Should You Be Behind The Ball At Impact With The Golf Driver (Video) - by Peter Finch
Should You Be Behind The Ball At Impact With The Golf Driver (Video) - by Peter Finch

When you are hitting your tee shots, should you be behind the ball at impact, and what does that actually mean? So I've got the tee kind of set up here, and I've got this alignment stick just to demonstrate what actually staying behind the ball means as far as your tee shots are concerned. Now when you're getting set up with the driver, what you really want to be seeing is that ball position just inside the left heel. So when you are getting set up, it's just finding that left a little bit. Maybe taking a tiny, tiny step but then taking a big step with the right foot off to the right-hand side.

Now as you can see here what this has done, this has brought the ball in line of my left heel, but it’s also brought the ball pretty much in line with the left side of my chest. Now when people talk about staying behind the ball, they're either referring to the head position or the chest position, the sternum position or the swing center. And that's really what I like to kind of phrase as the swing center and that's what I like to kind of explain is what staying behind the ball actually means. It's keeping the swing center behind the ball. So this setup straight away moves my swing center behind the ball and puts the ball position further forward in my stance. Now the reason the swing center is important is the swing center represents your swing arc. So if you imagine a circle around my body, my chest and my swing center is at the middle of that circle, and that circle moves around that point. Now if my swing center moves ahead of the ball, my circle will start to come on a descending angle into the point of impact. And that's why you want to be seeing your chest more over the ball with your short iron shots. Is because you want to be hitting the ball first and then the turf, and your swing arc is hitting on a descending angle of attack. Now if you're getting set up and your swing center is behind the ball, what this means is that you're able to come down into impact, and hit the ball on the up. Now this has nothing to do with weight transfer which you still want to be doing. You still want to be moving your weight into your left foot as you actually swing. You still want to be turning your hips through the ball. But if you can manage to keep your swing center behind the shot, it’s going to allow you to hit the ball on the up. Now when you are hitting the ball on the up with the driver that's very, very important because it allows you to get a higher launch. It allows you to keep the spin a lot lower. So you can get that high launch, low spin drive. So when it actually lands, it will continue to roll out. And it will also allow you to maybe move a little bit more from an inside position whilst not getting too steep. So there’s lots of different benefits of actually staying behind the ball with the driver. And hopefully that explains a little bit more why you need to be doing it yourself. 2016-06-07

When you are hitting your tee shots, should you be behind the ball at impact, and what does that actually mean? So I've got the tee kind of set up here, and I've got this alignment stick just to demonstrate what actually staying behind the ball means as far as your tee shots are concerned. Now when you're getting set up with the driver, what you really want to be seeing is that ball position just inside the left heel. So when you are getting set up, it's just finding that left a little bit. Maybe taking a tiny, tiny step but then taking a big step with the right foot off to the right-hand side.

Now as you can see here what this has done, this has brought the ball in line of my left heel, but it’s also brought the ball pretty much in line with the left side of my chest. Now when people talk about staying behind the ball, they're either referring to the head position or the chest position, the sternum position or the swing center. And that's really what I like to kind of phrase as the swing center and that's what I like to kind of explain is what staying behind the ball actually means. It's keeping the swing center behind the ball.

So this setup straight away moves my swing center behind the ball and puts the ball position further forward in my stance. Now the reason the swing center is important is the swing center represents your swing arc. So if you imagine a circle around my body, my chest and my swing center is at the middle of that circle, and that circle moves around that point. Now if my swing center moves ahead of the ball, my circle will start to come on a descending angle into the point of impact. And that's why you want to be seeing your chest more over the ball with your short iron shots.

Is because you want to be hitting the ball first and then the turf, and your swing arc is hitting on a descending angle of attack. Now if you're getting set up and your swing center is behind the ball, what this means is that you're able to come down into impact, and hit the ball on the up. Now this has nothing to do with weight transfer which you still want to be doing. You still want to be moving your weight into your left foot as you actually swing. You still want to be turning your hips through the ball. But if you can manage to keep your swing center behind the shot, it’s going to allow you to hit the ball on the up.

Now when you are hitting the ball on the up with the driver that's very, very important because it allows you to get a higher launch. It allows you to keep the spin a lot lower. So you can get that high launch, low spin drive. So when it actually lands, it will continue to roll out. And it will also allow you to maybe move a little bit more from an inside position whilst not getting too steep. So there’s lots of different benefits of actually staying behind the ball with the driver. And hopefully that explains a little bit more why you need to be doing it yourself.