the backswing and distance to the ball.

Hi

Ive recently been trying to work on my backswing and have change from opening the club face alot to having it relatively shut during the backswing which seems to help eliminate the need to work my wrists as much during the down swing. This seems to work well with irons but im unsure as to whether i should do this with the driver too. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

I also have been watching a lot of youtube swing vision videos recently and notice that on his irons tiger stands a lot closer to the ball than other players and swings more up and down than other players. Ive tried this with varying success and was wondering if this was a good habit to get into or does tiger do it because he is tiger and could probably stand on his head and hit the ball flush...

I'm not enough of a technical swing guru to talk about the closed vs. open backswing and potential benefits thereof, but re: standing close to the ball, I'm pretty sure it was Byron Nelson who said "You can never stand too close to the ball." While that's a bit of hyperbole, I think closer is better than farther away. I don't like to reach for it -- hurts my back after a while and feels unnatural. That said, if it feels natural to have the ball close and you hit it flush that way, then go for it. If the reverse is true, then leave it our farther away. Seems to me the only real rule to follow is "If you hit it good, don't mess with your swing."

yeah since standing closer to the ball my back has been a lot better...

if its good enough for tiger and mr nelson its good enough for me

I agree, standing closer to the ball is better than standing too far away. Reaching for the ball tends to lead to bad shots as you are overcompensating and lunging at the ball. A good rule of thumb for proper distance from the ball is to stand in an athletic position, hold the club up with the shaft in front of your face with your elbows relaxed and at your side, and just drop the club to the ground. This should be roughly the right position to start from.