Benefits of Standing Tall in the Golf Swing

When it comes to swinging the golf club, your stance is everything. You need to learn the proper form, the proper stance, how close to stand to the ball, and what your posture should look like as well.

While many people tend to bend or tilt for their golf swing, there are some really great benefits to learning to stand tall in the golf swing.

In this guide, we will walk you through these benefits and even walk you through how you might be able to put this to work for you when you play next!

The Importance Of Proper Posture In Your Golf Swing

In the case of posture with golf, we don’t necessarily mean rigid posture. What we mean is that your golf posture does make a difference. Posture should be part of your stance and sometimes that may mean bending slightly or even curving slightly.

However, you will find that proper posture rules that you are probably familiar with, such as standing straight and tall or keeping your back straight, really are an important part of golf posture as well. Your swing relies heavily on your posture.

According to the Westridge Golf Centre, one of the most common issues with an inconsistent golf swing is your posture. This is overlooked quite often but your posture directly relates to your swing, your balance, and the turns of your body from start to finish.

Failure to associate proper posture with your golf swing might cause muscle stiffness, poor flexibility, no upper body separation, or problems with your core and stabilization.

Proper posture will consist of these qualities.

• Standing upright with straight legs
• Relaxed arms that are straight but comfortable
• Soften the knees slightly and move your weight to the balls of your feet
• Proper width in your stance
• Hold your club at waist height
• Keep your back straight as you tilt forward

The Benefits Of Standing Tall In The Golf Swing

Let’s talk first about the primary benefits of standing tall while you swing. Standing tall does not necessarily mean that you won’t tilt forward at all.

What it means is that you may tilt slightly less and that while you tilt forward, you’re keeping your back straight and standing tall, even at the tilt.

Many golfers make the mistake of allowing their back to curve then they tilt forward. We want to be certain you understand you will still tilt but your back should remain straight, as if you were standing tall.

If it helps, you might consider standing tall and then maintaining the straight posture as you tilt slightly forward.

Now, let’s discuss some benefits of standing tall in the golf swing.

 

Posture Is A Fundamental

If you’ve ever been involved in lessons, you know that your posture is essential to your swing. According to Bernard Gallacher, standing tall allows you to turn easier from your backswing to your follow through and everywhere in between.

Your posture will dictate how the swing impacts the ball. You can control your movement by turning far better if your back is straight as you make your movements.

Prevent Early Release

Did you know that if you curve your shoulders, they might actually get in the way of your swing?

Curving your shoulders could cause your shoulder to come across the shot and deviates the movements in your swing. This leads to early release in the swing.

Increase Spin

According to PGA Director Gary Brooks, standing tall is just part of preparing for your game, much like with basketball or baseball and taking your stance for your position.

If you stand tall, you can get a better angle at the ball and increase your spin with impact.

Your swing will give you spin and the proper angle when you hit the ball if you stand tall to hit the ball.

More Power

Standing tall puts power behind your swing. If you want to make solid contact, having good posture when you swing is the key.

Stand tall and straighten your spine as much as possible, even if you are bending or tilting, you should keep your shoulders back and stand tall as you do so.

When your posture doesn’t interfere with your swing, you get more power behind your swing each time.

Consistency

Finally, learning to perfect your posture and get the entire stance correct will help you get a more consistent hit every single time. If you’re tired of having a good hit here and then a bad hit there, try standing tall for every hit.

It’s the total stance and standing tall is one of the most important elements to hitting strongly and consistently with every swing, according to Schiavetta Golf.

As far as we are concerned, there are no disadvantages to standing tall on your swing. It’s simply part of the proper stance. You may need to adjust your leg or foot stance to accommodate standing tall.

Standing Tall: Driver Vs. Iron

Standing tall should be done with every shot. I don’t care if you’re putting, driving, slicing, or something else. Every shot should start with standing tall. But how does your standing tall approach make a difference with the varying clubs?

If you are familiar with different golf clubs, you know that a driver can be very long. So standing tall is easy, right? Sure it is! But you also need to perfect your stance from head to toe and standing tall is just a part of that.

The same with an iron. Irons are not as long as so standing tall may be more of a challenge. In this instance, you can take a step back and add a bit more tilt to your stance. Do not curve your shoulders to “reach” the ball but rather stand farther away from the ball instead.

Standing tall when you hit with your driver delivers more distance. This quick YouTube example from Jonathan Moore gives you a good indication of the power and distance that comes from standing tall when using a driver.

The same applies when using an iron. On the Wisdom in Golf Forum, we found a great example to relate to. When hitting with an iron, a pro recommended standing taller during his hit and he immediately found that doing so produced a better swing with his iron.

In both cases, your stance and how your club lines up with the ball matters. You may need to stand closer or farther away from the ball but the key to your swing is to always stand tall and don’t curve your shoulders or back.

Do Taller Players Have A Golf Advantage?

If you take a look at the statistics or watch some of the golf tours, you will notice that you don’t have to be exceptionally tall to play a good game of golf.

When you hear the term stand tall, you automatically assume that height helps you play golf better. This is not really the case.

While height can certainly have its advantages, say when you’re driving the ball, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a taller player has an overall advantage.

Golf WRX put together a table that is very helpful for comparison purposes here. In looking at the statistics of height compared to the number of wins, the tallest players did not always win. In fact, in their specific example, one of the shortest players actually produced more wins than the tallest player in the ranking.

If you decide to take a look at that scenario and their chart, you will see that there is a pretty even mix of the height and the results, giving us reason to believe that it really isn’t about the height in the end.

In some cases, it might even be said that a shorter player may hold a slight advantage but this is primarily related to the fact that they are less likely to be injured and not the quality of their swings or scores.

In the same article, the “perfect” golfer is around 5’11”.

On average, height did not seem to provide an advantage or a disadvantage.

What Does a Tall Swing Look Like?

Remember that it’s not just about standing tall but about your overall stance.

So when you stand tall, what does that swing ideally look like? We thought Bernard Gallacher’s tips for building a golf swing were incredibly helpful here.

Start with Wrists and Forearms

The first suggestion is to get your wrists and forearms positioned properly.

You want your wrists to be cocked when you swing and not turning to adjust for an awkward grip or stance.

Straighten your arms but not stick straight. They should be slightly relaxed and straight down when you tilt.

 

The Club Is Part Of You

The club should be an extension of you.

If you’re right-handed, it becomes an extension of your left arm and if you are left-handed, it becomes an extension of your right arm.

Your takeaway as you swing should be a smooth, single movement, keeping your arm in unison with the club, as if it were a part of that arm.

The Shoulder Turn

Next, your backswing and your downswing are impacted by that tall stance.

Your shoulders will turn as part of your movement. When you reach your full backswing, your arms will be above your shoulders as you turn.

Then, you move to your downswing turning your shoulders back towards center and moving your hips to swing through.

Check Your Elbows

As part of your standing tall stance, be sure to check your elbows.

As a general rule of thumb, your elbows will be tucks in close to you, regardless of your height, when your stance is just right.

Get the Feet Right

Finally, your feet are an essential part of your standing tall stance as well.

Typically, your feet will be in a stance that is about as wide as your shoulders. For some swings, you will bring your gait wider and for some swings, you will narrow your gait.

The goal of your foot stance is to give you balance while you stand tall and swing so you keep control.

Advantages Of Upright Golf Swings For Seniors

While it may seem like it’s hard to maintain a straight or tall stance for some, it actually has a lot of health benefits as well. Your Long Game tells us that having an upright golf swing reduces back pain and strain in your swing.

If you stand tall and use an upright swing, you twist less through your swing and rely more on your arms than a twist of your spine.

In this case, it reduces the strain on your back and likewise also helps to reduce the stress that a non-upright swing might have on your spine, shoulders, and neck.

This can make the upright swing highly advantageous or seniors as well as anyone who suffers from back pain or strain as well.,

How To Stop Standing Up When Hitting The Ball

Unfortunately, players who don’t quite have their full swing down or have not learned to stand tall while hitting the ball, actually run into an issue with standing up when they hit the ball.

This is because they are trying to correct from not standing tall.

This quick YouTube video provides an excellent example of using a standing tall stance to work through a swing and helping to train any golfer who struggles to not stand up when they hit the ball.

Conclusion

Standing tall in your golf swing is a far better alternative to standing with poor posture. Every aspect of your swing and your stance can be vastly improved by this slight adjustment.

While it will certainly take some getting used to, you will find that standing tall will benefit your game in the end.

We would like to challenge you to assess your stance. Are you standing tall or do you tend to slouch? Make a conscious effort to stand tall and see just what it does for your swing!