How to improve weight shift

[Wolfman]

Hi i have discovered that my poor iron play seems to be a poor weight shift, how do i know well today at the range i hit a few irons shots average distance and feeling of heavy hit into the range mat

Worked on really exaggerating the weight shift and my irons shots were crisp and less heavy mat contact.
Direction suffered at first slightly straight left which i think was open shoulders at impact ?


After i had worked on the weight shift and kept shoulders square at impact but hips open my iron shots improved, better distance and good direction and flight


My question is this please


How can i make sure that i always shift my weight correctly , take a practice swing ?


Will this weight shift apply with my driver as i start 40/60 i assume i must still shift my weight as with the irons ?


This is also interesting as weight shift has never been discussed much with my various lessons over the years and i think it must be a common problem to many golfers


Helpful tips welcome !

 

[bobmac]

I think the main concern is where the weight is at impact and at the end. As long as you are turning through the ball and finishing up on your left side balanced, then you'll be doing fine.

 

[Wolfman]

I think the main concern is where the weight is at impact and at the end. As long as you are turning through the ball and finishing up on your left side balanced, then you'll be doing fine.

Thanks Bob, it seems i missed this fault and was baffled to why i hit fat shots and lack of distance with irons

When i take a practice swing thinking must get weight shift correct, then play the ball i strike it well.

It seems that although i was aware it was important i hadnt considered a fault of mine as i think my weight was centered at impact and not quite on the front leg


The quality of the ball strike is huge when i get the weight over to the front more and the path is also less out to in which is an added bonus

Incidently in trying to find the fault today i even tried leaving all my weight on the front leg, a bit stack and tilt and this showed that my weight shift appeared to be the cause.

 

[DaveM]

One thing that helped me. Was to let the heel of my front foot just come off the ground in the backswing. Then you have to push that foot down first in the downswing so making you bring your weight though more. You dont need to do it all the time just until you get the right feeling of the transfur of weight.

 

[Wolfman]

One thing that helped me. Was to let the heel of my front foot just come off the ground in the backswing. Then you have to push that foot down first in the downswing so making you bring your weight though more. You dont need to do it all the time just until you get the right feeling of the transfur of weight.

Thanks i had heard of that also and it seems to work, or the crush grapes under your foot feeling

 

[sawtooth]

Dont think about it. If you rotate and swing correctly weight transfer (whatever there is of it) takes care of itself.

If you held an axe and swung to cut a tree down do you consciously think where your weight goes? No. Your body responds accordingly to your swinging action.

 

[Wolfman]

Dont think about it. If you rotate and swing correctly weight transfer (whatever there is of it) takes care of itself.

If you held an axe and swung to cut a tree down do you consciously think where your weight goes? No. Your body responds accordingly to your swinging action.

Not quite sure i believe that simple analogy, as if you were like me leaving the weight behind the result was poor ball contact. When i made more of an effort to move across with my weight shift the ball contact was improved alot

I do see what you mean however, to throw a ball etc we just do it by instinct, swinging a golf club seems to go against instinct !

 

[SocketRocket]

Throwing a stone, swinging an axe, sledge hammer etc we will automatically transfer our weight .

The problem with the golf ball and club is that unlike the other actions we want the ball to get into the air. Our central nervous system considers what is necessary to do this and decides that you must hit up or scoop at the object to raise it. This is what makes us want to keep weight on the rear foot and flip the wrists at impact. In fact most golfers do this for their entire golfing lives.

The way to improve is to convince our brain that the loft of the club gets the ball up. That we swing the club and the loft does the lifting. That the action is to hit down at the ball with all but the driver and three wood.

We must practice with the correct thoughts so that we can ingrain the correct actions. Normally, it does not happen on its own.

 

[Wolfman]

Thanks Brian i agree with your comments, its only taken me 5 years to discover the fault