Start Your Golf Swing From A Stable Base (Video) - by Pete Styles
Start Your Golf Swing From A Stable Base (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, we've established that the importance of the legs and the role they play in the golf swing is fundamentally important to what happens in the top half. The foundations of the swing need to be strong so that the top half of the swing needs to be strong. The next thing we can consider is exactly what these legs should look like and how they should react. Now, we know within a bag of clubs we've got lots of different clubs, lots of different shots that we've got to try and hit. But what happens down here needs to be fairly consistent throughout the whole bag and throughout the whole setup.

The first thing to consider would be the width of the stance. Now generally speaking, the width of the stance for any full swing should be just slightly wider than your shoulders. Imagine building a pyramid. You have a wider bottom and a narrower top. If we built the pyramid upside down with a narrow bottom, then the chances are the pyramid is going to tip over and fall over, so the same thing here, a nice wide platform base. As a good way of checking you can actually take a golf club, hold it to one shoulder, bring it across to your other shoulder, and nip it there. Now that’s the width of your shoulders, bring that down. And that should just be the inside of your feet. So your feet are wider than your shoulders. The next thing to consider would be the correct amount of knee flex or knee bend. So when I’m setting up to the golf ball from down the line, you can see that I definitely don't have my legs locked. I wouldn't necessarily consider I’ve got my legs bent either. I’d consider my legs are more flexed. And as I flex into this position, what I can feel is the upper muscles in the upper leg just start to engage slightly. You know when they’re locked, there's nothing switched on here and I can't really react with my legs from this position. There I just start to feel my legs engage and that's a good position. Here, my legs are too tight, they're too bent; that's not a good position either. So, I want to engage those muscles and a great way of just getting the sensation of engaging those muscles is imagine that you're just about to bounce; you’re just about to jump up. So I get myself set and I feel like I’m just about to bounce. All the feeling like you just landed, so you jump and you land and you get that position. So when you land, you don't bend all the way down and when you land, you certainly don’t land on locked legs. That's pretty uncomfortable. You land with that little flex. That's the position we want you to be in ready to hit the golf ball. So as if you’re just about to jump up or if you're just about to land, you've got that nice little flex in that wide stance. That's a great position for your correct stable base for the start of your golf swing. 2016-04-21

So, we've established that the importance of the legs and the role they play in the golf swing is fundamentally important to what happens in the top half. The foundations of the swing need to be strong so that the top half of the swing needs to be strong. The next thing we can consider is exactly what these legs should look like and how they should react. Now, we know within a bag of clubs we've got lots of different clubs, lots of different shots that we've got to try and hit. But what happens down here needs to be fairly consistent throughout the whole bag and throughout the whole setup.

The first thing to consider would be the width of the stance. Now generally speaking, the width of the stance for any full swing should be just slightly wider than your shoulders. Imagine building a pyramid. You have a wider bottom and a narrower top. If we built the pyramid upside down with a narrow bottom, then the chances are the pyramid is going to tip over and fall over, so the same thing here, a nice wide platform base. As a good way of checking you can actually take a golf club, hold it to one shoulder, bring it across to your other shoulder, and nip it there. Now that’s the width of your shoulders, bring that down. And that should just be the inside of your feet. So your feet are wider than your shoulders.

The next thing to consider would be the correct amount of knee flex or knee bend. So when I’m setting up to the golf ball from down the line, you can see that I definitely don't have my legs locked. I wouldn't necessarily consider I’ve got my legs bent either. I’d consider my legs are more flexed. And as I flex into this position, what I can feel is the upper muscles in the upper leg just start to engage slightly. You know when they’re locked, there's nothing switched on here and I can't really react with my legs from this position. There I just start to feel my legs engage and that's a good position. Here, my legs are too tight, they're too bent; that's not a good position either. So, I want to engage those muscles and a great way of just getting the sensation of engaging those muscles is imagine that you're just about to bounce; you’re just about to jump up. So I get myself set and I feel like I’m just about to bounce. All the feeling like you just landed, so you jump and you land and you get that position. So when you land, you don't bend all the way down and when you land, you certainly don’t land on locked legs. That's pretty uncomfortable. You land with that little flex. That's the position we want you to be in ready to hit the golf ball. So as if you’re just about to jump up or if you're just about to land, you've got that nice little flex in that wide stance. That's a great position for your correct stable base for the start of your golf swing.