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As a result, I would not try to copy the left heal motion of Jack Nicklaus. If your body flexibility does not allow you to make a full rotation on your backswing without raising your left heal, then by all means, raise your left heal a little. If you make this small adjustment, be careful not to allow your heal raise to change your spine angle. What I mean by this clarification is you cannot allow raising your left heal to force your left shoulder higher in relation to your right shoulder. This changes the angle of your spine during the swing, which is absolutely something you want to avoid. Not only do you want to avoid changing your spine angle from a ball striking consistency stand point, you also want to avoid changing your spine angle to keep yourself from injuring your back. Your body has no trouble rotating around the axis the spine creates. If you start changing this spine angle as you swing, you begin to put pressure on different parts of your spine. The changing angle redirects the motion around your spine from a circular motion that is free of compression to a motion driving the force of your rotation into compressing your discs. Do yourself and your body a favor, and do not try and change your spine angle throughout your swing. Golf should be enjoyed and be pain-free. Tiger Woods is the most glaring example of this problem. Tiger always dropped his head as he rotated into his downswing. Effectively, Tiger was changing his spine angle during the second part of his swing. Over time, this changing spine angle and the force with which Tiger rotated into his golf shots created a tremendous amount of pressure on his back. Four back surgeries later, he has been forced to change his swing to keep his spine angle neutral. Fortunately, if you are using your body to create the rotational movement of your swing and your arms to create the vertical motion of your swing, you will not need to think about your spine angle.
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