Maintaining Spine Is Vital For Beginners!!

One of the most important fundamentals when trying to become a consistent ball striker is maintaining your spine angle throughout the golf swing. Many golfers, especially beginners, struggle with this without even realising it. When the spine angle changes during the swing, it becomes very difficult to return the club back to the ball consistently, which leads to poor contact and inconsistent shots.

The main cause of losing your spine angle is what we call “early extension.” This is where the hips move towards the golf ball during the downswing instead of staying back. A great way to understand how to fix this is by focusing on keeping your glutes back throughout the swing. When your glutes stay back, it allows you to maintain your posture and rotate properly through impact.

Now in order to do this effectively, it’s also important to understand how the body should be moving in the swing. You want to feel like you are swinging around your body on roughly a 45 degree angle. This helps the club travel on a better path and allows the body to rotate without standing up through the shot. When golfers get too vertical or lift up through the swing, this is when the spine angle is lost and consistency becomes very difficult.

A simple drill you can use to improve this is to stand with your glutes lightly touching a chair or alignment stick. As you make your swing, the goal is to keep your glutes in contact with the object for as long as possible. This will train your body to stay back and maintain your posture through impact. It’s a very effective drill for improving ball striking and something that can be done both at home and on the driving range.

If you look at elite players, they do this extremely well. A great example is Tiger Woods. Throughout his swing, he maintains his spine angle and keeps his lower body back, which allows him to rotate through the ball with incredible consistency. This is a big reason why he has always been known as one of the best ball strikers in the game.

For beginners, this is one of the first things that should be worked on. Before worrying about complex swing changes, focusing on posture, maintaining spine angle, and learning to rotate correctly will have a huge impact on your golf swing. These fundamentals will often fix multiple issues at once and lead to immediate improvement in contact.

If you are looking to improve your ball striking or need help with your golf swing, I provide golf lessons on the Gold Coast at Emerald Lakes in Carrara. Feel free to get in contact to get started.