Why Your Golf Stance is DESTROYING Your Driver Distance

In this video, Todd Kolb shares some golf tips on how to improve your golf setup. Todd Kolb explains how to improve your impact position and your golf downswing. Check out the VLS golf swing for more ways to improve your game!

✅ Want more personalized coaching? Join the VLS Coaching Program and start seeing real results: https://www.vlscoaching.com/youtube

📘 Want more tips like this? Get the lost chapter of our best-selling book The Bad Lie—FREE for a limited time: 👉 https://vlsgolf.com/pages/youtube

now in this lesson you’re going to learn how your open stance is restricting your turn and therefore it’s killing your distance You’re going to learn how the position of your trill shoulder is probably the reason you’re coming over the top And you’re going to learn how that bad ball position is keeping you from hitting that high launching drive that we all love Now the best part is is I’m going to share with you my perfect setup template that’s going to get us dialed in and start hitting some high launching drives Let’s dive right into this So I’ve got an alignment rod down right here Now this is pointed down my target line or parallel to my target line So if I have a stance that’s open as a right-handed golfer that means that my feet my hips and my shoulders are pointed to the left of my intended target line Now when I set up with my body open that takes my shoulders and my body and it opens them up to the target line which means it restricts my turn I got Nick on the camera Nick give him a thumbs up He’s down the line There we go So when I’m open like this even though if I make a turn my length of swing is not very long because my body is open If I take my stance and I square it up and I turn the same amount I now get more length and rotation relative to my target line So the first thing you got to check is that when you’re set up is make sure that your feet your hips and your shoulders are square to the target line And if you have some limited mobility or flexibility and things like that you might even close your stance a little bit Matter of fact it’s one of the core concepts of the vertical line swing that we teach It’s in the Bad Lie the book that we wrote We actually promote and teach a slightly closed stance for our experienced golfers because it increases their rotation relative to the target line So that’s tip number one Let’s talk about the trail shoulder and then we’re going to talk about the template The setup template that’s going to get all this dialed in Now the trail shoulder is another big thing you got to look for in the setup A lot of amateur golfers when they set up their trail shoulder is higher than their lead shoulder Okay so I’ve got a right shoulder a left shoulder okay or we might call trail and lead Okay and if my right shoulder my trail shoulder is higher than my lead shoulder that’s going to set my swing to work too up and down and across And that could be the main reason why you’re coming over the top So what you should be feeling and what I want you to be looking for is that when you’re set in there make sure that your lead shoulder is slightly higher than your trail shoulder Now when I do this okay that’s going to help me hit up on the golf ball And it’s also going to close my shoulder slightly See that so this would be square This would be open This would be bad We just learned that square I want them to be slightly closed but I also want my lead shoulder to be slightly higher Okay So let’s go ahead and hit a shot and then we’re going to talk about ball position Now I’ve got my launch monitor right here from Foresight to tell me if I’m hitting up on the golf ball We’re going to talk about that So here we go I’m going to take my lead shoulder close it raise it a little bit All right so let me go ahead and take a look at the numbers right there That felt pretty good I launched it pretty nice and high Angle of attack on that one was 4.6 meaning I hit up on it 4.6° I don’t want to brag but that’s ideal for me I really like that cuz when you hit up on the golf ball we get more distance Now just for fun let’s tee up another one Now to the best of my ability I’m going to try not to cheat here All right going try not to cheat but I’m going to get my shoulders in a poor position And now let’s put them in a poor Remember that poor position where the trail shoulder was high and the lead shoulder was low Okay now just for reference that last ball carried about 240 Here’s the bad setup I’m going to go open stance trail shoulder high All right that was not a very good swing but I don’t know if Nick picked that one Nick did you pick okay it was low and it was left was not very good Launch angle on that was hardly like couple degrees Everybody can see where that went That was no good Tip number two is make sure that your lead shoulder’s a little bit higher and your shoulders are slightly closed Let’s talk about the third thing ball position You would think that ball position would be easy right like gosh darn it Todd ball position is not a complicated thing But remember when we hit up on the golf ball all things being equal most golfers get more distance They get a higher launch less spin more roll So ball position is key So a lot of golfers have the ball too far back So it’s back more in the middle of their stance And when the ball’s back they’re not able to hit up on the golf ball So I want you to feel that the ball is forward So where should it be well let’s take the alignment rod here and let’s switch it Here we go So now we’re going this way But this last thing I want to give you here on the ball position is I want the ball to be towards your lead heel Okay so I got the ball towards my lead heel That’s going to help me hit up on the golf ball So let’s hit another one Notice a slightly closed stance One of the core concepts of the vertical line swing Ball off the heel Shoulders in the right spot Let’s go ahead and swing it Okay that one felt good I don’t know Maybe leave in the comments How’s my swing looking listen I can use some pointers every once in a while Be sure to let us know where you’re from We love hearing where you’re from It’s one of our favorite things to do to to hear from you and what’s going on All right up on that What did we have okay 3.6 That’s pretty good for me I’ll take that 3.6 carry on that one About 240 240 241 to be exact That’s not bad with a little bit of roll out That’s probably 265 270 I’ll take that I promised you this the perfect setup template Let’s go through this and let’s tie this all together All right So here’s what you’re going to do Let me move my alignment rod out of the way We’re going to tie all this together The first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to grip it with your lead hand only So for me that’s my left hand I’m going to get my grip dialed in All right Then I’m going to take my feet I’m going to put them together Notice how my feet are together and I’m gripping it with just my lead hand I’m going to place the golf club behind the ball And notice where my feet are at The ball is right here just off my lead foot Okay so I got gripping it in my lead hand only My feet are together The ball’s off my lead foot I’m going to take a tiny step this way See that tiny step that gets the ball in the right spot Remember off my lead heel Big step back Big step back but also back and away from the target See that back and a little bit away And then the last part is tilt the shoulders Let me do it again So here we go Feet together Grip it Lead hand only Ball just slightly in front of my foot Mini step Step away and slightly back Lead shoulder up Raise the handle Nice big turn Perfect Nice high launch I’ll take that every single time Your setup can really play a huge impact on how you swing the golf club Now that we got you hitting the golf ball more solid check out my next video And if you want to personally work with us and my team on your golf game check out vlscoaching.com