Your feet's distance from the ball

[Shark918v]

QUESTION: 

How far from the ball should your feet be during a the golf swing? 

 

Obviously, your entire body needs to be in alignment. Is there a general rule of thumb as to how far away from the ball your feet should be planted?

 

Any and all advice is welcome!

[Lihu]

33 minutes ago, Shark918v said:

QUESTION: 

How far from the ball should your feet be during a the golf swing? 

 

Obviously, your entire body needs to be in alignment. Is there a general rule of thumb as to how far away from the ball your feet should be planted?

 

Any and all advice is welcome!

 

Too far away and you might tend to pull and slice everything. Too close and you might hit a lot of hosel rockets.

There is no real fixed distance for everyone. I think it needs to be experimented with once you get your swing down. Your swing will take some natural path, if you pick an impact position along that path you can get better results from your current swing. Then you can experiment with putting the ball in front behind and away from your feet or closer to optimize things a bit.

 

Noticed that you're in Pasadena. I was just hitting on the driving range at Brookside with my son after his volunteering class got cancelled. We were there having some fun on the range a couple hours ago on the right side of the range.

[alfriday]

 

 

I follow Shawn's method for finding distance to the ball.  Take practice swings back and forth next to the ball.  (I do this with my feet together which helps make sure I am in balance heel to toe, not just side to side.)  Find where the club goes through the hitting area.  Put your club down on the line of your swing and then tip toe forward so the club creeps forward until it is behind the ball.  You are now the right distance from the ball for that club.  

 

Whenever I get off in my swing, I will do this on the course to reset.   

[Shark918v]

12 minutes ago, Lihu said:

 

Too far away and you might tend to pull and slice everything. Too close and you might hit a lot of hosel rockets.

There is no real fixed distance for everyone. I think it needs to be experimented with once you get your swing down. Your swing will take some natural path, if you pick an impact position along that path you can get better results from your current swing. Then you can experiment with putting the ball in front behind and away from your feet or closer to optimize things a bit.

 

Noticed that you're in Pasadena. I was just hitting on the driving range at Brookside with my son after his volunteering class got cancelled. We were there having some fun on the range a couple hours ago on the right side of the range.

That's exactly what I was looking for! THANK YOU!

 

All the points of my swing are in the high 80's and low 90's according to the Zepp Golf Trainer that I use. However, I slice the heck out of a lot of balls!

 

Jokingly if I realigned my to the 10:00 o'clock position I'd hit the intended target every time!

 

 

1 minute ago, alfriday said:

 

 

I follow Shawn's method for finding distance to the ball.  Take practice swings back and forth next to the ball.  (I do this with my feet together which helps make sure I am in balance heel to toe, not just side to side.)  Find where the club goes through the hitting area.  Put your club down on the line of your swing and then tip toe forward so the club creeps forward until it is behind the ball.  You are now the right distance from the ball for that club.  

 

Whenever I get off in my swing, I will do this on the course to reset.   

Excellent! Thank You!!

18 minutes ago, Lihu said:

 

Too far away and you might tend to pull and slice everything. Too close and you might hit a lot of hosel rockets.

There is no real fixed distance for everyone. I think it needs to be experimented with once you get your swing down. Your swing will take some natural path, if you pick an impact position along that path you can get better results from your current swing. Then you can experiment with putting the ball in front behind and away from your feet or closer to optimize things a bit.

 

Noticed that you're in Pasadena. I was just hitting on the driving range at Brookside with my son after his volunteering class got cancelled. We were there having some fun on the range a couple hours ago on the right side of the range.

I've never hit a bucket at that range. I'm on the other side of town near Eaton Canyon. 

 

I hit a large large bucket last night at Santa Anita. 

[saevel25]

1 hour ago, Shark918v said:

Obviously, your entire body needs to be in alignment.

Not a requirement. There are golfers who are more open or closed to the target line. 

1 hour ago, Shark918v said:

QUESTION: 

How far from the ball should your feet be during a the golf swing? 

A good rule of thumb is that you want to see the width of your hand between the butt end of the club and your body from the down the line view. Of course this can vary a bit with woods. You can get a way with a tad more distance with the driver. 

 

[Lihu]

3 hours ago, Shark918v said:

That's exactly what I was looking for! THANK YOU!

Everypne is a little bit different, so rules of thumbs work to get a rough idea, but you need to find the exact path that's right for you. How much forward your weight gets at impact, your shoulder width to hip width all affect the best place to put your ball for the best impact conditions.

 

3 hours ago, Shark918v said:

All the points of my swing are in the high 80's and low 90's according to the Zepp Golf Trainer that I use. However, I slice the heck out of a lot of balls!

Your swing might need to become more of a whip motion at impact? The speed should accelerate quite a bit especially at impact at impact. The rest of it can be slow.

What I meant by optimize is the impact position on the club face and not placing the ball at the fastest point of your swing.

 

 

3 hours ago, Shark918v said:

Jokingly if I realigned my to the 10:00 o'clock position I'd hit the intended target every time!

If you are right handed then you are aiming left 10:00? That's quite a pull. 

Put some alignment sticks down and try to swing along the length of the stick.

Most people have trouble opened game the hips up at impact which tends to cause pulls more than any other reason.

 

3 hours ago, Shark918v said:

 

Excellent! Thank You!!

I've never hit a bucket at that range. I'm on the other side of town near Eaton Canyon. 

 

I hit a large large bucket last night at Santa Anita. 

I sometimes play at Santa Anita on Friday evenings or Sunday afternoons and live in West Arcadia. However, my last round there was terrible. I was competing against my son off he tee, and he beat me every time. 

My kids don't like all the extra holes in Eaton Canyon, and I only went there once in the last year. Forgot how I shot, but I lost a tee shot on the second hole far left, twice...

We should hook up there some time.

[Buckeyebowman]

Back in the day when I was a young golfer, Golf Digest printed an article about Jack Nicklaus' ball position for every club in his bag, including how far away he took his stance. When I took this info to the range it felt like I was standing almost straight up and down! I'm completely self taught, but I might suggest a short series of lessons to get some the foundation elements into place. Grip, stance, alignment, and ball position just to get your feet on the ground.

[nabzi]

I usually get my stance ready with holding my club out above the ball and then drop the club (to touch the floor) and then adjust my position accordingly. E.g If my club lands a few inches below the ball, I would adjust my feet and club by the appropriate amount of inches to move everything in line with the ball.