During a recent lesson I was asked by a student, with a combination statement and question,  that he had read or been told you can never stand too close to the ball. And he asked, in fact, if that was correct. Well, I immediately answered, “Absolutely not. You can definitely stand too close.”

Heck, if we can stand too far where we’re reaching or stretching for the ball that takes us out of dynamic balance. It should be obvious that the exact opposite could be true. We can stand too close to the ball and be out of dynamic balance. In fact, being  way too close to the ball, we’re in trouble when we swing down with our hands and arms and club to impact the ball. We could very likely start bumping our arms into our body or into our hips or into our legs and have to spin out of the shot too fast to make room. So yes, we can definitely stand too close.

But the thing that really got me thinking after that lesson for the last couple of days is that over all my years of teaching I’ve heard that question asked of me probably 100 times or more, but I’ve never had anybody ever ask me can you stand too far from the ball or reach too much for the ball?

Where did this thing ever get going that you can never stand too close? I guess it’s another one of these old wives’ tales or misconceptions that got going. But you obviously can stand too close and the body can be in the way of your arms and hands to approach the ball properly so your arms can extend out and square the club up and swing through and up to the T-Finish.

I’ve got a pretty good way you can judge that you are at the proper extension from the ball. Naturally, we know you have to be in dynamic balance, that is the weight has to be centered over or in the arches with the arms hanging relatively straight down. The way that I’ve always taught it is that when you take your athletically ready address position and you hang your arms down, if you were to look down and take a point from right where your two hands touch on the golf club, which would be your upper hand on the club. Take that very top knuckle, which is where your bottom hand would be resting of against it, draw a line straight towards your face. Proper extension would be that the line should come up somewhere between the chin and the nose.

We could maybe allow it a little bit inside the chin, not much, no more than an inch, and a little outside the nose, maybe to the eyebrows, as a margin there and test to see what works for you. But draw that line straight up, as I said, between the chin and the nose. That would mean your arms are hanging in the proper distance from the ball.

The key to all this is that many of us tend to reach too much. Why? Because reaching for the ball feels strong. If your muscles are stretched out in your arms, it feels strong and that strength give you the feeling that you can make a very powerful golf swing. But, unfortunately, when you start reaching too far, it tends to make the body bend over at the waist too much. Now what happens is that your center of gravity and your center of swing get out of balance.

The center of gravity of the body is at a point at the base of the spine. The center of gravity for the swing  is at the other end of your spine, your sternum. With the Peak Performance Swing we swing quite vertically on the maximum vertical in line plane. That means, as we turn and lift the club into the catcher’s mitt and up the tree, the front shoulder comes up to underneath your chin at the top of your sternum.

Conversely, when we swing downward and as we turn and start swinging up to the finish, as we stand up and swing up, the back shoulder comes up underneath the chin. That shows that the connecting points of the arms, which are in the shoulder sockets, the back swing lifts up to the sternum and the forward swing lifts up to the sternum. That means we are swinging around our shoulder  and that allows the very vertical golf swing we use.

Check that line out and see where your hands fall and you’ll find out what is right and what is wrong. Being directly in line with the chin up under the nose is the place you want for proper extension at address for the ball.

The Surge!

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