Swing with Your Body’s Alignment, Not the Surroundings, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Swing with Your Body’s Alignment, Not the Surroundings, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often hear from golfers, that they struggle on one or two particular tee shots in each round. They have this bogey hole for every time they stand on that tee, they always hit the bad shot. And often that can actually be down to the alignment of the tee box. The fact that it might not be cut in exactly the same direction as they want to aim. Either the green keeper or the course architect has deliberately put the tee box off line, or maybe the fact that the prevailing wind or the shape of the hole, means that you don’t want to play exactly straight down the line of the tee box. Two main issues with this, when this can happen, firstly make sure you are lining up correctly, so pick a target in front, line up directly over the top of that.

The next thing is to make sure you then commit to your correct swing path, so standing over the golf ball, if I’ve got stripes, that the green keepers have cut on the ground, but they’re not in the direction I want to play, when I make my swing, my swing will often get sort of drawn into following the stripes. So you got to be really careful, you commit to your own routine and your own pattern that you swing in normal swing and you don’t get following the lines on the floor. Good little tip here, well maybe just to, make your practice swings looking at your target, just to reinforce in your mind, with the target is here, the target is not where the stripes on the grass hole of your tee box are pointing.

So I set up the golf ball, come away from it slightly, look down at my target line, I can see the flag and I am just making my swing, really emphasizing the fact that I am looking down the target line the whole time, keeping an eye on where I am aiming. Then as I hit the golf ball, I don’t get put off too much by the stripes and my swing doesn’t follow the stripes.

Another great way to practice that, with actually you could stand on the driving range, but don’t aim square to the mat, either turn the mat slightly or actually just pick a target that isn’t square to the edges, and all these square boxes now need to disappear, I need to stop looking at those edges and just practice hitting across those boxes and those lines and hopefully if you can utilize that practice drill on the driving range, when you get the misaligned tee box on the golf course, you’re alignment will be good, but also your swing path will be good and you can hit the ball straight, straight at your target, but not necessary straight with the mat or the tee box.

 2012-08-03

I often hear from golfers, that they struggle on one or two particular tee shots in each round. They have this bogey hole for every time they stand on that tee, they always hit the bad shot. And often that can actually be down to the alignment of the tee box. The fact that it might not be cut in exactly the same direction as they want to aim. Either the green keeper or the course architect has deliberately put the tee box off line, or maybe the fact that the prevailing wind or the shape of the hole, means that you don’t want to play exactly straight down the line of the tee box. Two main issues with this, when this can happen, firstly make sure you are lining up correctly, so pick a target in front, line up directly over the top of that.

The next thing is to make sure you then commit to your correct swing path, so standing over the golf ball, if I’ve got stripes, that the green keepers have cut on the ground, but they’re not in the direction I want to play, when I make my swing, my swing will often get sort of drawn into following the stripes. So you got to be really careful, you commit to your own routine and your own pattern that you swing in normal swing and you don’t get following the lines on the floor. Good little tip here, well maybe just to, make your practice swings looking at your target, just to reinforce in your mind, with the target is here, the target is not where the stripes on the grass hole of your tee box are pointing.

So I set up the golf ball, come away from it slightly, look down at my target line, I can see the flag and I am just making my swing, really emphasizing the fact that I am looking down the target line the whole time, keeping an eye on where I am aiming. Then as I hit the golf ball, I don’t get put off too much by the stripes and my swing doesn’t follow the stripes.

Another great way to practice that, with actually you could stand on the driving range, but don’t aim square to the mat, either turn the mat slightly or actually just pick a target that isn’t square to the edges, and all these square boxes now need to disappear, I need to stop looking at those edges and just practice hitting across those boxes and those lines and hopefully if you can utilize that practice drill on the driving range, when you get the misaligned tee box on the golf course, you’re alignment will be good, but also your swing path will be good and you can hit the ball straight, straight at your target, but not necessary straight with the mat or the tee box.