 |
Shoulder Alignment at Address:Aiming Right or Left?
In golf, you are supposed to stand square to the target. That means you have to align your feet parallel to the target line (the line that extends from the ball to your target).
But this is not enough. Your shoulders have to be parallel to the target line as well. To check your shoulder alignment, put your golf club against your shoulders and see where the club shaft points to.
Lots of golfers assume that by positioning your feet parallel to the target line, the rest of your body is square to the target as well.
But most of the time this is not the case. Some players align their shoulders too far right or left of target even though their feet are square to the target.
This could cause slice, hook, push or pull.
The Cause of Push-Slice was in Shoulder Alignment
I once met the player who was hitting a draw with every club in his bag. But once in a while, he was hitting push-slices, especially with his driver.
I checked his posture. His feet were parallel to the target line. But his shoulders were aiming right of the target. This was causing push shots and push-slice when his timing was little off.
Because the shoulder alignment often determines the clubhead path, his swing path was inside-out.
So the shots will tend to start right of the target (push shots). That's why his bad shots went right. To avoid right side, he had to take stronger grip and turn the face over through impact to make the ball come back to the target.
If he failed to do so, he would hit push shots or push-slices.
You can try to flip your hands through impact to avoid right side like he did. But the easiest way to avoid push shots in this case is to align your shoulders and fix the clubhead path.
How He Fixed His Shoulder Alignment
But he knew that his shoulders were aiming right of the target. He tried to fix it but just couldn't seem to do so. He would check his shoulders at address, but then by the time he realized, his shoulders were aiming right after hitting few shots.
But one day, he fixed his shoulder alignment with a simple method. Let me show you what he did.
1) Stand behind the ball and pick the target
2) Take your address. Set the clubface square to the target and align your feet parallel to the target line
3) This is important. When you check your target, try to picture the path or the starting line of your shot.
In your mind, you want to picture the path, trajectory and the shape of the shot as you take your address.
This is all he did to fix his shoulder alignment. By picturing the starting line of the shot, he was naturally able to align his shoulders square to the target.
I guess that he was trying to avoid left side with a hook by unconsciously aiming his shoulders right of the target and start his shots little right of the target.
But this is why he was hitting lots of push shots and push slice when he tried to guide the shot toward the target.