Full Answer
How wide should your golf stance be?
How Wide Your Golf Stance Should Be And Why It’s Important Most people say that for your golf stance to be perfect, it should be about shoulder width apart. When your feet are shoulder width apart, you can have the perfect combination of flexibility and stability to hit ball long and straight.
What is a narrow stance in golf?
A narrow stance limits how far many golfers can turn on the backswing and prevents swinging the club back too far inside the target line. For chips and pitches around the green, most players prefer a narrow stance, with the heels a few inches apart.
Should I use a narrow or wide stance on my swing?
Although a narrow stance tends to make swaying easier, it also makes it easier to detect. You may find that a narrow stance makes you much more aware of where your balance is and allows you to control it better. An excellent drill I like to use for this is as follows: Allow your right heel to lift on the downswing in order to help you rotate
How narrow should your golf stance be?
A narrow golf stance is typically one that is slightly more narrow than shoulder width. The standard golf stance is about shoulder width apart with your feet; narrow stance golfers will have their feet even closer than this.
Is a narrow golf stance better?
Narrowing your stance will allow for a better rotation in the back swing, which in turn will allow you to get your arms more around your body at the top, this will give you more chance of approaching the ball with a path to the right.
How wide should my stance be for golf?
The Proper Width Of Your Stance For your starting position, your legs should be shoulder width apart. If you are using a middle iron, this is your stance. Widen your stance for longer clubs such as drivers or woods. For short irons or wedges, bring your stance in by an inch or two.
What happens if my golf stance is too wide?
The wider your golf stance, the bigger the shift, and the more time it takes. When the golf stance is too wide, you'll typically be pushing off the right side, which will drive your hip into the ball and cause you to lose your spine angle in the downswing.
How wide should your feet be with driver?
They set their feet about as wide as their hips, head in line with the ball, shoulders level (above, right). That's not a stable position, and usually sends the ball short and right. Try this instead: Take your normal stance, then drop your right foot back a few inches, letting your head go with it.
How wide is Moe Norman stance?
WIDE STANCE: This is the stance with we recommend for the golf swing. A 6 iron is just slightly less than shoulder width. A driver is just slightly wider than shoulder width. Exact measurements would have the driver stance exactly 22 inches from inside the left and right heel.
How do you hit a golf ball further with a shorter swing?
2:0010:40Swing SHORTER Hit FARTHER - The Best Golf Ball Striking Tip You Need ...YouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIf you go any further it breaks. Down got the elbows together the lead arm straight the next thingMoreIf you go any further it breaks. Down got the elbows together the lead arm straight the next thing you need to do is get a little bit of weight on the front. Side keep your body over the golf ball.
Can a wide stance cause a slice?
A stance too wide will restrict lower body motion and inhibit weight transfer. This can cause the upper body to become overly active resulting in a slice or pulled shots, like you can see in the image above.
What is the correct stance in golf?
As with most things in golf, the correct stance will depend on your swing tendencies and body flexibility/limitations. Don’t be afraid to experiment with stance width to find out what works for you. You may find a narrow stance helps you turn better. But you may find a wide stance helps your balance.
How does a wide stance help in golf?
Wide stance can reduce lateral movement. A wide stance can reduce swaying, or lateral movement, by keeping the golfer more centred. This can help to achieve better rotation during the golf swing. Too much lateral movement during the swing tends to make proper rotation and hip motion very difficult.
Why is a wide stance important?
A wide stance can benefit golfers who have problems with balance and particularly those with a large amount of lateral movement during the swing. If you are someone that struggles with balance, be sure to check the width of your stance and feel free to experiment with a wider stance.
Why is a narrow stance better than a wide stance?
Better weight shift (particularly in downswing & followthrough) Whilst a wide stance can help to keep you centred and improve balance, it can make it much more difficult to turn.
How to improve ball striking with all clubs?
Narrow stance can improve ball striking with all clubs. Unless you are a very skilled golfer, you could probably improve your body rotation. All the best ball strikers have excellent rotation through impact. This prevents the clubhead from passing the hands and leads to consistent contact.
What is Bubba Watson's stance?
Look at the image below where his stance is less than shoulder width wide, even with a mid iron. Bubba Watson’s narrow iron stance.
What is the best way to strike a golf ball?
Narrow stance for better ball striking. A narrow stance can help your ball striking throughout the bag. Typically it can make the biggest difference with the longer clubs, since this is where you normally take a wide stance. Narrow stance can improve ball striking with all clubs.
The Magic of the Narrow Golf Stance Width Drill
In fact I’ll bet you do lose your balance for about the first five practice swings you take! But by putting them together, you will be forced to focus on your balance and tempo and keeping your center of gravity under control.
The Narrow Golf Stance Width Drill Gives Instant Feedback
You may find that keeping your feet together is quite hard to do — if so you have a swing fault or two that needs attention.
Do the Drill During Your Round
Another great thing about the narrow golf stance width drill is that you can do it on the golf course. Got some extra time waiting for the group in front of you to clear that par-3? Take a practice swing here and there with your feet together, just to remind yourself of how a solid golf swing should feel.
Why is my stance width important in golf?
Your stance width needs to allow you to get on your left side at impact to rotate freely and avoid injuries. You don’t see a lot of injuries happening during the golf backswing because there’s not as much force and speed happening. But the downswing can cause issues such as back problems, hip problems, and knee problems.
How to determine proper stance width?
Determining the proper golf stance width is one of those things in golf instruction that there’s a lot of conflicting information on. You've certainly heard all of these before from various golf instructors: Stand really wide so you can be really stable. Stand really narrow so you can rotate better. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart like ...
Which side of the golf swing is the most important?
The most important part of the golf swing is getting perfectly stacked on the left side at impact so that you can rotate freely. This is where some of the highest forces in the golf swing occur on your body, on this left side coming in the downswing and into impact. And so this is where a lot of injuries occur.
How to be more stable in sports?
Stand really wide so you can be really stable. Stand really narrow so you can rotate better. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart like you do in other sports. All these recommendations are misinformation even though the intentions may be good.
What is the role of stance in golf?
Your stance plays a key role in maintaining balance. Your choice of using a narrow stance or wide stance will impact every part of your game, from driving to putting.
What is a narrow vs wide stance?
A Narrow Vs. Wide Golf Stance. Golfers need to stay balanced on every shot. Excessive motion -- swaying, leaning and tilting during your swing -- can produce all manner of ugly mishits and misdirected shots. But golfers also need freedom of motion to swing and turn for powerful, accurate shots. Your stance plays a key role in maintaining balance.
What is the best stance for a PGA driver?
Full Swing, Narrow Stance. New Jersey-based PGA instructor Mike Adams recommends a narrow stance where you set your feet hip-width apart for the driver. According to Adams, this stance will allow you to use the larger muscles in your legs freely for extra power and clubhead speed.
Why do you narrow your stance?
A wide stance, Rice argues, will allow you to stay behind the ball and swing up on it -- two keys many golfers use for longer drives. As you move down through your irons, you can narrow your stance slightly with each club because you won’t need such a long, powerful swing.
What is putting in golf?
Putting is the most individualistic part of the golf. You will see a variety of stances on the green, some wide, others narrow. Stan Utley, a putting coach to many tour players, teaches golfers to use a relatively narrow stance. He says keeping your feet closer together allows you to rotate you shoulders around the spine for a stroke ...
How to play chips on the green?
For chips and pitches around the green, most players prefer a n arrow stance, with the heels a few inches apart. Instructor David Leadbetter, coach to many tour players, says that a narrow stance will help you lean your upper body slightly toward the target for chips. If you take a wide stance for chips, you may tend to tilt backward during ...
Is it better to have a wide or narrow stance in golf?
Having a stance that is the correct width for each club will provide optimal results than a stance that is too wide, or too narrow. For this reason, wider is not necessarily ‘better’. A stance that is too wide may restrict rotation, just as a too narrow stance may leave you unbalanced.
How wide should my stance be in golf?
No club is the same when it comes to the width of your stance. It’s important to adjust your set-up position to cater for this. Below, I’ll elaborate further on the correct stance for every club.
What happens if my golf stance is too wide?
A stance that is too wide will likely have a negative impact on your golf swing as it will restrict your hip turn, both in the backswing and downswing.
How does width of stance affect your golf swing?
Typically, a golf stance that is too narrow may lead to an unbalanced or unstable swing – especially when playing a full shot. On the other hand, a stance that is too wide can cause restriction of the hips, which may cause unwanted inefficiencies in your swing.
Final message
When it comes to the width of your stance in the golf swing, it’s important not to overcomplicate things.
What happens if your stance is too narrow?
Conversely, if your stance is too narrow, your lower body becomes way too active — good for the dance floor but not when you’re looking to catch shots solid on the course. An overactive lower body throws off your timing and balance.
Should you put your feet in the correct position before starting the club back?
It should never happen in the first place, because let’s be honest: Setting your feet in the correct position before you start the club back is probably the easiest thing you can do in this game. After 30 years of teaching, I’m still amazed how most recreational golfers choose to ignore fundamentals such as stance width.
Is it bad to take your ballstriking to new heights?
Another mistake you can easily avoid while taking your ballstriking to new heights is bad stance width. Keep reading to get it right. Making your stance too narrow or too wide at setup can force all sorts of difficult-to-time compensations later in your swing, some of which can become repetitive and take years to undo.
What is the narrower stance?
Boris. ..of the narrower stance (max. shoulder width for driver) is that it promotes more turning and discourages lunging at the ball in the downswing. A narrower stance is therefore more rotational as opposed to a wider stance that does not permit as much rotation by the torso.
What does a good stance do?
It supports the power of the upper body and arms. A good stance allows you to turn without swaying and get a fuller coil. Get in the postion that enables you to deliver this power. A very narrow stance doesn't look as powerful or as "macho" as a wide stance, but take it from a pretty decent golfer that it works.
Did Bobby Jones use a narrow stance?
Bobby Jones won major championships using a stance for woods and long irons no wider that a foot according to some authors. You're probably in good company. Also a narrow stance doesn't limit your hip from turning back so if you have limited flexibility the narrow stance can help complete the backswing.
Is a narrow stance good for golf?
Like most things in the golf swing the proper stance width depends on your swing. A narrow stance is not a good idea if your intention is to 'face the ball at impact' which is a SA swing fundamental.
Rotation is Impaired
Proper weight transfer is one of the most important aspects of the golf swing.
Try It and See
Stand up and see for yourself. When you put your feet very close together, you'll see that it's easy to pivot your hips from side to side because you can transfer your weight effortlessly from one foot to the other.
Check Your Right Shoe
Looking at the swing from down the line, if you're stance is too wide you will typically be pushing off your right side in an effort to get your weight back to the left.
