Help me maintain spine angle!

I can't for the life of me maintain my spine angle throughout my swing. My hands get cramped at impact because my hips move towards the ball somewhat. I've tried a number of things such as:

1- Pretend you chin is resting on a shelf.
2- Pretend there is a ceiling just above your head.
3- I've had someone hold a shaft on top of my head as I hit balls on the range.
4- Try to keep your rear end in the same location

The list goes on, I just can't remember some off the top of my head.

Any advice, tips, drills, etc would be greatly appreciated. I think maintaining spine angle will help me hit consistent golf shots.

Forget all that gimmicky stuff and just...well...maintain your position. Force yourself.
Do it first by taking slow swings on the range. Then slowly ramp it up to a full swing.

Edit: and by the way, as a 7 I imagine your spine angle problem probably isn't that bad in the first place? Better than mine I'm sure.

The two things every golfer should do every morning in the shower, and I mean every morning is after warmed up and washed,

take your best golf stance and position yourself so your forehead just touches the wall. Put your hands on your opposite shoulder not turn back and through not changing your spine angle or lifting your head off the wall.

next stand up straight and turn back so both hands touch the wall behind you but your feet don't move and hold a few seconds working up to 30 seconds. Do it on both sides.

If you cannot maintain your spine angle you will find tightness and will not be able to do these but in time going easy at first you will be able to do these with no problem assuming you do not have a preexisting back injury limiting your motion.

There is no reason lack of flexibility should hamper anyone's game.

Yea I don't have any flexibility issues, I'm 21 so I'm still pretty limber.

I just can't seem to rotate my hips/clear my hips, and instead push them towards the ball, thus causing my hands to be cramped at impact. Nothing dramatic, but on a down the line video, you can definitely notice the movement.

Anyone else?

Are you sure that your whole body isn't moving towards the ball on the downswing? If it is, then it should just be a balance issue(on your toes) I think it would be hard for the hips to move towards the ball if the rest of the body is not.

Try to get the feeling of your left butt cheek moving back and behind you. It seems to me most of the pro's move their hips away from the ball if anything. There's a video of Tiger on this, can't remember what the name of it is though.

Losing the backswing spine angle is usually a result of poor flexibility in the right gluteal and hip flexors. Losing the through swing spine angle is due to one of three things:

1. Limited left hip flexibility and/or pain on the through swing makes you stand up to avoid the pain.
2. Off-balance downswing makes you stand up to prevent falling forward.
3. Trying to kill it with your upper body.

Do you feel like you're "falling" toward the target slightly during your transition? If not, you probably aren't going to execute a proper hip turn because your weight isn't rooted properly. Your brain won't let you turn your hips if it senses that you are off balance. Try to get the feeling that you are turning over your rear leg on the backswing, and that you then replant on the forward leg, followed by turning around the forward leg. You should get the feeling that a line is drawn from the foot that is bearing weight to the top of the head or so.

Incidentally, #3 above causes an upper body move first where the hips haven't turned properly. When the upper body swings through, it's almost impossible to maintain your spine angle because your left hip isn't turned far enough left. It's like bending forward 45 degrees and then trying to turn to the left 45 degrees with stationary hips. It's a lot tougher than just leaning 45 degrees to your side, which is what should be happening.

I would say, check your weight shift, and hip speed, followed by reconsidering what parts of your body are starting the downswing.

I definitely believe #3 is correct. So I need to check my weight shift?

I would check your shoulder turn first. If you have a slight reverse pivot, usually caused by trying to keep the head over the ball, it's nearly impossible to turn your hips properly. Assuming you are right handed, stand up and take a baseball swing. That's the feel you should get in your shoulder turn...like your spine isn't tilting left or right, but is turning around an axis. You should feel it stretch the left side of your torso. This is generally not felt with a slight reverse pivot.

Next, check that your right leg (left leg for a lefty) is providing a constant firmness on your backswing. You should feel like you are trying to push off a wall with the side of your right foot. The front of your right hip should be exerting a lot of force. When your hands get to the top, assuming you have kept pushing, the weight transfer will happen automatically with a fall back to the target This is because the mass of your arms and club have stopped pulling your body away from the target like they did in the takeaway and the pressure you are providing with your right hip flexors and gluteals can take over and actually move you slightly toward the target. Now, just squat a little into your lead leg when you are "falling" and then start turning your hips while you are straightening your left leg. It's important not to move your upper body too far towards the target when you are doing this. If so, you will move your swing center in front of the ball and you'll probably top it. If you start topping it, this is likely what happened. If #3 is a problem, do these techniques with something other than a driver so you don't feel as tempted to kill it. Unless you are really young and fast, upper body dives generally don't generate a lot of distance, though they could generate a lot of ball speed. The distance loss comes from too much backspin. When you start hitting the ball really solidly, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the trajectory. For me, I went from a really high ball-speed with lots of spin and a lot of shape, to a little lower ball-speed, much flatter trajectory, much straighter, and much farther. It was a little weird seeing the ball fly away a bit slower, but land and roll out much further, is what I'm trying to say. So don't prefer the old swing just because the ball flies away faster. Good luck.