During your golf swing, for a brief second your upper body should be completing the backswing while your lower body is starting to move towards the target.
So to complete the transition successfully you should have two main segments of your body (upper and lower) going in different directions.
We know that sounds hard….and that’s because it is!
But it’s doable and we’re going to show you a great drill today that will help you to learn this. And when you “get it” you’re going to get so much more enjoyment from this game due to the extra distance and accuracy you’ll gain…you’re going to love it!
Now if you’ve ever taken part in any other sport that requires kicking (e.g. soccer), throwing (e.g. baseball), hitting (e.g. tennis) you would’ve experienced the transition move that is needed in the golf swing. And one move that almost everyone can relate a transition to is the action of throwing a ball.
So if you wanted to throw a golf ball as far as you possibly could down the fairway would you?:
a) shift your weight to your back foot as you’re taking the ball back and then shift the weight to your front foot to throw the ball, or
b) keep your weight evenly distributed the entire time you’re throwing the ball.
I hope you picked “A” because that’s what any athlete would do to throw a ball as far and fast as possible.
Just take a look at a baseball pitcher for example. When they pitch they move their weight to the back foot and they do this so much so that when they’re taking the ball back they lift their front foot up. Then to change directions they shift their weight aggressively to their front foot and keep moving all of their weight so that at the end of the pitch basically all of their weight is on their front foot. Here is a great slow motion video of a baseball pitch:
Now that’s a great example of a powerful transition!
And if baseball pitchers didn’t shift their weight back and forth so much they could not do the fast pitches that they do. That example of the baseball pitcher leads nicely into this drill, as you’ll soon see.
During the transition from backswing to downswing you must let the club follow the lead from the rest of the body because the club is the last thing to move in the transition. Here is the sequential order of things that should be moving back towards the target during the transition:
1. Feet
2. Legs
3. Hips
4. Shoulders
5. Arms
6. Club
So when your club is just about at the top of your backswing you want to then start transferring the weight aggressively back to your left foot. By doing this it means that for a fraction of a second your backswing is being completed but your lower body is moving towards the target. Again, this transition happens from the ground up. OK, to learn how to do this here’s what I want you to do.
Get out your driver and setup as normal. Then swing to the top of your backswing and stop. While you’re stopped bring your front foot back so it’s together with your back foot. Then to start the downswing simply move your front foot back to the position where it was at address and swing down and follow-through.
By doing that you’ll quickly learn how the transition into the downswing should start with your lower body. But once you have that drill down the next thing you should do is take out the stop of your backswing. So swing back and as you’re swinging back move your front foot back to your back foot and as you’re completing the backswing move your front foot back to where it was at address. Doing this will help you to feel your upper body going back while your lower body is moving forward.
This is super powerful!
So watch this this video now to get a good idea on exactly how to do this drill. You’ll see the easy version and then the more advanced version at the end.
There’s no two ways about it….learning to swing back with your upper body while your lower body is moving forward is tough. But if you practice this by doing the drill we’ve given you today then watch out. Longer drives will be yours!
