 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Are you interested in going away on a golf break? Golfbreaks.com save time and money when arranging golf holidays and work with over 350 venues across the UK and Europe. To visit their website or to view their golf tuition packages, click here. |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
Article 6 - Ball Position - September 2007 Ball Position A very important, yet often overcomplicated and misunderstood, aspect of the golf swing is ball position. The position of the golf ball in relation to your set up is mainly dependent upon the club you are using and the angle of attack required to produce the desired ball flight for that club. To help simplify things we find that referring to a ball position zone is often helpful. The Ball Position Zone The ball position zone is not actually that large, it covers the area in your stance from opposite the inside of your left heel to the center of your feet. As you move down through your clubs, from your driver to your wedges, the ball moves progressively from opposite your left heel to the centre of your stance from your point of view.
We are going to look at ball position with three specific clubs - Driver, 5-Iron and Pitching Wedge Ball Position with the Driver
With the Driver the ball should be played from a position opposite your left heel - forward in your stance from your point of view. This position encourages the correct ‘sweeping’ angle of attack required for the driver. As you can see from the pictures above, the head is behind the ball at set up (focused on the back of the ball ) and remains there through impact. Ball Position with the 5-Iron
With the five iron the ball is positioned two to three inches inside the left heel - still forward in your stance .Although the ball is not as far forward as it was with the driver, the head still remains behind the ball at set up. Having the ball in this position allows you to strike the ball with a slightly descending blow (notice lean of shaft at impact) that results in a small, shallow divot being taken after impact. Ball Position with the Pitching Wedge
If you look closely at the pictures above you will notice that with a pitching wedge, although the ball is positioned in the middle of the stance with the head looking down at the ball, the ball hasn’t actually moved in relation to the left heel. As the club gets shorter the width of stance narrows so that the ball is more central. This will create a more downward strike than with the five iron (notice how shaft lean is greater than five iron). This will lead to more backspin, more height, and therefore more control..
Exceptions to The Rule
Ball position is one of the most personalised aspects of golf technique. We would advise all golfers to experiment with their ball position to find out what works best for them. Although there are no hard and fast rules we strongly recommend that all experimentation should be done within the ball position zone we have described.
|
Like anything in golf there are exceptions to the rule, whether it be Vijay Singh teeing his driver up level with the outside of his left foot or Tiger Woods playing his 3 wood well back in his stance to hit the ‘stinger’. As you can see from this picture, when playing shorter shots such as pitching and chipping the ball may move back to the right foot (yet again more to do with the right foot stepping in than the ball actually moving).
|
|
|
|