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

When it comes to creating the right spine position in the golf swing, the position of your back in the golf swing, we sometimes get a bit confused between spine angle and spine tilt, and there are slightly different connotations on the same area really. A spine angle is generally going to be this angle here. So the forward angle that we have away from the head, so away from the vertical line. And we want the spine to be nice and straight and angled forwards. But spine tilt refers to the lateral bending of the spine that we sometimes need to see more or less depending on the particular shot we've got.

So imagine that I've got a jacket on with a zip right the way up the front. And wherever that zip goes, that's effectively going to show you my spine angle – sorry my spine tilt. Now with a normal sort of standing position, I'm standing up nice and straight. My shoulder is at a nice level. I'm probably going to find that my spine tilt is vertical, is not really tilting either side. But as soon as we make a golf grip, we notice that the right hand is lower down on the grip than the left of the right-handed golfer. So immediately we have this offset position in the shoulders. We therefore should have an offset position in the spine tilt. The tilt is slightly away from the intended target. So my right hand is lower than my left. My shoulders are level. My spine starts to tilt backwards and that's a positive thing. We definitely don't want to try and fight that and get the shoulders level. Because to get the shoulders level, we actually end up with the shoulders pointing way left of target. A lot of golfers would therefore come over the top. So having the spine tilt away from target is good. Now that gets much bigger when we take a driver. So if I have a driver, then my ball position should be more forwards. My handle of the golf club will be more forwards. My right shoulder will be lower, and certainly my spine tilt is not quite aggressive. It's quite a big lean back away from the target. And then counter that by taking a very short club, maybe a pitching wedge or sand wedge ball in the center of my stance, gripping. But also leaning the body weight on to the left side, maybe 60% forwards to create the downward strike to get the ball popped up in the air with a nice bit of spin. As we would encourage you to do for a pitching shot, we would be on the left side. So now my spine tilt might actually be towards the target or certainly more vertical. Pitching with the body weight and tilt it back here with my spine angle definitely isn't going to be a successful recipe for good shots. So tilting the spine slightly forwards for the short irons, slightly backwards for the mid irons, and quite a long way backwards for the driver ball position. That's quite an interesting way of looking at spine tilt and how it moves throughout the golf swing. 2015-07-15

When it comes to creating the right spine position in the golf swing, the position of your back in the golf swing, we sometimes get a bit confused between spine angle and spine tilt, and there are slightly different connotations on the same area really. A spine angle is generally going to be this angle here. So the forward angle that we have away from the head, so away from the vertical line. And we want the spine to be nice and straight and angled forwards. But spine tilt refers to the lateral bending of the spine that we sometimes need to see more or less depending on the particular shot we've got.

So imagine that I've got a jacket on with a zip right the way up the front. And wherever that zip goes, that's effectively going to show you my spine angle – sorry my spine tilt. Now with a normal sort of standing position, I'm standing up nice and straight. My shoulder is at a nice level. I'm probably going to find that my spine tilt is vertical, is not really tilting either side. But as soon as we make a golf grip, we notice that the right hand is lower down on the grip than the left of the right-handed golfer.

So immediately we have this offset position in the shoulders. We therefore should have an offset position in the spine tilt. The tilt is slightly away from the intended target. So my right hand is lower than my left. My shoulders are level. My spine starts to tilt backwards and that's a positive thing. We definitely don't want to try and fight that and get the shoulders level. Because to get the shoulders level, we actually end up with the shoulders pointing way left of target. A lot of golfers would therefore come over the top.

So having the spine tilt away from target is good. Now that gets much bigger when we take a driver. So if I have a driver, then my ball position should be more forwards. My handle of the golf club will be more forwards. My right shoulder will be lower, and certainly my spine tilt is not quite aggressive. It's quite a big lean back away from the target. And then counter that by taking a very short club, maybe a pitching wedge or sand wedge ball in the center of my stance, gripping.

But also leaning the body weight on to the left side, maybe 60% forwards to create the downward strike to get the ball popped up in the air with a nice bit of spin. As we would encourage you to do for a pitching shot, we would be on the left side. So now my spine tilt might actually be towards the target or certainly more vertical. Pitching with the body weight and tilt it back here with my spine angle definitely isn't going to be a successful recipe for good shots.

So tilting the spine slightly forwards for the short irons, slightly backwards for the mid irons, and quite a long way backwards for the driver ball position. That's quite an interesting way of looking at spine tilt and how it moves throughout the golf swing.