Use Shoulder Alignment To Control The Golf Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles
Use Shoulder Alignment To Control The Golf Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles

So in the previous videos, hopefully we’ve established how important shoulder alignment is certainly in controlling your golf shots in terms of the direction. Now we know that bad shoulder alignment would ultimately cause bad golf shots. But what about I suggested to you that we could use your shoulder alignment to actually create the certain type of shape? And if that shape was usable to you, that could be quite valuable. So if we could change your shoulder alignment to deliberately draw or fade the ball that sounds like it could be quite important.

So let's investigate how that can happen. We understand that draws and fades are caused by a swing path and on the club face differential. So where the path of the club is traveling in one direction and the face is not aiming exactly the same direction, we're going to create spin on the golf ball. And it’s going to be a spin that can change into a draw or a fade shot. So if I set up to the golf ball and I’m aiming down towards this red sign that’s on the ground in front of me, my shoulder should be nice and square to my feet alignment. That's probably the best chance of hitting the ball straight. But if I wanted to draw the golf ball, what I’d need to do is have a swing path that is more to the right-hand side and the clubface that's aiming more left than the path. So to achieve that, a swing path going more to the right if I deliberately close my shoulders at setup and have my shoulders aiming more to the right, I’m going to initiate a swing that swings more from the inside more to the outside. And have a swing path that is in a good position to help me hit the draw. Now as long as the club face is aiming more left than the path, the ball should move from right to left in the air. Now if you wanted to consider how you could fade the golf ball, it stands to reason that it’s the opposite and you would correct in thinking that. You'd set up with your feet aiming at your target, but you'd have your shoulders open to your feet line. So your shoulders would aim more down the left-hand side. That would have a golf club therefore traveling outside the line, a little bit steeper effectively in the backswing, steeper in the downswing, swinging more left across the golf ball. And as long as the club face is slightly to the right of that swing path, we're going to get a ball that moves from left to right in the air as well which for the right-handed golfer is going to be a fade. Now we could increase and decrease the amount of curvature by changing the amount of difference in our shoulders and our feet alignment. So we get a very aggressive shoulder alignment to the right, we should see a lot of curve. And we get an aggressive shoulder alignment to the left we should see a lot of fade spin. Now it’s going to take a little bit of experimentation on this one because you do have to marry and match the clubface to the right amount of curvature that you want. But initially if you want to consider how you can change the shape of the golf shots by using your shoulder alignment, consider that closing and opening your shoulders is a great way of creating draw and fade spin. 2016-07-08

So in the previous videos, hopefully we’ve established how important shoulder alignment is certainly in controlling your golf shots in terms of the direction. Now we know that bad shoulder alignment would ultimately cause bad golf shots. But what about I suggested to you that we could use your shoulder alignment to actually create the certain type of shape? And if that shape was usable to you, that could be quite valuable. So if we could change your shoulder alignment to deliberately draw or fade the ball that sounds like it could be quite important.

So let's investigate how that can happen. We understand that draws and fades are caused by a swing path and on the club face differential. So where the path of the club is traveling in one direction and the face is not aiming exactly the same direction, we're going to create spin on the golf ball. And it’s going to be a spin that can change into a draw or a fade shot. So if I set up to the golf ball and I’m aiming down towards this red sign that’s on the ground in front of me, my shoulder should be nice and square to my feet alignment.

That's probably the best chance of hitting the ball straight. But if I wanted to draw the golf ball, what I’d need to do is have a swing path that is more to the right-hand side and the clubface that's aiming more left than the path. So to achieve that, a swing path going more to the right if I deliberately close my shoulders at setup and have my shoulders aiming more to the right, I’m going to initiate a swing that swings more from the inside more to the outside. And have a swing path that is in a good position to help me hit the draw.

Now as long as the club face is aiming more left than the path, the ball should move from right to left in the air. Now if you wanted to consider how you could fade the golf ball, it stands to reason that it’s the opposite and you would correct in thinking that. You'd set up with your feet aiming at your target, but you'd have your shoulders open to your feet line. So your shoulders would aim more down the left-hand side. That would have a golf club therefore traveling outside the line, a little bit steeper effectively in the backswing, steeper in the downswing, swinging more left across the golf ball.

And as long as the club face is slightly to the right of that swing path, we're going to get a ball that moves from left to right in the air as well which for the right-handed golfer is going to be a fade. Now we could increase and decrease the amount of curvature by changing the amount of difference in our shoulders and our feet alignment. So we get a very aggressive shoulder alignment to the right, we should see a lot of curve. And we get an aggressive shoulder alignment to the left we should see a lot of fade spin.

Now it’s going to take a little bit of experimentation on this one because you do have to marry and match the clubface to the right amount of curvature that you want. But initially if you want to consider how you can change the shape of the golf shots by using your shoulder alignment, consider that closing and opening your shoulders is a great way of creating draw and fade spin.