How Aiming Affects Ball Flight

A basic fundamental that is overlooked and misunderstood is aiming. Golf is a target-based sport yet for some reason nobody practices aiming. In this post, we will go over what most golfers do incorrectly, why it causes miss-hits and directional issues and I will provide a drill on how to fix it.

First, let's talk about what most golfers do wrong and we will refer to this person as being a right-handed player. When I take my golfers on the course I see 95% of them aiming their body way too far to the right. This can cause massive directional issues and inconsistent ball striking.

One of the reasons golfers will aim way too far to the right is because the path of the club is coming from "out to in" and across the target line and they try to compensate by aim further right. What they don't realize is by doing that, you now have to swing even more over the top to get the ball going in the direction you want.

The other reason is that golfers are not standing on the target line. They are standing to the side of the target line which makes it appear as though they are aimed too far to the left when they are lined up correctly.

Both of these faults can be cured by a simple preshot routine that I teach to all of my golfers that gets them aligned correctly for every single shot. Below is a quick little drill you can do to check and see how your alignment is correct.

What you will need: two alignment sticks and a golf club.

The Drill: Shoulders, Hips, Knees and Toes

Instructions: Place two alignment sticks or golf clubs on the ground and parallel with each other. You will have your toes up against one of the alignment sticks and use that as a reference point for aiming your body. The other stick will be for the club head to land on naturally when you set the club on the ground to finish the drill.

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