What’s the difference between making a practice swing and a swing at your golf ball? Exactly NOTHING! So what allows you to make a perfect practice swing and then prevents you from shifting your weight during your transition at the start of your downswing (as you swing at a golf ball)? When you don’t transfer your weight, you may be hitting 3 inches behind your ball or swinging over the top of your ball. You need a solution to stop hitting it fat, thin or topping it.
So why can’t you keep your mind and body relaxed enough to shift your hips and hit the ball before bottoming-out your swing? You can blame most of this problem on rushing your backswing.
I know that when I put extra power into my swing, I hit fat shots (hitting the ground first before the ball). I also see the same problem for most golfers when their game starts to fall apart. It’s so frustrating. Recently after watching my playing partner hit multiple fat shots, I describe his perfect practice swing before his “fat” swing at the ball. He confirmed that he knew that he was making this mistake and just could not bring himself to make the right correction to fix the problem. This has got to be the most frustrating problem in golf. And, it can happen for every club in your bag (except your putter).
Finding the Solution For a Perfect Impact on Every Swing:
Ernie Els is a great image to remember weight transfer starting during your transition.
1/ Stop Rushing Your Backswing: When you address the ball, you may tend to swing faster than your practice swing. You are try to put more power into your swing as you shorten your backswing and minimize the shift of your weight from your trailing leg to your leading leg. You may also tend to fall to the side or backwards when you finish your swing. Take more time in your backswing to allow your weight to shift forward during your transition from your backswing to your downswing.
2/ Are You Having a Brain Cramp? The weight and length of each of our clubs are different. That’s why we need to take a full practice swing before we address and hit each ball. You may also know that you often hit off the toe of one of your clubs and you need to compensate for that in your setup. Adjusting your grip and stance for a side hill lie is also a critical step in your setup. Don’t have a Brain Cramp and forget to correct for each of your clubs and the slope of your stance.
3/ Create a Consistent Swing (Practice and Actual): Our practice swing is often completed in a very controlled and deliberate swing at about 60% of our normal swing. That slower backswing gives us time to create a proper transition as our hips start to rotate for the downswing. When you execute your swing at the ball, everything changes as we speed up our swing. MATCH your 80% practice swing FEELING and SPEED with the same swing when you execute your hit. [DON’T SWING FASTER!]
4/ Try Setting-up with Your Weight Shifted Forward: To learn the feel for your forward weight shift you may want to try setting up with 60% of your weight on your leading foot to ensure that you impact your ball before skimming the ground. You may lose some distance when you do this but it will definitely improve your impact with the ball and avoid those fat shots. As your round progresses, slow down your backswing and create your weight shift during your transition to generate more distance.
5/ Andrew Rice Tip @ Revolution Golf: Another way to feel the transfer of weight from your trailing leg to your leading leg is to slightly lift your leading heel in your backswing and then drive it into the ground and as you shift your weight forward during your downswing. This is almost the opposite of point #4 but you do need to transfer your weight forward to get more power and to consistently hit your ball.
Golf is a game of consistency and mind control. It will NOT happen naturally. You need to understand what’s causing your mistakes and focus on corrective action. Practice your swing for consistency with GOLFSTR+ for every club in your bag. Buy one today at www.golfstr.com.
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