Weight Shift Help

[NorfolkShaun]

Still really struggling with confidence with my driver.

This has lead to me doing a really strange thing I appear to shift my weight backwards when hitting driver. As you can imagine this leads to a really bad distance loss.

Thing is I really and finding it hard not to do it to the point it is almost instinctive. Seems i try to hit my driver harder than any other club and in doing so I fall backwards and do not shift through the shot.

Went to the range tonight and some were good when I got it right but dam when I shift back dam, the ball does nowhere. Really bad in comps when nervous.

Any tips greatly appricated

 

[the_coach]

Still really struggling with confidence with my driver.

This has lead to me doing a really strange thing I appear to shift my weight backwards when hitting driver. As you can imagine this leads to a really bad distance loss.

Thing is I really and finding it hard not to do it to the point it is almost instinctive. Seems i try to hit my driver harder than any other club and in doing so I fall backwards and do not shift through the shot.

Went to the range tonight and some were good when I got it right but dam when I shift back dam, the ball does nowhere. Really bad in comps when nervous.

Any tips greatly appricated

real difficult to say without knowing exactly whats goin down (put the usual disclaimer in - visit to a PGA Pro)

sometimes it's just as simple as folks trying to help the ball in the air - so the lean back the weight on the trail foot to have the 'help up' goin on as the driver face angle seems to have no loft at all

common causes is stuff like set-up upper body tilted to target or spine just vertical, so little or no secondary spine tilt aways from target

ball position a ways too far back at set-up meaning the downswing will have to stay or move onto the trail leg to try to get the ball airborne
ball position where it should be off the lead heel but that good stuff is undone by moving the head and chest up to the forwards ball postion - happens because with the ball forwards folks tend to feel 'uncomfortable' having the head the 4" to 6" behind the ball as for the majority of the shots they hit (irons) the head is over the back of the ball that's definitely what you don't want with the driver set-up

a big lead knee bend towards the ball/target line in the takeback so loss of height with the upper body and head tilting both down and forwards so in the back swing the majority of weight stays on the lead foot so for balance preservation to not fall over through transitiion and downswing the weight has to move backwards onto the trail leg
this often goes hand in hand with an overlong backswing

sometimes it's a sway back of the ball in the takeback (instead of the turn, the rotation in the hips and upper body) with the sway the weight goes onto the outside of the trail foot then folks get stuck there

often times find it's built around a misconception over technique thinking the weight 'shift' is a 'lateral shift' so linear move lead foot to trail foot in the takeback/backswing (that can bring on the sway weight to the outside of the trail foot then it's real difficult to not get stuck there

find a better concept is not thinking of a 'weight shift' in the takeback/backswing think of it as a transfer of downwards weight pressure into the inside of the trail foot that happens purely because the move away should be a 'rotation' - if you rotate away the upper body then the hips should follow and rotate too ( hip 45% shoulders 90%) so it's a rotation of the upper body that is the engine for the arms and club move, the upper body shoulders don't slide laterally in the takeback

so could be some of that stuff that's involved in the issue

so really checkover set-up, ball position head and upper body position in relation to the ball - (good guide is ball position off the lead heel but the head staying approx 4" to 6" back of the ball so upper body chest stays back too tilted aways from target that secondary spine tilt angle thats critical to a good driver set-up a guide for the tilt being left ear, left side of face above the pants zipper)

with the driver make a takeback and backswing to the top and just stop and feel where the weight is at the top of the swing is most of it still on the lead leg has that lead knee semi collapsed towards the target line ? if so that's an issue as there's only one ways the move can go from there onto the trail leg in the downswing
or with that stop at the top has the weight swayed/slid laterally over onto the outside of the trail foot

just to help identify what may be goin down use the cell at the driving range to look at a face-on video and then you can see exactly what's happening - should be able to get a handle on stuff playing into the issue

 

[the_coach]

posting 2 video's each speaking to the stuff in my initial post

here's the first speaking to the fault of ball forwards but moving the head upper body forwards up to the ball

note in the 'correct' type set-up that the left side, left ear is over top of the zipper to give a good secondary tilt that neither overdone or not done enough

he speaks here to weight distribution at set-up being 50:50 which is the case in many folks good set-ups and motions so see how that goes
my take I would favor weight pressure set-up with the driver to be 45:55 (45 lead foot) reason being it often times easier to turn the weight into the trail on the backswing and then not leave or add weight to the lead side to get into that collapsed lead knee down and out to the ball target line that plays into the reverse weight pressure pivot

to that can try a drill with a 60% swing motion with the driver good set-up with weight pressure 45:50 - but then lift the lead heel completely off of the ground - it's goin to 'force' the weight pressure with the turn to get into the trail side but it has to be with a turn into the inside of the trail foot not a sway/slide to weight outside trail foot

[video=youtube;LQpAh9ggn04]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQpAh9ggn04[/video]

 

[the_coach]

whereas the 1st vid was speaking to driver set-up and weight pressure lead to trail

this vid speaks to how the other axis of weight pressure is real important to the swing motion & to how set-up is crucial always to what follows when things start to move

how 'misplaced' weight pressure at sset up can affect detrimentally how the body arms club move from the ball which subsequently affects how everything move to and through the ball

balance is a real key to a good functional swing motion - good ways to disrupt this is to hit 'at' the ball with the whole body, lower and upper unable to support an out of sync misdirected arm swing

[video=youtube;4D975f7kV44]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D975f7kV44[/video]

 

[fundy]

posting 2 video's each speaking to the stuff in my initial post

here's the first speaking to the fault of ball forwards but moving the head upper body forwards up to the ball

note in the 'correct' type set-up that the left side, left ear is over top of the zipper to give a good secondary tilt that neither overdone or not done enough

he speaks here to weight distribution at set-up being 50:50 which is the case in many folks good set-ups and motions so see how that goes
my take I would favor weight pressure set-up with the driver to be 45:55 (45 lead foot) reason being it often times easier to turn the weight into the trail on the backswing and then not leave or add weight to the lead side to get into that collapsed lead knee down and out to the ball target line that plays into the reverse weight pressure pivot

to that can try a drill with a 60% swing motion with the driver good set-up with weight pressure 45:50 - but then lift the lead heel completely off of the ground - it's goin to 'force' the weight pressure with the turn to get into the trail side but it has to be with a turn into the inside of the trail foot not a sway/slide to weight outside trail foot

[video=youtube;LQpAh9ggn04]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQpAh9ggn04[/video]

This video doesnt make sense to me. Surely if you set up square with the driver middle of the stance then move the clubhead forward to the ball on the front instep (without moving the hands forward) then surely the clubhead has to be aiming left of target now (unless you are manipulating it on the move forward?)

 

[the_coach]

This video doesnt make sense to me. Surely if you set up square with the driver middle of the stance then move the clubhead forward to the ball on the front instep (without moving the hands forward) then surely the clubhead has to be aiming left of target now (unless you are manipulating it on the move forward?)

think the video is still extremely valid if someone has an issue with the problems mentioned
he maybes isn't quite as clear perhaps as he should be as to how the clubhead gets back up to the ball terminology-wise and he doesn't actually get the clubhead back to the ball exactly as he says if vid watched closely
but taking all that into account if folks have this issue this is an extremely good ways to start to sort it out path,AoA,strike-wise

would suggest more setting up with the driver off the center of the body the sternum then moving the arms/hands/club as a unit by a slight rotation of the shoulders is the ways I would really look at it

but if moving the upper body head forwards up to the ball has been a problem thus totally miss-aligning the upper body on the lower body so you get shoulders ways open and then a steep choppy attack hit at the ball
- then setting up this ways in training to begin to get a much better path and AoA into the ball is a great ways to get a reasonable strike back on the ball with little loss to direction or accuracy - get the path AoA and strike in better shape then tweek face alignment if it's even necessary