David Thomas on Spine Angle (Video)

David Thomas from the PGA of Australia has a drill to help you learn how to keep your spine angle the same during your backswing.



The drill itself is pretty much self-explanatory. But I want to talk a bit about the ball position during the drill, since it's not what you might expect.

David says to place the ball about 1.5 meters away from you, opposite the inside of your right foot.

• First of all, for you lefties, that will be your left foot.
• And for all my American readers who, like me, don't think in meters, 1.5 metters is roughly 5 feet. Yes, that's much too far away for you to actually hit the ball during a swing!

But that's the point here. Your hands and arms hang from your shoulders, and you aren't aiming your hands and arms at the ball. Rather, you're aiming your shoulder line at the ball. And that line will be shallower than your swing plane.

Yes, I know that's counter-intuitive. We are so used to thinking about swing planes that we often forget that there is more than one plane in a golf swing. The shoulder plane is perpendicular to your spine angle; your swing plane is steeper.

This drill will help you learn how to maintain your spine angle during your backswing and not stand up. Standing up during your swing will cause you to mis-hit the ball at impact, and we don't want that!

It's a simple drill that you can do inside, whenever you have a spare moment. Furthermore, you can do this drill quickly while out on the course during a round if you need to check your spine angle. In my book, that's a good drill.