Today, I’m going to elaborate on the Stance & Ball Position.

Stance

Why is the stance important?
What is the correct stance?
These are 2 questions one of my junior students asked me about a week ago. The importance of the stance is to provide a balanced, stable base for the golf swing. The golf swing is essentially a directional shift of weight back (away from the target) and through (towards the target). Without a stable foundation one cannot achieve this weight transfer efficiently.

Like ball position, the stance is dynamic. Rule of thumb states that your stance should be “slightly wider than shoulder width”. However, a taller person might have a stance wider than this to support his or her higher center of gravity, and a shorter person might have a stance narrower. The distance you are hitting the ball also affects your stance. On a tee shot your stance will be wider than your stance on a chip shot or a putt. As you look to hit the ball further, the increased momentum requires a larger base for stability. With this in mind it is important to know that if your stance gets too wide, your legs start to lock your hips preventing you from generating rotation through the swing.

Problems associated with a narrow stance include:
1. Loss of balance during the swing
2. Reduced swing arc resulting in a loss of distance and consistency.

Problems associated with a wide stance:
1. Lateral body slide through the swing
2. Reverse pivot

Ball Position

Ball position is more dynamic than stance. When setting up correctly for a standard straight shot, your ball position will be different for every club in your bag. As the clubs get shorter, your swing arc becomes smaller and steeper so your ball must be positioned correctly to get the club into the ground under the ball promoting a divot after the ball.

The driver being the longest club with the least loft will be positioned closer to your lead foot. The aim is to hit the ball as your club is on the upswing to launch it up. The sand wedge being the shortest club with the most loft will be positioned closer to center stance with the aim of hitting down on the ball getting the leading edge under the ball to get the correct trajectory.

A good tip to determining your correct ball position is to take a few practice swings with different clubs. Make note of where your divot starts for each club. Position a ball at this point and make the same swing.

Anokh Jai
Lv. IV Master Teaching Professional
Total Golf Solutionz Ltd.
+254 736 035500