunched. They have been told to keep this down, but the spine angle is still lifted up. And the real big problem here is early extension. So we've got good angulation here in the hips, early extension is rising up here too early. We should rise up at the end of the swing as you follow through, but not before.

So a couple of little exercises that you could do to try and alleviate that early extension, alleviate that loss of spine angle and the effective lifting of your head the – your playing partners have been telling you about. Now if I can imagine that where that camera is there is a mirror or a glass door or something that I can see myself and I can setup. So I'm facing it, I'm just going to make some practice swings here. So I swing back and I swing through. And as I come through to this position, I should still see there's quite a big amount of spine angle tilt.

I'm leaning forward towards the golf ball quite a long way. I wouldn't want to have seen myself pop out immediately. So I'm going to swing through and see that angle. Then I can stand up to a finish. But it's just making sure I don't early extend. Now, another exercise that you could sort of imagine to feel that same process is imagine that there would be a line in front of my knees here like a picket fence. And I put my arms over the other side of the picket fence. And as I make my swing, I want to make sure that my knees don't bump into the picket fence because that would be me standing up.

So it would be here and then standing up during my swing, meaning I'm going to top the golf ball. Another great exercise that I like to do here I'm just going to grab a chair. So I can take a chair and I can actually put that behind me and feel like I just sit on to the top of the chair there. I've set myself up and I can make some practice swings feeling like my bum cheek stay up against the chair. And that therefore keeps my chest, my spine angle and my head in position. It would be very difficult to lift the head up without actually pulling away from the chair with the early extension.

So it seems strange that sitting on a chair there will actually affect my head and my chest position. But believe me, it does and I can feel like I want to stay down touching the back of the chair. I can then move away and make some proper swings. And I'm going to stay down a lot longer rather than swinging here and standing up too soon. So any of those little practice exercises, any of those little drills will really help you have a good understanding of maintaining your good spine angle through the ball, which should alleviate any issues with lifting the head up too soon, topping the golf ball too much, or any of those general problems that are associated with early extension.