Kyle Voska Golf

Tip-Of-The-Month February ’10: Correct Alignment

ALIGNMENT KEYS

Aligning yourself correctly to your target is one of the most important and overlooked fundamentals in the game of golf. Professional golfers check their alignment on a consistent basis, sometimes every day.  Amateurs, however, seldom check their alignment.  I’d like to explain the importance of alignment in golf, what can happen if it’s off, and most importantly, how to line up correctly every time.

The Importance of Alignment

In general, if you can get your upper and lower body in sync you’re going to be a more consistent golfer. The more square (parallel) your body is to the target line the easier it is to repeat your golf swing.

I want you to think of a bunch of dominoes lined up in a straight line.  If you knocked down the first one the rest would fall accordingly.  Now, I want you to imagine the 3rd and 4th dominoes were taken out and put off to the side.  What would happen now? The remaining dominoes would act accordingly and stay up.  The analogy is that your golf swing is a domino effect of how you set up.  One of the most important things in your setup is your alignment. If your shoulders are open, your feet closed, or whatever else may be off, then you have to compensate for that during your swing. Wouldn’t it be easier if everything was lined up correctly at the start?

Incorrect Alignment Compensations

One of the most common errors I see with amateurs is open shoulders.  What that means is the shoulders are aiming left of the target.  Arms will swing where the shoulders are aiming.  So, if your shoulders are aiming left, your arms will swing left.  In golf, when you swing too much to the left, you will either hit a pull or a slice.

Another error would be aiming your feet too far to the right.  When you do this, you’ll subconsciously swing over-the-top because your eyes will be looking left of where you’re aimed.  Your eyes are very powerful and have a great influence on how and where you swing your club.

There are many others ways to line up incorrectly.  I’m not going to go through them all, but I hope you can see how lining up poorly can lead to inconsistent results.

Basics

Now, we get to the meat and potatoes of this article.  Let me start by going over the basics of alignment.  First, let’s assume you’re going to try to start the ball at the target.  Visualize a straight line going from the ball to the target. Then, visualize another line along your toe line PARALLEL (not at the target) to the ball line.  This is very important. You’re creating a small railroad track to the target.  Next, you’ll want to have your shoulders, hips, and knees parallel to your toe line (if you flare your feet out it will be more accurate if you base this line off of your heels).  Everything will be aligned together.  The closer you can get to this position, the more consistent you’ll be.

Step-By-Step On How To Line-Up Correctly

This is how to align yourself correctly every time.  This takes practice to get it down, but it’s well worth it.  I’ll go over each step:

1. Stand behind the ball and choose a target where you want the ball to start whether it’s a tree, the pin, etc. (notice I chose where you want the ball to start.  If you play a 5-yard fade then you should be aiming 5 yards left of where you want the ball to finish).
2. Pick out an intermediate target in front of your ball to line up to.  I recommend something close about a foot or two away.
3. Steps 3 and 4 go together.  Walk up to your ball and step into the shot with the club face and your right foot. Keep your left foot back.  Then, line your club face to your intermediate target, a foot or two away.   This is very simple, but don’t take it for granted.  Once your club face is on the ground, you know that it’s lined-up correctly. Leave it there.  Try not to wiggle or adjust the club head anymore.
4. After aligning the club face, match the inseam of your right foot to the leading edge of the club face.  Make them parallel.  Another way of thinking about this is you want your club face and right foot perpendicular to the target line (many times I see the right foot aiming left or right of the club face which causes the left foot to align improperly).  Also, it’s important to note that this is not your final position of your right foot.  It just helps with the next step.
5. Once your club and right foot are in line, look at your target.   Take your stance looking at your target.  Step with your left foot, and then adjust your right foot comfortably to its position. Looking at the target when setting your feet will initiate your hand-eye coordination.  Your feet react to your eyes just like your hands do.  It doesn’t make any sense to stare at the ground when setting your feet.  If you stare at the ground, your feet will be clueless as where to go and will line up differently almost every time.

Hopefully, this will help you line up parallel to your target every time.  This does take some practice.  Remember to line your club face first, then look at the target while setting your feet.  To check if you’ve done this correctly, have someone lay a club along the back of your feet and along your shoulders.  If both of those clubs are parallel to your target line, then you’ve done it correctly.

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Kyle

February 11, 2010 Posted by Kyle Voska | Fundamentals of Golf, Tips-of-the-Month | correct alignment, golf fundamentals, intermediate target, line up correctly every time, look at the target setting feet | Leave a Comment