Feet, Club, Grip, Shoulders, Head, Hips

A short post today about something that I have found to be highly beneficial. Setting up the same way every time. Golf is all about consistency. leaning to swing the same every time brings predictability. Predictability brings lower scores.

Every time you set up over the golf ball differently, it promotes a different swing path, or forces you to make a different movement to get back on the swing path you are looking for. I’m not suggesting that your set up should be exactly the same as mine. But, what I am suggesting is that your setup should be the same every time. To ensure that my setup is constant, I look at 6 quick checkpoints from the ground up. Every time. Feet, Club, Grip, Shoulders, Head, Hips.

Feet — The first thing a do is set my feet. same distance from the ball every time, and align my feet to the target.

Club — Next, holding the handle with my left hand, I set my club up behind the ball, ensuring that my club-face is square to my target.

Grip — I then add my right hand to my grip. I have a natural tendency to have an overly strong grip, so I pay close attention here to make sure my hand is on top of the club rather than behind. A consistent grip can work wonders towards eliminating fat and thin shots.

Shoulders — Something that I recently learned is that your shoulders do not necessarily align with your feet every time. This can happen frequently when the tee box is not directly aligned with your target. It creates an optical illusion. Your feet will be pointed at your target line, but your shoulders will naturally want to align themselves with the tee box. If your shoulders are open to your target line, it promotes a swing path that cuts across the ball. If your goal is a different swing path, then you are fighting with your body before the swing even begins.

Head — This one is surprisingly important, as it is not just your head you are aligning here. It is the tilt of your back as well. When correcting your shoulder alignment, you can inadvertently tilt your back left or right, then as a correction, people often just tilt their neck over the ball. If you want to create an inconsistent swing, try tilting your neck a different direction then your back. I correct this by first making sure my neck is inline with my spine. Then, if my eyes are not in their usual spot just behind the ball, I tilt from my lower back, not from my neck.

Hips — usually there is not much correction here. As long as your shoulders are aligned with your feet, it’s tough for you hips to not have the same alignment, but I like to check to make sure. Also, if this is the last thing you think about before you swing, then the feeling of your hips is on your mind and promotes a good hip turn in your back-swing.

All of this shouldn’t take more than a few seconds, but going through these few checkpoints at setup will help to promote consistency and let you focus more on your swing when it comes time to move the club.

until next time,

Chad Miller