Should I Move Move Off The Ball On The Backswing??

When commencing golf, you may have been told by friends or even advanced players to not move off the ball on the backswing. This is in part true but you do need a little movement just to ensure you can move onto the front foot on the downswing. Now the most important part is incorporating a little movement without swaying. This all comes down to how you rotate the body and the pressure points in your feet.

The first part to get right when trying to rotate correctly, is your set-up. You want to make sure that for irons the ball position is just forward of centre and with the woods being slightly more forward and the Driver, opposite your left heel. You also want to make sure that you slightly bump your left hip so it lines up with your left shoulder and the right shoulder is also slightly tilted. The weight distribution should then be then 50-50% left foot to right and the Driver with 60% on the back foot.

Once you have this position, you then just want to feel the right hip turn behind you on the backswing while the pressure stays inside the right foot. The right leg can slightly straighten during the backswing but it shouldn't lock out. Now the trick here is that when you rotate your body, that you don't want your weight to move toward the target. If this happens, you may incur a reverse pivot on the downswing where the weight comes backwards as you hit the ball. This results in 'fat' shots and 'thin' shots. You also don't want to move too far back during the backswing as you will also find it difficult to transfer all your weight onto the front foot.

What you ideally want during the backswing, is for the left hip to move back an inch or so in order for the weight to stay just behind the ball at the top of the backswing. This of course goes along with having the pressure inside the right foot and the hip rotating while you do this. If there's just slight movement off the ball while staying stable with your body, you will be able to successfully transfer your weight onto the front foot on the downswing.

If you'd like any further help in understanding your weight transfer, just contact myself at David Waters Golf located at Emerald Lakes Golf Coaching Centre.