Aiming

[Razorhog]

I'm just getting to the point where I can hit the ball straight a lot of the time. However, I seem to have trouble aiming. I almost always go left of my target (which is a good change because I used to always slice). Perhaps I'm still trying to mentally compensate for a slice? At any rate, I just can't tell where I'm aiming - someone said to lay a club in front of your feet and it will point to your target. Is that good advice? I've always thought the club face should point toward the target, but if I use the aforementioned method, it doesn't.
Any tips?

[$2 Nassau]

Stand behind your ball and pick a target in the distance that you want to aim your ball at. Doesn't matter what it is, could be 500 yards away. Draw a mental line back to your ball (or even hold your club in the air to "connect the dots" if you want) then pick a spot on the ground a few feet in front of your ball that follows that line out to your target. This is your intermediary target.

Then just line yourself up to that intermediary target. It's much easier to align yourself to a spot on the ground that is a few feet in front of you. That way you know you are lined up correctly and it is one less thing to think about. After you are lined up, forget about that intermediary target and focus on main target(where you want your ball to fly).

Then of course, trust it!! For me, I always tended to line up facing right of target for some reason. When I started doing this it of course felt like I was aiming way left, but I wasn't. I had to fight the urge to readust. But after a little while you get used to it and it just feels natural.

[Razorhog]

Thank you for the tip, I will definitely give this a try!

[ugottabjoshinme]

Are you sure that it is an aiming issue and not pulling the ball straight left? If you had a slice problem before, you may have had an outside-to-inside swing path with an open clubface. The ball flight for this would start to the left, and then slice back to the right. If that was the case, you may have only corrected the clubface position at impact, and still have the outside-inside swing path. This would cause the ball to go straight left. The ball is travelling in a straight path, but it will be left of your target. You could have someone watch your swing to tell you what your swing path is.

[Razorhog]

Excellent point, I'll have to check into that.

[misty_mountainhop]

  Razorhog said:

I'm just getting to the point where I can hit the ball straight a lot of the time. However, I seem to have trouble aiming. I almost always go left of my target (which is a good change because I used to always slice). Perhaps I'm still trying to mentally compensate for a slice? At any rate, I just can't tell where I'm aiming -

Aiming at an intermediary target is very good advice. Also, when you set up on the target, put your right foot in first (assuming right handed) with the club and then bring your left foot in on to line.

Regarding the above (in bold), what they mean is set up as normal and then without moving your feet, lay the club shaft on the ground, along your feet so it touches the toes of both feet (doesn't matter where the face is). Step away and look from behind. Is the shaft, while on the floor, pointing at the target in the distance? This'll help to see if you're closed, open or OK; at least with your feet anyway.

[jambalaya]

  misty_mountainhop said:

Aiming at an intermediary target is very good advice. Also, when you set up on the target, put your right foot in first (assuming right handed) with the club and then bring your left foot in on to line.

I would like to point out a subtle problem with that instruction. The club at your feet should not be pointing at the target. I should be pointed parallel to target line. The target line is the imaginary line that extends from your ball to the target. In a basic setup your feet, knees, hips and shoulder should be squared up with each other and parallel to the target line. Of course you have setups where you may want to open or close your stance a little but basically line up parallel to the target line.

[mm6840]

  jambalaya said:

I

DisAgree ! Aiming (body) should/can be primary to the target (difference is what 1,? yard?) Aiming the target line could cause more problems than other way around.

" In a basic setup your feet, knees, hips and shoulder should be squared up with each other and parallel to the target line " thats alignment (and not aiming) regards,

[jambalaya]

  mm6840 said:

DisAgree ! Aiming (body) should/can be primary to the target (difference is what 1,? yard?) Aiming the target line could cause more problems than other way around.

It is alignment if you take it alone but if you address a ball and are parallel to the target line that is part of aiming. I do not agree that the club you lay on the ground at your feet should be pointing at the target. I have seen time again the illustration of two parallel lines, one is the target line the other lines up with your feet. Some have likened it to a railroad track. If the line at your feet point to the target you have a closed stance.

[mm6840]

  jambalaya said:

It is alignment if you take it alone but if you address a ball and are parallel to the target line that is part of aiming. I do not agree that the club you lay on the ground at your feet should be pointing at the target. I have seen time again the illustration of two parallel lines, one is the target line the other lines up with your feet. Some have likened it to a railroad track. If the line at your feet point to the target you have a closed stance.

Yes !

and a bit closed stance is preferable for all "pivot guided swings" that's the point (if you focusing on two tracks and co... you're prone to open stance positions) regards

[misty_mountainhop]

  jambalaya said:

I would like to point out a subtle problem with that instruction. The club at your feet should not be pointing at the target. I should be pointed parallel to target line. The target line is the imaginary line that extends from your ball to the target. In a basic setup your feet, knees, hips and shoulder should be squared up with each other and parallel to the target line. Of course you have setups where you may want to open or close your stance a little but basically line up parallel to the target line.

Fine. By all means aim parallel. You know what I'm getting at. If you think you can aim parallel (i.e. maybe a yard left of target) accurately, be my guest.

[jambalaya]

  misty_mountainhop said:

Fine. By all means aim parallel. You know what I'm getting at. If you think you can aim parallel (i.e. maybe a yard left of target) accurately, be my guest.

Uh, the end of your club is where you hit the ball, not your feet. The point is to get your swing path where your clubface contacts the ball squarely to send the ball down the target line which starts at your ball not your feet. A closed stance is not preferable for all shots. A slightly closed stance is preferable for a driver and other longer clubs but an open stance is actually preferable for wedges and other shorter clubs.

Here is a link to give you a better understanding of what I am talking about : http://www.easy2.com/tutorials/glf0102/index.asp

[Chas]

If you line up your feet with the target, you're gonna miss right, which I tend to do sometimes if I'm not careful with alignment. Thinking "feet and shoulders parallel to ball-to-target line" helps avoid this mistake.

Maybe I should use a slightly closed stance, as suggested. I think I'll try it..

[Zeph]

I stand behind the ball, pick a line, then pick a spot a foot or two in front of the ball that I aim at. I aim the clubface at this line and align my body parallell to it.

Working on aim and alignment on the range is usefull. Take your normal adress, put the club along your feet, stand back and check where it is aiming. Please take notice that the clubs are not straight, so aim along the edge of the shaft touching your shoes, or use a straight something.

[Clambake]

Several pointers I recently learned from a very good teaching pro:

1) Aligning your toes is really not the correct proceedure - you should be aligning your ankles along the correct stance line. If you point your left toe out (like most golfers) it will appear that your stance is open when it really is aligned square. A simple way to see this is to stand with toes pointed directly ahead of you so that you are truly squarely aligned, then rotate your left toe out to the normal position - it's amazing how open your stance feels. But you're not open, you're actually square.

2) Your mind does a great job of processing things that you're not consiously aware of. If you align yourself with toes right along your stance line, you're really quite closed, and your mind will sense this and try to counteract this in your swing. Sometimes it succeeds, often it doesn't, leading to inconsistency or worse. And going back to #1, if you've aligned the toes and think you're square but you are actually pointed right of the target, and then your subconcious mind will try to bring the club back along the target line - the end result is that you're actually swinging slightly outside to in compared to your real alignment, contributing to a fade.

3) When using the club as an aiming aid to sight along the target line (an excellent tip), it is key to use your dominant eye for the aiming, perhaps even closing your non-dominant eye. Otherwise you'll introduce errors in perceiving what is the correct target line. And once that happens, you're back to #2 again where the mind will try to counteract in mid-swing, with more detrimental effects.


Paying attention to these points, I've really focused my practice sessions to get the aiming and alignment down more more precisely, and I have felt that my ball striking has improved measurably after only a couple months of focus.

[misty_mountainhop]

  jambalaya said:

Uh, the end of your club is where you hit the ball, not your feet.

Thanks. My hcp must be complete fluke then. And there I was thinking I never had much luck in life.

Your preferences for stances re. long clubs and short is completely unfounded. On what evidence do you base this statement? Whatever. What is described in your link is exactly what I do and have done for years. Maybe I need to explain better. The point I was trying to clarify was the club on the ground so you see where you're pointing. You are technically right with what you're saying but if you stand ~1 yard from the ball are you seriously trying to tell me that you can accurately sight 1 yard left of a target maybe over 250 yards away? It's not going to happen.

[Dub]

The advice given earlier is solid stuff. Standing well behind your ball....visualize your target line...find something specific to aim at....draw the imaginary line back through your ball to where you stand (make note of items along that line both just ahead and behind your ball).........walk to your ball and "square" up to these items....take a look at your target and see how that worked.

The other advice a better golfer gave me was to make sure I extended fully through the shot and swung down the target line...extending outward towards my target line.

You can learn a lot on the range buy laying down two clubs along the target line both safety ahead of and behind your ball. Stand back and look at your target with both clubs pointing at it. Walk up to the ball and align yourself to the line. It's a great trick for getting started for the day.

Play a round with me and you'll know the true definition of a closed stance. It really bothers some of the guys I play with....how can this guy "aim" well right.....but hit it to the correct spot.

The oddity is that while I am aligning my stance a bit (okay...a lot right).....my "aim" is dead at the target I've picked out. My shoulders are more square than my closed stance.

I do a bit of compensation due to the inability to build up torque in my right knee....old knee njuries, etc.

I don't recomend my method to anyone...compensating for pains is an old mans thing.

That's one of the reasons I thought I'd never...ever watch the Golf Fix on Golf Channel after the first episode. I cringed when Michael Breed was over there chiding McMahon for not making a full turn and then began to tug on him......after McMahon clearly stated that he's had 17 different surgeries...many of them on his shoulder and furthermore he was going in for another one in a few months...........still Breed is pulling on him trying to get him turned more.


Keep working on your aim....it will always be important....putting...full shots...etc.

[jambalaya]

  misty_mountainhop said:

Thanks. My hcp must be complete fluke then. And there I was thinking I never had much luck in life.

As for the open vs. closed stance thing, look at Hogan. That is what he did and I think a lot of people swear by him. When you are 250 yards away the two lines actually converge so if you are looking at that and lining yourself up, you are even more closed. For a distant target a small misalignment converts to the bigger mistake. It is not so much that you will only be off a yard, it causes you to have to make adjustments in your swing that MAY effect your aiming.

Look, we don't line up perfectly every time no matter how hard we try. Our body makes subtle adjustments during the swing to try and square the clubface to the target line and make a good shot. You are apparently hitting the ball really well if you are a 4 handicap so indeed I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. You are doing way more right than most people on the planet who play golf.