Chris Ries: Hello everyone! My name is Chris Ries; I am one of the teaching professional here at TopGolf in Alexandria, Virginia. We are here today working on our full swing and long game, but before we get started with the full swing, we need to discuss three very good, basic fundamentals in the golf game and that's grip, stance, and posture. What we want to do as we hold the golf club, I always want the toe of the golf club pointing straight up in the air when the golf club is out in front of me. We'll set it down and here's what we want to do with our left hand or our top hand. It should be about one finger deep into the grip which will allow us a little bit of room here at the bottom or butt end of the club so that the back of my left hand is actually at the top of the grip. I do not want my pinky at the top of the grip. As we open up our left hand, the grip or the handle of the clubs should run at a very slight angle between the middle pad of my index finger up into the crux of my pinky. I now close my left hand on the grip, trying to make my left thumb very, very, very long on the grip. I do not want any air pockets or gaps in between there.

I'm going to show you the most popular grip and it's called a single overlapping or Vardon grip. We take our right pinky and place it just between the middle finger and the index finger. Now with the other three fingers of the right-hand, I want them also in the middlish pads of the fingers; one, two, three. Now I close my right hand so that I cover up my left thumb. This is a very neutral position for my right hand. Be very cautious about turning your right hand underneath the left.

Once I do that, the last element to the grip is grip pressure. Don't death-grip the club; it's not going to do you any good. It is extremely important to make sure that I get my feet in the correct positions. What we want to accomplish here is to get our feet just above the shoulder with the park. As the golf club gets longer, yes, my stance gets a little bit wider. For right now, so that we don't take this too far, we are going to start out just beyond shoulder width. The other thing with our stance, folks, is that I want to have your weight distribution be very solidly into the balls of your feet and that will put me in a very athletic and dynamic position to swing the golf club.

Alright! Now that we've got our good grip and our good stance, let's discuss posture. What we're going to do here is we're going to get our golf club, point it straight up in the air, arms completely locked and away from the body. Get that weight distribution, make sure that it's in the balls of the feet and now, we're going to lower our arms into our biceps come in contact with our upper body so probably somewhere around here. This next element is extremely important. As I bend from the waist, I'm going to left the golf club fall to the ground with gravity; I'm not going to fight it. As the club hits the ground, I stop bending from the waist and here's what that look like. We're trying to accomplish our arms hanging nice and relaxed off of our shoulders. The butt-end of the golf club should be roughly about a softball width away from my body and if I have the correct posture, if there is a laser beam coming out of the butt-end of the club, it should always be belt-high. Get your chin up away from your body. I don't want your eyes straining to see the golf ball but it is very important that I get my chin up away from my body to make room for my left shoulder to get underneath. Let's go ahead and make a great golf swing. So that's grip, stance, and posture. Hopefully with that beginning position and being very athletic and dynamic, we are going to put ourselves in a great position for good golf swings.