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Golf coach Claire Batista breaks down one of the most common setup errors that leads to thin shots, lost distance, and wayward ball flight. Using a real lesson as her starting point, she explains how simply adjusting your distance from the ball — and your posture — can transform your ball striking immediately. If you’ve been struggling to make clean contact, this video is worth your time.
Claire Batista – Game Improvement
Claire Batista uses a recent lesson with a student to illustrate how standing too close to the ball disrupts swing plane and causes thin, off-line shots. She walks through the exact setup adjustments she made — from stance width to hip hinge — and explains why correct ball distance is different for irons and driver. It’s a straightforward fix that applies to golfers at almost any level.
Key Takeaways
Check your distance from the ball with a simple hand test:
With irons, remove your trail hand, form a fist with your thumb extended, and place it between the end of the club and your body — a fist, thumb, and roughly an inch gap is your guide to a consistent setup position.
Stand further away and hinge from the hips, not the knees:
Too much knee bend combined with a narrow, close stance forces an overly upright swing plane, which restricts arm extension through the shot and leads to thin contact — backing off slightly and bending from the hip joint creates the athletic, ready position you need.
Swing plane changes with each club, so your distance from the ball must too:
A pitching wedge requires a more upright swing plane than a driver, which needs a flatter arc — standing the correct distance away for each club allows your swing plane to adjust naturally without forcing the issue.
Take this to the range with a couple of irons and your driver, use the fist-and-thumb check to reset your distance, and notice how much more freely your arms can swing through the ball. If you’ve been topping shots or losing distance without any obvious swing fault, this video from Claire Batista is exactly the kind of simple, setup-first fix that makes a real difference.
