Why You Need This: Ever wonder how close you should stand to the golf ball?

Wonder why standing too close could could cause you to stand up?

Or why too far from the ball can cost you some distance?

I go over that and more in this video!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 6:31

Video Transcription:

Every get over top of the golf ball and you just feel completely uncomfortable? You scoot back a little bit and it feels like your arm’s really stretched out and locked, and you can’t get comfortable over it? You scoot forward, and now you feel like you’re jammed up and your arms are too tight?

Well in this video, we’re going to talk about how far should I stand from the golf ball, and what are the pros and the cons of being a little too close or a little too far away.

Let’s go ahead and get started.

All right, so let’s go through a step by step system here to get the proper spacing from the golf ball. I’ll talk about the main points at the end of this, the highlights, but let’s just go through this and we can all feel how far away we should be.

So as we’re starting out, get your feet about shoulder-width apart if you’re going to be using an iron. Now from here, I’m going to drop my hips back until my upper body tilts forward and I’ll be looking down at the golf ball now.

If I don’t tilt forward enough, I’m going to have to round my shoulders. I don’t want to go from my shoulders, I want my hips to come back until my upper tilts forward and I can now easily see this golf ball.

From there, get a little bit of knee flex so you feel athletic, almost like a short stop, not quite as much knee bend as a short stop, but you’re going to have a little bit of knee flex, that way you feel like you can move.

So I’ve hinged forward, I’ve got a little bit of knee flex, and the last thing here, I’m going to get a little tilt away from the target. That way I feel like I’m behind this golf ball. I can come from the inside, and I can really release that golf club out in front.

Once I’m in this great position, all I’m going to do from here with irons, is let my arms hang down. So if you’re looking from this down the line view, you’ll see how my arm is pretty much hanging right underneath my shoulders, and I’m in a great position there.

You’ll notice how the back of my hand is probably about a hand-width or maybe just slightly more than that away from my thighs, and now I’m in a great position here to set up to this golf club, or this golf ball.

If I get in that same posture, with an iron, I’m going to feel exactly like this. That’s a great posture there. Again, about a hand-width away, I’ve tilted forward with my body, and let my arms hang straight down.

Now what happens if I do this incorrectly? Let’s say I’m a little too close to the golf ball. Once I get into that good posture, I’m going to move to wherever I need to get to that golf ball.

So what I’m doing there is I’m telling you how to feel to be in the good posture, and then I’m going to feel that same way as I address this golf ball. Now my arms are hanging correctly.

What I don’t want to do is set up to the golf ball if I’m feeling weird, I don’t want to set up to the golf ball, maybe my feet are too close, or my feet are too far away, then try to match my posture to wherever I set my feet.

I want to feel what’s good, and then move my body to wherever I need to be to match the golf ball from there.

What happens if I get a little bit too close? Let’s imagine that my arms are hanging too close to my legs, now all of a sudden let’s imagine I’ve kind of rounded my shoulders, my hands are low, and my legs are in the way of my hands now.

If I swing back, I’m going to hit my legs here. What naturally will happen is, your legs will move out of the way in the backswing, but in the downswing to create more room, I’ll end up standing up.

What happens is my hips move toward the ball, I lose my posture, and I’m going to end up using all hands and arms, because my body’s in the way, I can’t move it. I’m going to use all hands and arms to hit this shot.

That’s definitely not what we want to do, we don’t want to be all hands and arms, we can be inconsistent.

What happens if we’re too far away from it now? Let’s say my feet are very far away, and my arms are really outstretched to meet this golf ball. Now my hands and arms are locked.

My elbows are locked, my wrist is locked, and I’m going to use mostly body and I’m not going to have the speed that I can get from my hands and arms if I’m too far away.

So typically, when you’re farther away, you’re going to be using more bigger pieces of your body, your bigger muscles, you’re going to lose a little bit of speed, because you’re not using the whip and the speed that you’ll see with the lag and release like the pros are having.

If you’re too close, you’re not going to use the big muscles, you’re going to use a little bit too much hands and arms, and we’re going to get wristy and flippy.

It’s nice to have somewhere in the middle there. If you want to be a little farther away, that’s completely fine. You can play some good golf, there’s been great golfers that are a little farther away from the golf ball.

I’m not saying that you can’t play good golf, I’m just saying there is a little bit of a downside if we’re too far away.

If I’m too close it’s going to be pretty tough, because now my body’s in the way, I’m going to have to do something to get my body out of the way, and most likely that’s going to be to stand up. So probably not your best scenario to get too close to the ball.

What about with a driver now? The same kind of thing with a driver, the only difference here is when I tilt forward, so if I’m setting up with the driver, as I tilt forward to look at the golf ball, I don’t have to tilt as far.

Instead of my body being more down, it’s a little bit farther out. So when I’m down here with an iron, I’m going to be a little bit more up and my arms naturally are going to be a little more out when that happens.

Since I’m not as far forward with my upper body, I’m going to be a little bit more out, my hands are naturally going to raise up as I’m a little bit more out.

So the same thing with the driver. I’m going to get a tilt until I can see the golf ball, little bit of knee flex, slight tilt away from the ball.

Now I’m in a position to really hit this ball nice and solid, and then I’m going to let my arms kind of hang out from there, and they’re going to be slightly more out from my body as this is happening.

That’s because this driver plane is a little flatter, and I have to stand a little farther away.

So follow those key steps, you’re going to get the perfect feeling distance from the golf ball, you’re going to have a great blend of your body and your hands and arms to create good club head speed, and distance.

If you’re a member of the website, we’re going to be in a great posture now to set up to this golf ball, but we need to have other pieces of the swing.

If we really want to hit the ball with some good speed, it’s great to have that lag like I mentioned in the golf swing and be able to release that into the Straight-Line Release.

That’s what I want you guys to do next. Let’s go to The Lag section, start from level 1, start building that lag, going through those drills so it becomes automatic.

You’re going to be the guy that has tons of lag, and then lets that club whip through contact using a great blend of your body and your hands and arms to create speed, and golf is going to be a lot easier.

So start in The Lag section, start working through those drills, build that long-lasting muscle memory to create that lag. Then from there, let’s go The Release section, Lag and Release match up hand in hand.

I go to the Straight-Line Release, I’ve got all this lag now, let me get rid of that lag to create the speed through contact. Go to level 1 again, work through those drills.

I can’t stress enough, if we just watch random videos, even if they’re great tips, even if they’re great drills, but we kind of bounce around to different things, we’re not going to get the results we want.

If we get into a structured system, and we each video builds on the one before, we can really create those long-lasting results.

So go to The Lag section, go to the Straight-Line Release, start knocking those out, you guys are going to be playing some great golf. I’ll see you there.