Proper Shoulder Alignment Can Keep Your Golf Swing On Track (Video) - by Pete Styles
Proper Shoulder Alignment Can Keep Your Golf Swing On Track (Video) - by Pete Styles

I’m sure that a majority of golfers are aware that golf is a target-related sport whether we're driving the ball, whether we're hitting iron shots onto greens, whether we're putting, we’re always aiming for a target. And I think most golfers are aware of that and they focus on their alignment, but maybe they don't focus on the right things with their alignment. If when you're setting up to the golf ball, you are very conscious of the direction that your feet are aiming. Well that’s a good start because your feet alignment is going to be quite important.

But we also need to consider the alignment of the rest of the body and particularly the alignment of the shoulders. We see a huge number of golfers that might have their feet in the right place, and then their shoulders misaligned to their feet. Probably the most common one for this is the feet aiming slightly to the right or at the target, but then their shoulders are aiming left of the target this way, shoulders pointing across the line of the toes. Now the problem with that is that it affects the swing and particularly it affects the start of the golf swing. So you can imagine that I’m setting up right of this red sign which is going to be my target line here. My feet are aiming right of that sign, but my body and my shoulder alignment is aiming left of that sign. Now clearly that's a bit of a mismatch that is going to cause me problems. But then one of the biggest issues is during my backswing, my shoulders are going to bring the club outside the effective line. So my shoulders are pointing left of the target. My backswing therefore would be picking the golf club up. Now that’s picking the golf club up in quite a steep fashion effectively swinging the club outside the line and very much adverse to where my toes and my feet are pointing. So it's very important when we think about alignment. Yes, we think about feet alignment, but then also we think about knees, hips and particularly shoulders. So through this next series of tips, we're going to look quite in-depth about your shoulder alignment in your addressed position. 2016-07-08

I’m sure that a majority of golfers are aware that golf is a target-related sport whether we're driving the ball, whether we're hitting iron shots onto greens, whether we're putting, we’re always aiming for a target. And I think most golfers are aware of that and they focus on their alignment, but maybe they don't focus on the right things with their alignment. If when you're setting up to the golf ball, you are very conscious of the direction that your feet are aiming. Well that’s a good start because your feet alignment is going to be quite important.

But we also need to consider the alignment of the rest of the body and particularly the alignment of the shoulders. We see a huge number of golfers that might have their feet in the right place, and then their shoulders misaligned to their feet. Probably the most common one for this is the feet aiming slightly to the right or at the target, but then their shoulders are aiming left of the target this way, shoulders pointing across the line of the toes. Now the problem with that is that it affects the swing and particularly it affects the start of the golf swing.

So you can imagine that I’m setting up right of this red sign which is going to be my target line here. My feet are aiming right of that sign, but my body and my shoulder alignment is aiming left of that sign. Now clearly that's a bit of a mismatch that is going to cause me problems. But then one of the biggest issues is during my backswing, my shoulders are going to bring the club outside the effective line. So my shoulders are pointing left of the target. My backswing therefore would be picking the golf club up. Now that’s picking the golf club up in quite a steep fashion effectively swinging the club outside the line and very much adverse to where my toes and my feet are pointing.

So it's very important when we think about alignment. Yes, we think about feet alignment, but then also we think about knees, hips and particularly shoulders. So through this next series of tips, we're going to look quite in-depth about your shoulder alignment in your addressed position.