Distance of Hands from torso at address

Was watching the masters last night and it struck me how many of the top pros seem to have a very small distance between their hands and thier torsos (belt buckle). This makes their postures very upright and it seems to lead most of them to have quite steep swing planes?

Is this ideal? I am now wondering if I hang my arms a little too far in front of me and what if/any downsides this would give?

Hi pnearn,

You made a good observation and you are right. Actually, there is nothing wrong with an upright swing plane, it all depends on your height and build. Tall people should have a steep swing plane and shorter (and especially more stocky) people should have a flatter plane. There should be a minimum amount of tension in the arms and the best way to achieve this is to let them hang down naturally. Especially with the longer clubs, that means quite close to the body.

Cheers.

The coaching manual will generally tell you that the hands should be about 2 fist widths from the waist. The key it to adopt a posture that provides this distance without you reaching for the ball (there's an excellent posture drill posted on this site).

If the hands are too close then there's potentially two problems:

1) The swing will get very wristy to clear the clubhead through the striking zone giving erratic results

2) The swing plane will vary (in to out) or (out to in) resulting in inconsistent ball flight.

I've increased the distance from my hands to my waist and in conjunction with improving my posture and my consistency has increased immensely.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Well funnily enough I played today and made a conscioius effort to stand taller to the ball, with less knee flex, my back straighter and my hands hanging down more below my eye line ( with one hand span between my hands and my torso). I also tried to ensure my swing plane was a little steeper.

Well, didnt I go and play great! Shot 81, my best round of the year !

In fact my only pre shot thought was about posture and alignment, then I just swung and let it go. Funny old game !

Im 6'1 so perhaps I have been slightly reaching for the ball. I always hear how too close to the ball is bad, but for me combined with a steeper plane, it seemed to lead to much cleaner ball striking?

You've actually hammered it right on, pnearn.

There should be about 1 span (hand width) between your hands at address and your, uh, fellas.

This does make for a very upright swing, and does generally lead to a cleaner strike.

It also makes it really, really tough to lay off and flatten out your swing (as the plane is now much more vertical).

If you're set up too far away (hands from body), you may start to hit a lot of toe shots (I know I do) as your swing wants to be compact and close.

Keep it close, keep it upright, and enjoy your ball striking!

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For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

Do you think you may have played better because your only thoughts were about posture and set-up.

Not the usual to many swing thoughts.......?



Food for thought.


Ian.

Sometimes you kid the little man into thinking about something else why your body has a great game of golf.

Ian

Yeah, I hear that, I actually thought the same myself as I was going round so I stuck with it. It actually served to clear the mind

BUT, I do think standing taller did help me swing better. It actually felt strange to begin with, but felt really comfortable by the end of the round