Image: Matthew Harris/TGPL

Golf Australia teaching editor and former PGA of Australia Coach of the Year Gary Edwin believes anybody can learn to be a great golfer if they have an understanding of a few simple concepts.

These concepts form the foundation of his right-sided swing technique and one of the fundamental aspects of the technique is good body angles.

Edwin’s players get into position early and have no need for compensatory moves in their swing. Their swings are powerful, repeatable and efficient. This is due to good body angles they create at address and maintain during the swing. Get your body angles right at address, then you have more of a chance of getting the swing working well early and the club moving in the right direction during the swing.

The correct body angle at set-up is one that closely resembles your body angle in the impact position.

To get your body into the correct set-up position, adopt a reverse ‘K’ shape looking from front on. This means the left side of your body will appear to be mainly straight and the right side will have some angle in it, creating the ‘K’ shape. Maintaining this shape from start to finish will form the basis of a solid swing. Martin Kaymer is not a Gary Edwin-coached played but you can see how his good body angles at address have translated into the reverse ‘K’ body shape at impact.

Many club golfers set up in the reverse shape, i.e. the right side is straight and the left has the angle. They then look to create correct body angles while they are swinging the club in order to find a decent body shape at impact. All this moving around in the swing leads to common faults that can ruin your game, such as a reverse pivot, swaying and fat iron shots.

From the March 2013 issue of Golf Australia