Ball Position

[birdie_man]

Varying with relation to left heel...

or...

Constant off left heel....with varying stance width to change left shoulder to ball relationship....

....

Both work.

Any advantages?

Differences?

....

I'm thinking an adv. of the left heel way is consistency....it's always off the left heel....(but then again....to be 100% consistent you'd have to do the stance width the same each time with each club...i.e. always a certain distance apart with wedge...always a certain distance apart with 3 iron)...

....

What other differences are there?

I'm thinking anatomically......obviously, the upper body and ball to left shoulder relationship is similar between the two....what about lower body?

How does this all relate to axis tilt....forward lean....aiming point?....etc.

And what difference do the differences make?

Brian?

I onto anything?

 

[shootin4par]

since on the topic, add in opening and closing the stance. Maybe Ben Hogan was on to something

 

[birdie_man]

Yes very true very true.

And it did work well for the Hulkster...

(yeaaaaauh bruuuther)

+ Miller and Nicklaus...

(any others?)

 

[birdie_man]

Know what I mean tho guys?

Having the ball on the left heel...with a narrow stance....might place the ball in the same spot (as a "varying ball position") relative to the left shoulder...

But it's different for some reason....

Lower body.....hips....etc....axis tilt....something going on there...

 

[Justloveit]

Interesting

Very good topic and I think its one of the most neglected part . I am also interested to understand it.

but my understanding and take on this is as follows.

I understand the logic behind Mr. Ben Doyle, Mr. Hogan. One ball position and various feet position and mechanically speaking , it makes perfect sense. Wider more shallow and if your weight is at the leading theoratically it should arrive at the same spot. BUT!, it doesnt work for most hacker for a simple reason that they dont have their alignments,flat left wrist, weight shifts and flying wedges correct and it feels slightly harder to repeat the stance width. ( actually its not if u do have a preshot routine). So its not a great way for "hackers". I think as a swinger, I like this idea best

Another solution i saw is the relative to body and more or less same stance. wedge, ball in middle, driver just below the left shoulder socket ( for example).
I personally think this is Easier for beginners or hackers. And also better for Hitters.

I even heard of an alternative. Same stance , same ball position, same aiming point. used by Lynn. Dont understand how it works...

And the very difficult part about golf is , what if u have a angle hinging or a horizontal hinge, how would u setup? face open? face closed, more in front of stance ? more behind. 2J1 of golf machine. Thats all experience and according to your swing type.

I asked one of the GSED about this. In short , he replied, "I dont think i can give u a short answer on this one" very deep topic indeed.

 

[Spike]

Birdiemon! Yeahbuddy!! Great question that deserves a great answer.

This may not be it because, if I've learned anything by being here...."there are a billion ways to do anything" which some of the time is more confusing than satisfiying. But I love it for some reason.

OK, it is mho that alot of this depends on how the shaft is in relation to the body set up.

If the butt end of the club pointed directly at the center of gravity in the body then ball position would be dictated by the built-in angle of the club design. You can sort of see it in pro shops where the clubs are displayed. However, it is easier to see with blades.

Take a driver and a wedge and put both grip ends at the same point and have the leading edge or bottom grove at 90* to the target line. Place a ball in front of the leading edge (may need a partner to help). There should be just under a 4" difference between these two ball positions.

Addressing the ball (square-square) with the shaft centered to the middle of the body the ball will always be left of the shaft (Don't want to go into any variations). With this style of address you can keep the same width of stance (on average about 14"-16" at the inside of the heels). This also accomodates for axis tilt at address.

Using this as a model is a great way to learn and a lot less to worry about. Once learned then the variations will make more sense.