Set up Like a Pro

[saevel25]

Ever have the question, how far apart your feet should be at set up? Maybe, how far should the ball be from your feet? 

Athletic Motion Golf put together a good video. Poor set ups will most likely require compensation in the golf swing. Example, setting up with a lot of weight int he heels, butt sticking out, can cause golfers to early extend in the backswing. 

I liked how they reference the width of the stance relative to the width of the hips, not the shoulders. It makes a bit more sense to me. 

I really like the part about how they described the knees should produce a forward bend in the lower leg. Knees towards the toes more than knees stacked over the ankles. This gets the hips stacked over the ankles more. 

Finally, a BIG thing people do is trying to keep their head inline with their spine and not rounding their upper back. One of the worst tips is trying to keep your entire back inline with the head. It might get closer to that with the driver, pending how much you bend over. The lower back stays flat and the upper back rounds over as you need to look down at the ball. 

It might be a good time to practice setting up to the ball. It is something that we can take for granted.

 

Edited March 26 by saevel25
Changed title

[phillyk]

9 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Finally, a BIG thing people do is trying to keep their head inline with their spine and not rounding their upper back…. The lower back stays flat and the upper back rounds over as you need to look down at the ball.

It can go the other way too. One can round too much and lose chest rotation. 

[saevel25]

45 minutes ago, phillyk said:

It can go the other way too. One can round too much and lose chest rotation. 

I would question this. Just trying it out, I do not find much difference in chest rotation. I think this is because chest rotation is caused by the back muscles (around the spin, not the upper back muscles), abdominal muscles, and some hip muscles. 

Look at old video of Jack and Johnny Miller, their backs are really rounded. They didn't struggle much with turning. 

[phillyk]

THE 12 BIG SWING CHARACTERISTICS: Is your C-Posture affecting your ability to rotate in the backswing ? | Elite Performance Therapy

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This posture can limit a golfer’s thoracic spine mobility. As a result, it reduces the player’s ability to...

 

[saevel25]

8 minutes ago, phillyk said:

THE 12 BIG SWING CHARACTERISTICS: Is your C-Posture affecting your ability to rotate in the backswing ? | Elite Performance Therapy

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This posture can limit a golfer’s thoracic spine mobility. As a result, it reduces the player’s ability to...

 

So that entire article is based around people who have issues with normal posture. They give tips on how to fix it. Which is good.  

Quote

but in the majority of cases, it is due to muscle imbalances. The muscle imbalances that occur in C posture are referred to as Upper Crossed Syndrome (UCS). Upper Crossed Syndrome is due to tight muscles in the pecs, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and weak muscles in the serratus anterior, neck, and lower trapezius.

This sort of things is caused more by desk jobs and not working out. This is not caused by taking a golf stance. You can absolutely take a stance that is not ideal sitting posture, standing posture, posture needed to hit a baseball, shooting a basketball, playing football and it be 100% ideal for golf. 

Yea, that article didn't convince me that a person who has decent posture in all other things will have their mobility hampered by taking a good golf posture. 

[iacas]

I'll watch the video in the next few days and come back here with any thoughts that I have.

[phillyk]

5 hours ago, saevel25 said:

Yea, that article didn't convince me that a person who has decent posture in all other things will have their mobility hampered by taking a good golf posture. 

From the article,
“This posture can limit a golfer’s thoracic spine mobility. As a result, it reduces the player’s ability to rotate in the backswing…”

The lumbar spine is for stability and the thoracic spine is for mobility. S-posture is curving lumbar spine and is main cause of back problems for golfers. C-posture curves the thoracic spine more than we would want.  It should be obvious that this curvature could hamper rotation.

Having C posture does not automatically mean they have a muscle/mobility/stability issue. They simply could be unknowing. Also, starting in that position may not mean they stay there throughout the swing. But it’s not ideal or efficient either. 

Having some curvature is normal. You don’t want it perfectly straight and you don’t want too much curvature lower back or upper. 

We are very likely talking about getting to the same position. I just want people to be careful about curving too much.

[phillyk]

They say it well around minute 7. You don’t want to overly round the upper back (they say old man posture). It’s a slight rounding of the shoulders.

[iacas]

9 hours ago, phillyk said:

We are very likely talking about getting to the same position. I just want people to be careful about curving too much.

That's apparent.