Why is it that you can go along for 4-5 holes playing great, then blow up and have a few terrible holes? What is it that is changing in the swing?

You may be surprised, but it usually isn’t a swing change. Most of the time what I find is that the spine is moving a bit too much in the swing. This means we can time-up shots for a while, but it is only a matter of time before we have a big miss.

When the spine is consistent, the swing is consistent. Let’s get started!

What's Covered: Overview of the Stable & Fluid Spine.

Recommended Training Aids: N/A

Publish Date: August 18, 2015

Last Edited Date: September 28, 2015

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Transcription:

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Hi guys and welcome back today. I’m Clay Ballard with Top Speed Golf and I’ve got a great question for you.

How many times have you been out and you’ve been playing a round, the round starts off pretty well, maybe you’re a few strokes better than your normal score.

Then you get to about the 6^th or 7^th hole, you get to the tee box and you snap-hook one left out of bounds, you block one right into the water, you have this huge blowup hole and it ruins your entire round, and it really ruins your entire day.

This happens a lot, and it’s one of the reasons that one of the most common questions I get is how could I improve my consistency?

How many times have you played a good 9 holes just to follow it up by a terrible 9 holes and be so frustrated and fed up with it?

So what is it that allows us to have consistency in the golf swing, and what is it that allows that consistency to fall apart and create some bad rounds?

That’s what we’re going to talk about in this video today. Let’s go ahead and get started.

So when we’re talking about consistency in the golf swing, the number one fundamental and really the number one fundamental for the golf swing all together is the spine.

If we can use the spine correctly everything else will work correctly. Everything that happens in the golf swing is initially dictated by what happens with the spine.

So if we’re looking at a skeleton, now my spine’s in the center of my body and everything else in my body is attached to my spine.

So my shoulders are attached to my spine, my arms attached to my shoulders, and then my arms are going to be actually swinging the club.

If I make a change in my spine angle, if I bend my spine to the right, well now all of a sudden I’ve changed the angle of my shoulders, I’ve changed the angle my arms are going to swing on, and I’ve actually changed the direction the club is going to swing.

So we have to be consistent in the swing, and if you look at all the top pros, that’s exactly what you’re going to see.

As they address the ball, their spine’s going to be tilted just slightly away from the target at address.

As they turn to the top, they’re going to keep this exact same spine tilt as they go to the top, and as we come down, we’re going to shift our weight a little bit to the left, and we’re going to increase that spine tilt just very slightly, even a little bit more away from the target.

But overall, very, very consistent from start to finish.

Now when I see players that are really struggling, those guys that are hitting out in the woods right, or hitting in the left, and then they have a few good holes, what’s happening is their spine angle is changing.

As they go to the top of the swing maybe they have a reverse pivot, spine’s angled back, falling back to the right, but there’s a lot of inconsistency in that.

What happens is, is good athletes as we all are, we learn to time these things up.

We have four or five good holes in a row, but eventually that change catches up with us, and we hit a bad shot, we have a bad round.

So if we can get this, the very fundamental piece, the number one fundamental in golf correct, keep it nice and stable but fluid, we’re going to be able to hit those good, clean shots time and time again.

That’s what I’m going to show you in this series of videos.

So the stable, fluid spine is all about how to properly use the body just like you’re seeing with the top golfers, the top pros out there, and it’s going to allow you to play your best golf.

So in the next series of videos I’m going to walk you through it step by step, exactly how to do this, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Let’s go ahead and get started, I’ll see you in the next video.

OK, before we leave don’t take my word for it, let’s take a look at a couple of the best pros of all time.

We’re having a look at Ernie Els here, nice stable, fluid spine.

He’s gotten rid of all the extra spine movements which also allowed him to eliminate a lot of the extra movements, and that’s what allows his swing to be so smooth.

In all these swings, you’re going to see a stable spine at address, and up at the top, and a little bump to the left as you shift the weight.

But overall the spine is moving very, very little.

Henrik Stenson top 5 in both driving distance and accuracy.

Rory McIlroy here, playing some of the best golf anybody’s ever played, and you can see just how stable he is coming back, coming through, just eliminated all the extra movements.

One thing before I leave here, if you think about which piece of the golf swing should I work on first, was is the number one fundamental, it’s the one that effects everything else.

If we get the spine right, the shoulders can work right, the arms can work right, the weight shift, the hips, the legs, all that stuff is going to start to fall into place.

If we get the spine angle wrong, now we’re going to be forced to make dozens of compensations to try to get back in the right spot.

So good luck to you guys, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to do this.

I can’t wait to get started, and I’ll see you all in the next lesson.