If I had to put my finger on the single most inconsistent area where most amateur golfers struggle, it would be the inability to hit the ground in the same place over and over.

By this of course, I refer to the ability to hit the ball first with forward shaft lean, and the ground after.

Most people still shift the weight in the swing as their main focus is hitting the ball as hard as they can. Power without consistent ball striking is not the correct recipe for playing the game well.

I would much rather coach the game to people in a manner that focuses on ball striking first, then adding power and accuracy later.

When people shift the weight in the swing from one foot to the another, generally the body centers also shift. This leads to a lateral movement away from the target which means you have to make up for this lateral movement on the way down.

Most people simply don’t make up for this lateral shift on the way down as the downswing happens so fast!

This then leads to the dynamic center of the body (a combination of the upper and lower body centers) to be too far behind the ball. leading to fat shots and thin shots and general mis-hits as the swing low point is behind the ball. We want the low point to be the target side of the ball.

 

If you can focus on keeping a little more weight on your front foot during setup, approximately 55%. Then gradually increase the weight on this front leg during the swing. This will help you stop shifting your weight back and forth from one leg to the other, and drastically increase your ability to hit the ball first.

But we can have the body centers forward and still hit the ground behind the ball.

So also paying attention to your hands and wrists and how they directly affect the forward shaft lean of the club is important.

During the downswing the initial amount of Lag is increased. Caused by the change of direction and the role of the right arm. This Lag should be maintained until just before the ball where the forces at play in the swing release the club head down into the ball.


 

If this lag or wrist hinge is released too early the club will bottom out too soon and the club will hit the ground before the ball.

We always want to hold on to this lag to ensure the forward shaft lean necessary to strike the ball first then the turf afterwards.

Many people don’t hold on to this lag because they feel like they have to release their hands and wrists to hit the ball. This is one of the reasons why many golfers swing radius gets too long before the ball.

When the hands reach a point in front of the right thigh, this is when the hands and forearms start rotating so the back of the left hand is flat and the right hand is bent (at impact). This then produces the forward shaft lean for a ball first contact.

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