Address routine

[HawkNballs]

The toe should be off the ground slightly. An old trick by some fitters is to get on a hard flat surface, and then have someone slide a business card under the the club from the toe towards the heel until it touches the sole of the club and stops. The leading edge of the card should be about half way into the club face.

Why is that?  Don't people get fitted with a flat board and impact tape to make sure they have the right lie angle?

Seems the toe in the air slightly would go against that strategy.

[billchao]

Why is that?  Don't people get fitted with a flat board and impact tape to make sure they have the right lie angle?   Seems the toe in the air slightly would go against that strategy.

That measurement is done dynamically. The shaft bends a little during the swing and the toe troops down. Just because you have one condition at address doesn't mean it exists at impact.

[Party]

Why is that?  Don't people get fitted with a flat board and impact tape to make sure they have the right lie angle?

Seems the toe in the air slightly would go against that strategy.

The flat board and impact tape measure the lie angle at impact though and not at address.  Guessing most golfers impact the ball a little above the shaft plane at address, I know I do.

[mvmac]

Why is that?  Don't people get fitted with a flat board and impact tape to make sure they have the right lie angle?

Seems the toe in the air slightly would go against that strategy.

There is some shaft droop (some call it toe droop) or deflection, also address is different than impact, handle tends to be higher

[HawkNballs]

Interesting.  Never thought about it like that.  Thanks.

[mvmac]

With my right hand on the club I set the face where I want the ball to start, set my feet, grip it with both hands, look at the target a couple times, make a practice waggle and hit it.

Quick video to illustrate. White stick is aimed where I want the ball to start (right), feet/body is parallel left of the target, hitting a draw here.

[Brian W]

Quick video to illustrate. White stick is aimed where I want the ball to start (right), feet/body is parallel left of the target, hitting a draw here.

Its nice to see and hear about everyone's addresses but I find that if I try to do too much, I start getting into my head and that is the last place I want to be.  If I am mishitting or having some other issues, I try to get in there to figure it out but I really rely on muscle memory from practice to take out as many setup routine pieces as possible and concentrate on hitting the ball.

A few weeks ago, I was getting so caught up on swing thoughts and how to address the ball, I was forgetting that there was an actual ball that I needed to concentrate on hitting

[Pretzel]

I'm not a fan of the intermediate target. I always struggled to aim using something 3 feet away from me (even when I knew it was on the correct line) when I knew the ball needed to end up 300 feet or more away from me. I like to pick a specific spot in the backdrop behind the hole (a specific window, or branch on a tree, or a fence post) and aim my clubface to that while my feet are tucked together. I then step a constant distance forwards with my left foot and how far back my right foot goes depends on the club I'm hitting. I'm better at lining up my clubface than my feet, so I always line up the clubface before my feet so the feet don't mess up the clubface.

[deekay]

Hi all, and thanks for the comments.

And thanks for going to the trouble of posting the video, Mike, it was very helpful as most swing videos begin with the player already addressing the ball. I notice you also step in with your feet fairly close together, and then place them to set ball position and alignment. I am going to work at this routine also because I find that when I rush this my ball position is not constant.

I also saw an interesting Chuck Cook video where he put 3 tees in the ground in a slight arc, with one centered in your stance, one slightly forward of center and the other slightly back. He says to hit a ball from each one, and the one which results in the desired ball flight is the correct ball position for your individual swing. I want to try that next visit to the range, because I suspect that an inconsistent ball position is causing many of my problems with accuracy.