What is Your Body Telling Me?

Some of the things that go on “behind the scenes” at the beginning of a first golf lesson might surprise you. When I see a student, I’m immediately evaluating non-golf things like posture—because these human factors have a big impact on the priorities we set for your game improvement. Why is posture is one of the first things we check? Look at this image to the right. This player is a fantastic amateur competitor who plays to a plus-6 handicap. See how the various segments of his body don’t exactly line up in what you would call a “military” or classroom skeleton posture? Most people don’t realize that they stand and walk with their pelvis ahead of the feet. This forces you to lean back in your lower lumbar area, which then influences your cervical spine and head to angle forward. All of these shifts—and the relative amount they happen—impact exactly what you can ask your body to productively do during a swing. If you try to import something into your swing that doesn’t take these elements into consideration, the best case scenario is that you’re going to struggle to get better. The worst case scenario is that you’re going to get hurt. One of the biggest limitations to some of the online lessons or social-media-based golf instruction out there is that the teacher can’t possibly see or know what works for your particular body configuration.

Golf Digest Top 10 Teacher in America Michael Jacobs is the PGA Head Professional at Rock Hill Golf Club.