Golf Information

Weight management and its effect on club-swing path is the least understood fundamental in golf. Ideally we want to strike the golf ball on a swing path that travels along the ball-target line because this gives the most margin for error, creates the least amount of side spin, and carries the most speed through the ball. In other words we want to strike the ball at the apex of the golf club's swing arc. This would be a swing path from inside the ball-target line into the hitting zone and back inside the ball-target line. This line is sometimes referred to as in-to-out and at other times as in-to-out-to-in.

If we don't accomplish this, the club head travels across the ball-target line from outside to inside and puts sidespin on the ball. The ball may take off straight or slightly to the left or way to the left of our intended target, and then turn back to the right (for right handed golfers). About 90 percent of all golfers play golf with this ball flight. It's called a slice.

In our golf facility we have state of the art golf simulators, and we did considerable testing on golfers of all abilities. We are able to precisely measure club head direction compared to ball-target line. We determined that if the weight is not transferred to the front foot before the swing is started the apex of the swing arc will be at its furthest point just opposite the center or slightly forward of center of the golfer's body. The golfer's effort to transfer his weight to the front foot while swinging does have some effect on the apex, but it does not have sufficient effect to bring the club head inside the ball-target line. Several golfers ended up in a finish that appeared to have transferred the weight to the front foot, but the transfer was late, the swing path was out-to-in and resulted in a slice. When the transfer was late, the golfer hit a slice. It looked like we had a cause-and-effect.

The golf swing is two arms blended into a one-arm swing. That one arm ideally would rotate and swing around a post. We are not equipped to make this movement happen easily, but we can coordinate our bodies to imitate these functions. First let's see what we have to make happen. To assure the front side (post) is fixed and is the point around and from which the swing will rotate and pivot, the weight must be transferred to the left side prior to the beginning of the golf swing. The front shoulder becomes the ball joint from which the arm pivots, and the front hip becomes the axis on which the post rotates.

Let's build a perfect swing machine and see what we can learn. It would be fairly simple, if you or I were a post and we had just one arm and one club to rotate around the post. We would just place the ball at the apex of the arc and hit it from the inside every time. So if you think of a post with a pendulum hanging from it you have an idea of what I am thinking of. But although we are not built like that, to achieve the correct results we have to swing like that.
We have two legs and two arms. How do we create a situation where we will be most like the post and the pendulum? If we put equal amounts of weight on both feet and hold the club with both arms straightened and active, and we maintain the same tension in both hands, then the apex of the swing arc ought to be somewhere in the middle of our body. Obviously that solution just won't work. Only one arm can be the pendulum and the other arm will have to act as a stabilizer. Our legs and body will have to become the pole. Makes sense, doesn't it? Next we have to figure out how to stand like a pole. That would mean we have to stand on one leg. We can't do that and maintain our balance, so we have to develop a method that allows us to use our body to imitate a pole that we can rotate around.