Adjusting one's height

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Okay, so I know you can't actually change how tall you are, but clearly a 5-wood is much longer than a gap wedge, and something has to change in the way you stand in order for the club-head to reach the ground when you go from 5-wood to gap wedge.

So what's the biggest factor that changes, between your gap wedge and your 5-wood? For me, I think it's been knee and hip flex, so that my butt pokes out farther the shorter the club I'm using.

I'm beginning to think this is a problem, since it leaves the upper half of my spine too upright and stiff, and makes my shoulder plane too flat.

I'm starting to think of knee flex as something that should be fairly constant from club to club, and so I'm trying to get the club-head down to the ground by increasing my spine angle instead, like taking a bow at the ball, and making it a deeper bow for shorter clubs.

Is this correct? I'm 6'2", so I have to do a pretty considerable amount of "shortening myself", and so I'm guessing the manner in which I do it is probably pretty important.

-Andrew

[$2 Nassau]

Curious to hear the responses on this one....I'm sure there are some slight differences in the way you address a wedge as compared to a fairway wood, but I wouldn't think there are too many differences. With the fairway wood, the ball would be further away from you...allowing room for the longer shaft. You can take basically the same stance with your wedge, but the ball is closer to you with your hands a little closer to your body. so maybe just some small adjustments in the hand/arm position?

That is my uneducated view of the topic.

[saevel25]

My stance probably changes, but i don't pay attention or make a mental note on it. I just take my stance, make sure my weight is balanced, thats all.

[Zeph]

The shorter the club, the more forward bent you are. Perhaps a slight change in knee flex, but for the most part, it is the upper body bending more forward. Only way to avoid it would be having all the clubs the same length.

[ghalfaire]

I try to maintain the same "height" with my clubs. I do move the ball closer and further back in my stance with shorter clubs, but attempt to keep my hands in the same position. That means with shorter clubs you have your hands even with or in front of the ball (only a small amount) and the grip becomes somewhat stronger as opposed to a neutral grip and hands behind the ball with a 5 wood. I tried for awhile to just move the ball closer to me and not back in my stance without changing grip, but I ended up with wedge shots that went up more than forward.

[Leftygolfer]

To me most of the change is in the ball being closer. It isn't something I am aware of when I'm playing unless it is sidehill lie. The one thing I think about is whatever inclination to the ground I establish at address, that is the one I want to maintain during the backswing and throughswing.

[The Recreational Golfer]

I'm 6'6". I stand up straight with a lightly stretched feeling. i.e., nothing is collapsing. Then I bend from my hips and let them poke backwards a bit, like the OP suggested. It is important to maintain that stretched feeling in the upper body, esp. no collapsing in the abdomen. As long as that feeling is the same for my driver and for my PW, I'm OK. How much bend there is in my knees is irrelevant, because I don't bend from there.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

These pictures seem especially enlightening on the topic. How tall is Tiger? It looks like his arms are a little longer, relative to his height, than mine, which means he isn't bent as far forward with his short iron there as I am with mine. His knee flex appears to be almost identical in the two pictures, and his pelvis isn't at all tipped backward (poking his butt out) like mine has a tendency to be.

What I'm taking away so far is that I'm on the right track trying to sort of "bow toward the ball" rather than trying to "hunker down", or "pick up the pass rush" for those who are familiar with offensive lineman technique. -Andrew

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I have a follow-up question: doesn't this affect one's shoulder plane? Do you compensate somehow to make sure that a more upright spine with your longer clubs would tend to make your shoulders flatter, and a more bent-over spine with your shorter clubs would tend to make them steeper?

-Andrew

[Zeph]

I have a follow-up question: doesn't this affect one's shoulder plane? Do you compensate somehow to make sure that a more upright spine with your longer clubs would tend to make your shoulders flatter, and a more bent-over spine with your shorter clubs would tend to make them steeper?

Not only shoulder plane, it affects every plane. You don't compensate, you rotate around the the same angle of inclination to the ground. The swing rotates on a steeper plane with a shorter club, when you are more bent forward, than with a driver, where you are more upright. You don't want one swing plane angle with every club, it varies with your posture.

Make sure you keep the ball in the center of your eyes, don't put your head where you have to strain the eyes to look at the ball. On the backswing, keep the ball in the center of your view. On a wedge swing, it means the shoulders have to rotate on a steeper angle, left shoulder moving more down. On a driver swing, the shoulders rotate a bit flatter.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Not only shoulder plane, it affects every plane. You don't compensate, you rotate around the the same angle of inclination to the ground. The swing rotates on a steeper plane with a shorter club, when you are more bent forward, than with a driver, where you are more upright. You don't want one swing plane angle with every club, it varies with your posture.

Thanks, I think this makes sense to me. The shoulders and arms rotate about the spine the same way, and so more spin tilt = steeper plane, even though the moving parts move the same way.

-Andrew

[Zeph]

Imagine attaching a ball to a string. Start throwing the ball so it rotates around the axis of your hand. As you change the angle of the balls rotation to the ground, the ball still rotate in a circle. If you swing it around at 45º, the ball never leave that angle. It doesn't start at 60º and turn back to 45º when it reach the top.

Good video here: