[golfbulldog]

I agree with - set up establishes balance....the brain is phenomenally good at maintaining balance on autopilot...trouble is our swings often get in the way of balance !

I was watching Ernie Els on TV this weekend at World Matchplay whilst I was reading Percy Boomer and inevitably I saw his sense of balance at set-up.

What struck me was his gentle movement in all 3 dimensions as he set up. Looked like he was (perhaps unconsciously) moving his body and feeling his COG. I think that you might have to move something to feel its COG... I am imagining seeing a box and trying to pick it up.... if the box is asymmetrically packed then the COG is not in the visual centre of the box....but we can only tell that when we move the box.... I liked his gentle movement of the body - easy rhythm to it... like a body waggle...Boomer liked to think that the body waggled the club too...

But back to set up....if I list some of the components that contribute to set up then maybe further discussion can flow....

Ball Position
Relative to Left shoulder or feet

Feet
Width apart
Weight distribution - "toe to heel" and "left to right"
Feet alignment relative to target

Knees
Knee Flex
Where the knees point ( inwards, like Hogan recommends, or Outwards)

Hips
Hip Bend
Hip alignment relative to target

Spine
Spine angle
Degree of straightness

Shoulders
Shoulder slant ( how much left shoulder is higher than right)
Shoulder alignment relative to target

Head/Chin
Relative to feet
Pointing of chin (central/left/right)
Height of Chin ( on chest/ chin up(look down nose)/ in between)

Arms
Arms hang ( vertically / slight stretch forward / stretched forward like Moe Norman)
Right elbow bend ?( like Hogan described in power golf)?

Shaft
Impact hands/forward lean
Mid-body hands/Vertical

Those are the variables that I can think of...lots of options...so for purpose of initial discussion - assume for standrad 6 iron shot - straight to green from a level lie . Some of the variables effect others....