As a golfer, you can already understand the importance of a solid golf posture. Correct golf pose will instantly place you in the advanced class of golfers, being more significant than even experience or playing skills.
If you think that you need some kind of exceptional skills as an athlete to swing the ball perfectly, that’s not true. All you need is practicing your golf pose and an idea about maintaining your golf posture while striking the ball. If you do it right, you will be able to hit the ball perfectly and get an outstanding performance.
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That’s why the golf posture is the most significant part of a great swing. It has to be flawless from the very beginning, from the first step you make before hitting the ball until your follow-through movement.
First off, let us take a look at a few examples of terrible golf postures and try to figure out how to avoid them:
Incorrect Golf Posture 1: Bent Over Backwards
This kind of posture represents terrible form as it makes you unable to make a full body turn during the whole swing. What’s more, you won’t be able to maintain proper balance while striking the ball with such a pose because your center of gravity will go too far ahead. In other words, your body will be leaning too much towards the ball, making it impossible for you to perform a decent follow-through movement.
Incorrect Posture 2: Too Much Open Hip Angle
At this point, you can already see that the golfer pictured has his hips more open than they should be. Also, he doesn’t have enough bend in his legs and back which indicates that he isn’t properly able to transfer energy throughout the whole swing while keeping proper balance during the shot. The correct golf pose requires you to keep your hip angle at around 120 degrees only while some professional players are known to play with even less than 100 degrees of hip turn.
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Incorrect Posture 3: Too Bent Knees
Having your knees bent might seem like a great idea when you prepare to strike the ball, but in reality, it is not. This kind of pose will restrict your range of motion and won’t let your body turn during the whole swing action. Also, if you don’t have enough strength in your lower legs, you can scratch the ground with your shoes which shows that your body weight isn’t properly transferred. The correct golf posture requires you to straighten up as much as possible while keeping the bend only in your waist area.
Incorrect Posture 4: Bent Front Knees
Even though this photo is not taken from a side angle, you can already see that the golfer is bending his front knees too much. That means that he isn’t able to transfer his weight on the back foot while making a full-body turn and thus has almost no stability while striking the ball. If you want your golf posture to be flawless, stand up straight and push your butt out but don't bend your knee so much!
The 4 Most Common Golf Posture Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
As we have listed some of the most common mistakes that people make when preparing for playing golf, it's time to get into more details and learn how to correct them:
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TIP 1: Keep Your Spine Straight While Staring At The Hole
The first tip you should keep in mind is to always look at the hole. It will help you maintain your body straight and right position while standing still. You can also analyze your posture by looking into a mirror or an accurate yardage marker that shows the distance between your feet. If it’s not correct, take a few steps closer or further to change your pose until it looks perfectly straight. Having your spine straight, along with bending just in the waist area, will give you more power during the backswing and through-swing movements as well as let you have more strength for hitting the ball harder.
TIP 2: Bend In Waist Area Only & Keep Your Back Straight
Another great tip we can give you is to bend in the waist area only while keeping your back straight. Try it and notice the difference between these two extremes: if you bend too much at your waist, you will lose balance during the shot; on the other hand, if you don't let enough lower body flexibility, that means that your body won’t be able to fully rotate during swinging movements which leads to an incorrect follow-through action.
TIP 3: Always Keep The Right Amount Of Turn In Your Hips
The common mistake people make when preparing for their golf swing is not using enough turns in their hips. This kind of pose will surely cause problems when striking the ball because it won’t let you transfer your weight properly. The proper golf posture requires you to turn your hips so much that they are set in the same direction as your feet. Do this while keeping bend only in lower body areas and you will be able to make an accurate shot every time!
TIP 4: Don’t Have Too Much Open Or Closed Hip Angle
The last mistake that most people make is to have their hip angle too much open or closed when getting ready for the shot. If your hips are slightly open, it means that you don’t have enough flexibility in order to fully rotate during swinging movement which leads to a poorer follow-through action. Having too much open hip when striking the ball also costs you because it reduces the range of motion and makes you lose power. If your hip angle is too much closed, it means that you won’t be able to transfer your weight efficiently during the whole swing movement which will considerably slow down your golf score improvement process!
So, now that we looked at some examples of incorrect golf postures which are considered quite bad for overall performance on the course, let’s take a look at the proper golf swing.
Here are three basic steps that can help you get a better idea of the correct golf posture.
Holding the club
Holding the club is the most crucial part of attaining a perfect posture while playing golf. Your positioning of the club determines the direction of the projection and will also cover the range of the ball trajectory.
The perfect way of holding the club is to hold the club right in front of your belly button. But remember, you need to keep your arms and legs straight while doing so. They should be straight while pulling up your shoulders. Also, it will be a good idea to stick out your chest.
Tilting forward
Once you have attained a perfectly straight posture, the next point is to tilt forward so that the club is in the perfect position for the shot. But you need to ensure that the pose is perfect, or else it can even cause severe back-related problems.
To achieve a perfect golf pose, you need to ensure that you only tilt your hips. If the hips aren’t elevated enough, the club will never reach the ball for a perfect impact. Also, the back should be flat instead of being rounded. It will feel like you will be pushing your back behind.
Making the Impact
The last and most crucial part of the three-step procedure is to make the perfect impact. Like the boys love to say, the ideal result is all you will need to get the ball going. You already have the club in the perfect position along with the ideal golf posture.
Once the club is set to hit the ball, the club must be lowered to touch the ground. But make sure you need to flex your knees slightly. Also, the knees mustn’t be overbending or something like that. It is considered an amateur mistake in maintaining a golf pose.
Final note
Golf is a game for those with a passion for swing. The exact force is all you will need to make the perfect impact for the shot. But golf isn’t as easy as it looks. If we look at the fundamental physics of the swing, it depends upon the phenomenon of centripetal force. As the force is burst right out of the club, you need to ensure that the golf posture you are maintaining is enough to withstand the reverse impact of the shot.