Please put your fault awareness on high alert, this is important and will only take a couple of minutes. Your golf posture is probably somewhere on a scale between poor and awful. Sorry to be so blunt but you needed to hear it. I say this because I have been coaching now for over twenty years; in that time the percentage of players who have arrived for instruction with correct athletic posture would be less than five percent.

So only one in twenty players comes into our studio with better than poor posture, and that statistic includes elite player. This area of the set up, is by far the most neglected, yet a mirror and a golf club can show you in seconds how to set up properly. Saving you many euros in golf balls and a golf lesson with me.
If you would be kind enough to go and get a golf club your phone and ask somebody to take a photo of your address position, preferably from the exact angle of the photo alongside this article. Then please compare.
I wouldn’t mind betting that the two pictures look totally different. I’m not talking about what is happening in the front of your body (especially with Christmas coming!) it’s the profile your spine is making. That’s where the magic happens in the golf swing.
Seriously, please get a photo taken, because we are about to play a game of spot the difference. Let’s start with the two most important areas which promote a great environment for rotating the upper body and hips. If you can draw a straight line from the bottom of the spine to the top of the shoulders with the back of your head almost on that line, well done you, you’re in the top five percent of golfers who come into our studio.
If you see a huge curve in the spine with your eyes/face looking straight at the ball - that’s really bad. You have no space between the chin and the chest for the shoulders to fit between. Even if they could, the front of your rib cage is so compressed all your body will want to do, when your shoulders start rotating, is lift up and create space. This is the classic ‘head raise’ seen in most backswings of amateurs with poor posture.
Let’s get you standing up to the ball properly, firstly by getting that golf club and putting the head of the club above your head and the grip near the bottom of your spine. What we want to create is three points of contact between spine and the club. Namely at the back of the head, shoulders and the bottom of the spine. The spine is now at its longest with the rib cage at its largest.
Now tilt the spine from your hips, not your waist, maintaining the three points of contact. You, at this stage will be saying, “Seriously!” Unfortunately, great posture comes at a price. It’s what separates the serious golfers from the other guys. Oh, don’t forget to bend your knees.
Please now have another photo taken. Compare the before and after and you should see a startling difference. Great work. If you look like the pro in the photo fabulous work.
The trick now is to stick with the process. Repeat, repeat repeat and repeat. The good news is that you don’t have to go and hit balls to get this right, in fact all you need is a club, space and a little time. Something to do when the commercials are on. Goodness knows there are a few on at the moment.
Guys, I hope that this has helped you on the way to improved posture alongside a great grip. Now you have to let your natural hand-eye coordination come through.
If this article has peaked your interest and you want to move this forward; come and visit us at the Golf Integrated Academy at Vila Sol; telephone number 912 263 555.
Have a great holiday and hope to see you soon.