How to stay in your posture to hit it solid

Imagine you're addressing the ball in a room with a ceiling so low, it's barely above your head. The mistake when you swing is to clank your head off the ceiling at any point in the swing (with the exception of when you finish). If you can maintain the posture you started with all the way through impact, you greatly increase your chance of a solid shot off the sweet spot of your club. Here are some things to be mindful of to ensure you maintain your address posture. —Chris Spalla, one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers in America

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  • Support your body weight in the balls of your feet
  • Avoid it drifting into the toes (above, left) or heels (above, middle)
  • Correctly hinge from your hip joints, not from your waist (above, right)
  • Start back with your torso, not your hands
  • Keep the club from moving way inside the target line (above, left)
  • Feel like it stays in front of your chest longer in the backswing (above, right)
  • Keep coiling with your torso
  • As you swing down, clear your lead hip out of the way (above, left)
  • Let your trail side work down toward the ball (above, right)
  • Feel like you're covering it with your chest
  • Don't let your hips thrust toward the ball
  • Think, Keep my hips back
  • To stay down through the shot, think of a clockface
  • If the clock is facing your body, put your speed from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock
  • Use good hip rotation to make that to happen
  • After the club is at 9 o'clock in the through-swing, it's OK to rise up