- Hello, Adam Bazalgette here, founder of
Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject to golf how to shift your weight.
(upbeat music)
So golf, how to shift your weight.
This puzzles a lot of people.
I'll show you two big barriers that stop people
from doing it most of the time.
Then we'll show you the two elements
of the weight shift that you really need
to get in there, and of course ways to work on it.
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So as we look at barriers to a weight shift, the first
one is the plane of your swing, or the
steepness if you like.
Now picture a table underneath me.
If I had to smash the table, I'd come from here.
If I had to brush the table, I'd come more from here.
It's the same with your golf club.
If it comes from too much out here, it is
descending towards the ground too quickly.
Now watch one of the great players in
action, how they do it starting down, then
we'll see how this affects your downswing.
So there is Justin Rose at the
top, swinger extraordinaire.
Now I draw this line with students a lot.
Club to ball, and I'm telling you people
generally don't come kind of down that line.
They come straight down that line.
Club going towards ball.
Not him, club swings down a lot more.
Swings well under that line before it starts
to come around to the ball.
So that's the mental picture you want.
That would be a nice shallow approach to the ball.
So listen your subconscious mind is always fixing
things for you at that level.
If you don't believe that, if you've ever played
baseball get a pitch too close to you and you
don't see if you pull your arms in so you don't get hit.
You don't need a lesson in how to do that.
So, when you get steep, if that club is coming
down too much.
I mean picture a plane coming in to land.
If it's coming in at that angle, if it doesn't
pull up and shallow the landing, big problems.
So what's going to happen with your subconscious?
It senses steepness, certainly it may just pull
the arms in.
But, typically it's going to hang back a little
bit to take some of that steepness out there.
Obviously, that blocks your weight shift.
So, bear in mind, when you shift
weight properly, and you move the handle of the
club over past the ball, that is a steepener.
So, you've got to balance the books.
You need shallow here to allow you to move
your weight and get a little bit steeper there.
Let's look at fault number two.
Okay, Tiger Woods and Payne Stewart there
back in the day, always great to see him again.
I worked at a club where he was the presiding tour
pro, many, many, years ago in Orlando, and he was
very nice to the staff and people when he came out.
So here we go.
What's the next fault?
And that is, taking the arms and thrusting them
down in the downswing too much and too hard
at the start of the downswing.
I've seen a lot of force play data measuring weight
under feet, and watch people do this.
Believe me, when these things force down, weight will
accumulate there, it is very difficult to shift
to your left side when that happens.
So watch these two great players.
He's already shifting his weight.
Do you see his left hip?
His arms are still going back and there is no arm
thrust at all even that's mostly trunk rotation.
There is no thrust, it's well down here before
they start to whip down.
There's great Payne Stewart, and again there he goes
and arms are just calm at the top.
There's no thrust, and it's quite a bit later
before they start to thrust down to the ball.
Okay, patience with the arms, a pretty hard
one to overdue.
To be honest when I get on a tight hole, I don't
like it, and I've got a driver in my hand, I feel
the tendency to thrust.
So I'm still working on it.
But, let's have a go with the short iron.
You can put it on a tee if you feel that
makes it easier.
Ultra soft, ultra patient, I feel like I've got
as much time as I would need to get that
weight shifted before there is any forward thrust.
An image I really like, if this was a lead bar
say it weighed 4 or 5 pounds.
And you had to take a golf setup and toss
that thing out there.
Do you think there is really any chance you'd
move the bar first?
There's no way you'd do that.
You'd recruit, you'd feel the ground, and you'd
toss it out there.
That would be the last thing through.
Okay, let's look at the two components of a
really quality weight shift.
Okay, Aaron Baddeley here on the left.
Now here is my component number one for the
downswing shift a bit of weight, and you'll watch
how that weight will push towards that front foot there.
Shifts down in there.
Now listen, you're going to feel some hip rotation
as well, but I think for most people, this is the
component they don't do too much of.
In fact, for many people if they're less
flexible, if they try to whip their hips around
too quickly it will actually affect their swing path
to go that way.
So, prioritize shifting the weight, and to me there
should be a certain calmness in that right foot and knee.
You'll notice, hey his knee does move, but it doesn't
shoot way out here, and he doesn't jump off his foot there.
It is a few great players that do that, but generally not.
And once you've shifted into that left side, you are
at a good spot there, again with a certain amount
of calmness and ready to really engage.
Now if you want to hit these irons flush, and I know
you do, you need to weight shift that weight.
There's a free course for you down in the
description box, just pick that up.
Let's have a look from outside than.
So again as we start down, we're not just trying
to jump at the ball or anything.
We're trying to get some pressure in that left shoe.
Probably, want to feel relatively passive in your
right leg as you just begin your downswing.
But, I'll leave that up to you as to what you feel.
Now I've been playing golf since I was a kid, you tend
to be flexible and try to hit it too far when your a kid
so it's ingrained in me a little bit to jump
and drive at the ball.
So, for me to get it to look right when I'm practicing
what I have to feel is a kind of calm, easy pressure there
to avoid jumping too much, but that very well may
not be the case for you.
You may be one of those golfers, and possible are
you're probably in the majority if you are, that's
just too dead with the legs.
So feel something a little bit more radical, a bit
more of a sudden stamp into the ground.
Til you can feel like you are storing some
energy there and getting that weight across.
So I'm going to try a couple here.
Get my sense of it.
(golf swing)
Felt the pressure go down into that left foot.
Feel my arms are passive here.
Let me try that again.
Pressure, calm right leg.
(golf swing)
That really felt good to me.
Play around with it, until you get the
right mixture for you.
Let's look at the final aspect.
Okay now as we look at our final
element, bear in mind at address we have
hip bend, or hip flexion if you like.
When you see a golfer finish, you don't see a
great player with that hip bend, they extend
their hips, so tuck them.
So, you want to get the feeling for this, this is
the final element.
Push your hips in front of you like that.
Of course we don't want to extend toward the ball.
We want to extend towards the target, but that is
a crucial element.
Let's have a look from the front view.
Okay, let's have a look from this angle then.
So, there is my sense of what it is to extend, or
tuck my hips underneath me.
Here's the feeling I want over there.
I'm going to try to put it together on
a fairly small scale.
That's pretty natural for me, the hip tuck, it's the
change of direction that's my key.
But, let's try to put it together.
So, I have my pressure down first.
(golf swing)
And then I feel like I can really tuck
my hips underneath me and get going through there.
That swing felt pretty good.
Of course the challenge, you know it's always
doing it with speed.
So, mix and match.
One of the faults, I see people do all the
time, that I don't see when I see great
players, once they start hitting at full speed
they never come back.
Great players, they'll hit some at full speed, come back
to the drill speed, get a feel again, work it
back up to the full speed.
You can do it.
Let's have a go on a relatively full scale here.
(golf swing)
Felt like a good weight shift.
Felt like I was in timing.
Hope this helps you.
So golf how to shift your weight, I hope that's
helpful for you.
Work on these things, Rome wasn't built in a day.
If you stick with it and do your drills, you'll
develop a good weight shift.
Please subscribe to the YouTube channel, if you
like the video.
ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my home website.
Personal coaching with me there as well.
Thank you.
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