Master Your Weight Transfer in the Backswing
Weight transfer is something that is hard to master in the golf swing but when done properly, you can unleash some insane power into the golf ball. Not only that, but your swing is in sync and the ball flies much straighter, which is also very important.
So if you're confused about how to properly transfer your weight during the golf swing, let's start today by discussing weight transfer in the back swing. We will save weight transfer on the down swing for its own separate lesson.
How the Tour Pro's Shift Their Weight During the Back Swing
Think about your stance at address. Where is your center of gravity? For most tour pro's it's going to be slight slightly behind center due to the spine tilt away from the ball.
Meanwhile their legs are spread wide (but not too wide) and their lower body weight feels pretty evenly distributed on both feet.
As they start the back swing, most of them will transfer some weight onto their trail leg, loading up these muscles to then fire in the down swing. This will produce tremendous power from the ground up that gets transferred up their torso, into their arms, and into the club head before impact.
But what you don't see them doing is swaying their hips backwards and buckling their legs. Many amateurs will sway rather than load up. You know you're swaying if your hips are outside of your back leg or your back leg is buckling and leaning away from the target.
Your body's center of gravity will also feel like it's centered on your left side to counter the leg's and hips moving right on the sway.
These are all bad moves to make and will give you problems on the down swing.
The Proper Transfer in the Back Swing:
Instead, the center of gravity needs to feel like it's on the inside of that back leg. And it will naturally happen.
As Ben Hogan once said, “the completion of the shoulder turn will shift the weight briefly to the right foot. The arms and club are moving backward and with some speed (force) especially at the end of the backswing. This force is resisted from moving the mass of the body backward by a counter force in the right foot and leg.. As the backswing finishes, the backswing force abates and the right leg, no longer having to resist the back swing force, is now left with nothing to do but drive the mass of the body toward the target.”
As your upper body turns back and your torso winds up, you want to feel like you're using that back leg to resist that weight shift. It will help your upper body wind more and create more torque which then turns into power on the down swing when it all unwinds.
In conclusion, instead of thinking about “shifting” weight, think about your trail hip being anchored to the ground as you wind up your torso against it. You will not only feel your weight move but you will also create a stretch between the upper and lower body ready to fire as you start the down swing.
This proper shift of weight will move as a result of the torso rotating rather than any swaying shift of the lower body.
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