If there is one element of the address position that far outweighs the others in order of importance it's what I call the tilt. Not only does your upper body need to be parallel to the target line, (the line your toes are on), but it needs to be angled correctly.
The left side of your body, and your left shoulder and arm, must be lower than your right.
This is something that is not only important but is something that has to happen. When you grip your club, your left hand is below your right. Unless you swing cross-handed on your full swings, which is highly unlikely, your left hand is lower than your right. Well, if your left hand is lower than your right then your left shoulder must be lower than your right. Unless your left arm is 5 inches longer than your right arm, this must be. When addressing the ball correctly your upper body or spine, tilts back slightly with the left shoulder lowering. The left shoulder is 4 or 5 inches lower than the right because the left hand is lower. Your spine is angled some 10 degrees to the left.
When you do this, and make sure you do, your head moves back to the left as well positioning it behind the ball. Your right ear is lined up with the golf ball. Your nose is about 5 inches behind the ball. All these things happen when you tilt. Most amateurs line up with their nose directly over the ball or worse, have their head in front of the ball. They think this is correct and try to stand there with their shoulders perfectly level to the ground. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
In all my lessons, this is one correction I have to make on literally every student. Even a 2-handicapper doesn't do this correctly. In my opinion it is the No. 1 mistake the average player makes and worse, they have no idea that they should be tilted.
When you are in the correct tilted position, there is another important factor that happens. Your right arm should be two inches above your left arm. The right arm is further away from your body than your left arm is. Your left arm and elbow are closer to your body than your right arm is. The left elbow is very close to the left hip. If you were standing in front of me, I should be able to put a golf club through your arms with the right arm being over the club and the left arm being under. The only way possible to have your left hand below your right, and keep your left arm inward of the right arm is if you tilt.
During my first lesson with a new student this is one of the first items I show them and am always astounded how much better they hit the ball simply by making this correction. Before doing anything on their swing, I get them to tilt properly and BAM! They hit the ball like they never have. 90-percent of them arrive with a slice, and 99-percent of them draw the ball with this simple correction. So will you!
Why the Tilt is so Important
Other than simply being correct, looking better, and feeling more powerful, the tilt has a dramatic effect on the way you will hit the golf ball. The following list will go over what happens to your swing when you tilt, or when you don't, and what bad shots may occur as a result.
A) Lack of power in your swing.
When your body is not tilted back your head stays in front of the ball. We all know that turning your shoulders back behind the ball on the backswing is crucial in attaining power. Fundamental #1 will cover this in depth later on. Well, it's kind of hard to turn your shoulders back if your head is in front of the ball. It will be virtually impossible to get any measurable shoulder turn if your head stays in front of the ball. With the tilt, your head is behind the ball at your address position, which allows your shoulders to turn a great deal. The golfer whose head is in front of the ball can only swing back with his arms, which will never generate the power that the body will. Imagine trying to throw a baseball keeping your head forward. You couldn't turn back nearly enough to throw the ball any distance at all. In fact, if you swing back with just your arms your weight stays forward, (on your front foot), and when you swing down your weight may actually go back. You end up on your left foot falling over backwards. This is commonly referred to as a reverse weight shift and is prevalent in many high handicappers swings. It doesn't make much sense to try to hit the ball in one direction and fall over in the other direction. With your upper body tilted back and your head behind the ball your weight shifts on to your left leg. From here a powerful transfer of weight over your right side naturally occurs gaining you distance you may not be accustomed to. Natural power!
B) A Slice
With your head in front of the ball in an un-tilted position you may slice the ball. As you just read, your shoulders cannot turn back when your head is in front of the golf ball. If your shoulders don't turn back enough you never get your body behind the ball. Since you're not behind the ball on your backswing, you move ahead of the ball on your downswing and the ball slices. The face of your club can't square up as it hits the ball as your upper body has moved ahead of its center. Picture # shows this. The golfer has moved his upper body ahead of where it was at address, which will make the club not square up until after it has hit the ball. The clubface is still open when it reaches the ball. This could either push or slice the ball.
Think of opening and closing a door. If the door opens 3 feet on the backswing, then closes 3 feet on the downswing, it's square. If the door opens only 2 feet on the backswing then tries to close 3, it's still open. It would not shut squarely. This lack of turn is the major reason I see students slice the ball and it's really a shame because it's so easy to correct. Simply getting the tilt moves your head back and lets your shoulders turn enough on the backswing, which will square up the clubface.
The slice is also generated from this position because the club cannot go back on the proper line. With your head too far forward and your left arm not tucked in, you're in an "open" position with your shoulders, which causes the club to move out from you on the backswing. This in turn causes the downswing to do the reverse, to move in, cutting across the ball thus producing the slice.
C) A Pull
The lack of a tilt can make the ball start to the right of your target. Similar to the last problem, your shoulders are open (pointing to the right) at address because the left arm is outward of the right. When your arms swing the club back, it starts going outside the target line. On the downswing it's moving too far inside or right and a pull results. Simply put, if your shoulders are aiming right at address the club will swing that way as it strikes the ball. You couldn't square your shoulders at address because you didn't tilt. Depending on the position of your clubface at impact, you either hit a straight pull, or a pull slice if the clubface if open. If the face of the club happened to close which is the rarity, you would hit a pull hook which is never fun. The ball starts right and curves more right.
D) A Fat Shot
Once again the tilt, or lack of it, can cause another ugly shot. With no tilt, your arms pick the club up too steeply on your backswing. Because you swing up too steep on the backswing, you swing down too steep on the downswing and stick the club into the ground several inches behind the ball. The opposite of straight up is straight down. With an insufficient shoulder turn, the arms take over and cause a swing that is far too upright. Up, down, fat! The fat shot is almost guaranteed right when you start if you don't tilt the spine back at address. The reverse weight shift that happens on the weak shot also makes the club come down behind the ball because the weight is moving back, towards the left foot, instead of forward toward the target. If your weight is over the left foot at impact the club will hit the ground to the left of the ball resulting in the fat shot.
E) The Thin or Topped Shot
If your club doesn't stick into the ground 3 inches behind the ball it starts climbing back up into your follow through. The club reaches the low spot too far back, (center of gravity) then starts going up. It's rather difficult to hit down on the ball when your club is moving up. The lack of tilt, which caused the head to be in front of the ball hindered the shoulder turn on the backswing. The arms swung up too steep on the backswing and come down too steep on the downswing. Immediately after reaching the low spot where it usually sticks into the ground the club swings up sharply. There's your thin shot.
What the explanations A-D show is the importance of the tilt. Getting this one element of your address position left can eliminate so many of golf's common flubs. You don't have to be a world class athlete to stand correctly, and the improvements that result are stunning.
