August - Kansas City Sports & Fitness Magazine

THE GOLF SPOTLIGHT
12 AUGUST 2011 KANSAS CITY SPORTS & FITNESS www.kcsportspaper.com
E
Good posture produces performance on the links
very golfer could use help with their
swing. From PGA professionals to the
weekend duffer, every golfer can use
some help fixing a myriad of potential
problems with their game.
Fortunately, help is available in a variety
of ways. From self-help videos and books
to personalized instruction, golfers can get
effective assistance. Much advice carries a
familiar theme: use proper posture and keep
your eye on the ball.
“Most of the problems come from their
base, from their weight position itself,” said
Mike Dickerson of Golf MD. “If the lower
body isn’t positioned right the rest of the
swing is going to be off. If your weight is
flatfooted or you are sitting on your heels,
your upper body tries to compensate. It’s
because of your weight balance. Right
when you take it away you move forward
and you’re going to come back and slice it
or dead pull it, low and to the left.”
Jeff Johnson, Master Golf Professional
from Sunflower Hills, agreed “poor posture”
is probably the No. 1 cause for a poor
golf swing.
“They don’t get setup over the ball properly
and can’t turn their body the way they
should,” Johnson said. “They end up
swinging way too hard.”
Fixing the posture problem is the
first step.
“I try to get them into an athletic stance,”
Johnson said. “I get them to bend their
knees, but a lot of
times they bend
their knees and lean
backwards, and
then they end up
back on their heels.
Your torso and your
hips can’t move
when you’re in that
kind of stance.
You have to be
up with your knees
slightly flexed.
I have them bend
slightly at the
knees. It’s better to
help them rotate
their body.”
Said Dickerson,
“When we look at
swings we always look at the lower body
first. They need to be a little bit on the balls
of their feet. Some people interpret bending
the knees wrong. Usually people knee bend
but sit back on their heels. We teach that
you have to have forward knee bend.”
Having poor posture often results in
hooks or slices, and even when hitting the
ball straight it’s without the power or distance
generated from well-postured shots.
“Golfers will
see a wide variety
of bad shots,”
Johnson said.
“They’ll swing
more with their
arms. When that
happens they’re
going to end up
not hitting the ball
solid and it’s
going to go left or
right. If you can’t
rotate your body
you can never
be on a proper
swing plane.”
Dickerson said
almost “all swings
problems” are
because of problems with the base.
“What we find and the way we work is
from the ground up, with weight distribution,
stance, and ball position,” Dickerson
said. “A lot of people make mistakes with
ball position. A lot of people play their ball
way too far back in their
stance and then they are
punching at the ball.
People exaggerate too
much with ball position.
For example, with a
pitching wedge ball
position is the center.
With an eight-iron they
move their feet up.
People don’t understand
where they need to line
the ball up.”
Using an improper stance with relation to
the ball can also cost one distance.
“If it’s too far forward on their driver,
they’ve already passed the impact zone,”
Dickerson said. “Everything is stretched
out ahead of your head. When you put it
too far forward, you reach for it and that
can cause a slice. A lot of people want to
put the ball too far forward. Everybody
wants to put it way up there. When you do
that you lose your snap. Too far back and
it can cause a push, or you hit it dead to
the right. If it’s too far back, they’ve missed
the impact zone; they’re hitting it before
the impact zone.”
The short game presents a different set of
problems.
Marc
Bowman
Contributing
Writer
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