Finishing on my back foot

[pikehunter]

I am having a problem where I am finishing on my back foot (falling away). I feel almost like I have to 'fall behind' the ball with everything in order to get everything behind it to generate power. Any drills or suggestions that may help me to fix this weight shift problem? Thanks.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Finishing on my back foot

Try my walking drill
http://members.cox.net/gregjwillis/LESSON2.htm

[pikehunter]

Re: Finishing on my back foot

Great drill. Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

[Timothy Slaught]

Re: Finishing on my back foot

Pikehunter:

There are four primary weight shift scenarious in golf for a driver swing with a teed ball:

1) The reverse pivot where a golfer keeps most of the weight on the front foot on the backswing and falls back to the rear foot as they swing forward. This is called the reverse pivot beacause it is the reverse of what should be occuring. There is one bit of good news and that is they usually will be behind the ball at impact while perfecting this dreaded move. Not recommended.

2) Weight shifts correctly to the rear foot during backswing but the shift forward involves the upper body (with the head attached) moving first in the downswing resulting in an unbalanced over the top swing in most cases. Since your weight has not shifted to the left foot first in this move, the point of downswing release could occur anywhere between the back and front foot which leads to inconsistency. Usually the upper body is well ahead of the ball at impact struggling to get to that left foot. Since the golfer did load up on the backswing and has power to unload with the strong upper body, some power can ensue but for the above stated reasons.....Not recommended.

3) There is no real weight shift at all and the weight remains where it was at address resulting in an all arms swing. Not uncommon to someone without much athletic experience picking up the club for the first time and trying to swing it. No power , no consistency.....Not recommended.

4) The correct method where the weight shifts to the rear leg gradually during the backswing until 80-90% of the body's weight is on the rear leg at the top of the backswing. The rear leg is flexed supporting this weight.
The head and left shoulder should be about in line about two inches inside the right kneecap. This means that the head has moved to the right somewhat from it's address position.Transition the weight to the left leg while keeping the head relatively still. The head moved back during the backswing but does not move to the left as you shift the lower body to the left. By shifting the pivot point on the ground from the back foot to the front foot you have set-up the lower portion of the pivot for the downswing. The upper pivot point is now the stationary head which should be behind the ball. Now you have an axis tilted away from the target. If you where to cut off your right leg at this point, you would fall straight back. So how do we achieve getting all our weight completely to the front foot while our torso mass is still tilted away from that foot. With the uncoiling of the hips shoulders, arms and club moving towards the target the weight of the above will be carried to that front foot. The reality is that there is a bit of unbalance in the swing during the downswing that is rectified by the swinging motion. The force of the swing moving forward and up conteracts the leaning back of the torso and head through impact (driver swing). Studies show that there is a point in the proper golf swing where the pressure of the feet against the ground is diminished greatly. This occurs when the weight of the forward swing pulls the body up as the arms are extended fully into the follow through and the bodies weight returns settled on the left foot. If this weightlessness phenomena is not acheived at all, then numbers 1,2,3 above may have occured. If the shift is performed in concert with the swinging action and the weightlessness occurs at the correct time and full extension of both arms is achived past impact...it's usually a good thing.

[GoNavy]

Re: Finishing on my back foot

Here is a little drill that works pretty good. Hit balls by moving the forward (left) back to and along side the right foot as you swing back, then start the downswing by moving the left foot back to where it was originally. you will shift your weight pretty well after doing this serveral times. Added bonus of smoothing out your tempo.