Fit for Play
Posture
Perfect
3 Exercises to Enhance Your Stance
This Season by DAVE POND
T
HERE’S NO WAY to overstate the
importance of posture and stance
in golf. Your entire swing depends
on them. These fundamentals can not only
improve your game, but help prevent inju-
ry, too.
“Posture and stance directly affect
balance… which affects rotation… which
affects speed, and ultimately, consistency,” said
Leighann Albaugh, director of instruction at
Moseley’s Magnolia Green Golf Academy.
“When players are starting out, we give them
guidelines for posture. Tilt from the hips—
not the waist—with your arms hanging down
from your shoulders. Along the same line
that as a player’s swing develops, instruction
becomes more detailed. The same holds true
for posture.”
Of course, what “good posture” looks like
is different for every golfer.
“T h e r e ’s n o o n e b e s t p o s t u r e f o r
everybody, but there is a best posture for
every body,” said Albaugh, who was named
one of Virginia’s best teachers by Golf Digest
in 2017. “‘Best posture’ is highly personalized
and is based on how each player is built. It
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takes into account characteristics specific to
each golfer, like arm length, torso length, and
leg lengths, to name a few.”
So, that means posture is a product of each
of our own physical makeup; our flexibility,
spatial awareness, and ability to move body
segments differently in space and time.
Sounds simple, but it’s far more complex
than “grip-it-and-rip-it.”
“Posture is not a static thing,” Albaugh said.
“It needs constant adjustments to maintain
balance and positioning as we turn our torso,
shift our center of mass, and move throughout
our swing.”
Good, bad or ugly—and however effective
our swings are or aren’t—we’re all creating
motion using some sort of posture. With that
in mind, here are a few ways to check if your
golf game might be suffering from a posture-
related issue:
• C heck your balance. Are you falling
backward at the end of your swing?
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 9
• D
o other golfers in your foursome keep
telling you to keep your head down?
• A re you losing distance? How about
consistency?
• Do you find yourself exhausted with
significant back fatigue after playing
18 holes?
“Self-correction and pinpointing the
source of a swing issue can be really difficult,”
Albaugh said. “My goal is to help my
students understand basic cause-and-effect
relationships that exist within their golf
swing; the cause of an errant shot and what
to change when those shots occur. You’ll save
a lot of time and frustration by seeking the
help of a certified golf professional who can
pinpoint your posture and stance issues and
give you feedback and recommendations on
how to improve.”
Until then, here are a few drills you can do
at the range, on the course, or even at home.
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