Wouldn’t we all like to hit the ball better? Hitting pure shots that melt off the face is one of the best feelings in golf. The ones that feel like we don’t even touch the ball and sail perfectly toward the green. That feeling is what golf is all about.

There’s different factors that go into good ball striking. There are plenty of lessons on ball striking that we cover in our ELITE vault. You can check that out here!  One important factor would be your weight shift in your swing! 

Golf can be frustrating at times. Learning what adjustments need to be made in your swing and how to do them can be a challenge. It also doesn’t help when there is over complicated information out there that is difficult to follow. It helps if we keep things simple!

A big part of ball striking involves how we shift our weight and use our feet with the ground as we move into our downswing. If you want to find out if you’re shifting your weight correctly, you do not need a bunch of fancy equipment to do so. You just need something out of your fridge!

Water Bottle Drill – How It Helps

Who knew golf could be this simple? All you need is a water bottle and your golf swing! But what will this water bottle actually do for your golf swing? 

The first thing this drill will do is help convey an understanding of what you need to do in your swing to create a good weight shit. You will be able to get instant feedback to see if you’re shifting weight properly.

You will also be able to get the feel of what you should be doing. Creating a feel will build muscle memory that you can actually start to apply to your swing and take it to the course.

Water Bottle Drill – How To Practice

How does the water ball drill work? 

Grab an iron you’re comfortable with (we chose a 7-iron) and set up a ball and get into your stance. After you’re set up, you then want to take your trusty water bottle and set it up just inside your trail heel. 

A common mistake golfers make is they tend to stay back and fall away from the ball as they make their downswing or turn the ankle away from the target. This leads to inconsistencies and loss of power along with accuracy. 

You don’t want to fall away from the target. You want to generate as much power as you can by using your weight and the ground to your advantage. With the water bottle in position, you want to shift your weight and feel your trail foot bank into the bottle and roll.

This gives the right feel of shifting your weight in the downswing. It also gives the feeling of how to use the ground to get your weight to move.

Conclusion

Struggling with proper weight shift is a common problem seen with amateurs. Most of the time, they don’t understand what proper weight shift feels like as they have been taught or built up different muscle memory. This may be the case for you too! With the right help and practice, you can begin to improve your ball striking.

Become an ELITE Member Click Here Now.

When you first start out playing golf, a lot of tips and tricks are thrown your way. A lot of times, weight distribution is not on the top of the list. This is why you see a lot of beginners struggling to make solid contact with the ball and if they do, it turns out to be a weak shot.

 Finding the right weight distribution golf tips for beginners will be a fundamental building block for your game and help you hit powerful shots throughout your golf career.

Weight distribution doesn’t just include sliding back and forth on your lead and trail foot. If you look at professionals such as Justin Thomas or Lexi Thompson, you will see how much power they generate. If you slow down the replays like in the video shown (above or below) you will see them on their toes as they make impact with the ball.

When you distribute your weight correctly, magical things happen in your golf swing. You see it happen all the time in other sports as well. When you see a baseball player load up during an at bat or a boxer getting ready to throw a mean hook, they are distributing their weight to get the most power possible with their movement.

Even though you may not be able to get the same swing speed as the pros, you can work on little things that will ultimately give you a better swing. So, how do you start?

Weight Distribution: What Does It Look Like?

What should your weight distribution look like in your swing? 

Golf is a unique game in which not every swing is the same. Even the best swings in golf look drastically different from one another. They do have similarities in the way they set up and swing the club that allow them to strike the ball well while generating a ton of power. Through hours of practice and coaching, they have found out what works for them. 

One similarity you see in great golfers that separate them from amateurs, is their weight distribution. They generate so much power with a few simple moves that you can use in your own swing.  

Description: Check out the video above to create powerful shots with weight distribution

Ideal Weight Distribution Through the Shot – Golf Fanatics

A good swing starts with a balanced stance at address. Your weight should be equally distributed between your two feet at address. This leads to a more balanced swing with a solid base. Problems begin to arise when you get off balance. You begin to miss fairways and greens while losing power and distance on your shots.

After you take your balance stance, then it is time to start the motion of your swing. What many amatuers tend to do is they begin to sway their bottom half to try and create power.

What Is Sway In The Golf Swing?

When you sway or slide in the golf swing, your body is moving in a lateral manner, away from the golf ball. Your body begins to shift the weight incorrectly leading to a few things:

• Inconsistent contact
• Loss of accuracy and distance
• Hips don’t rotate – All arms swing

This isn’t to say that lateral movement in your backswing needs to be absolute zero. A small lateral movement will get your swing moving but keeping it within a reasonable amount will keep you balanced and stable. A balanced swing is the start of a powerful swing. 

A powerful swing replaces the sway with rotation. Instead of shifting weight too much laterally, you want to shift pressure to your trail leg and rotate. This is where your power starts. 

There is also vertical movement in your golf swing. If you watch video of most of the players on tour, you will see them make a similar move as they make contact with the ball. They create vertical movement, releasing all the energy they created when they loaded up at the start of their swing. 

This is something you can work on to add to your swing and start utilizing your swing effectively to create more distance. If you haven’t practiced this or if it doesn’t come naturally, you need to know where to start!

The Springing Motion

We know the vertical motion in the downswing is what will give that extra pop when you strike the ball, but how can you begin to work that into your own swing? It starts at your feet.

The springing motion isn’t just jumping up off the ground as you make impact with the ball. You should be loaded up with all this potential energy that you’ve created from your backswing. That energy is then shifted from the trail leg into your lead leg (Link to Topic Cluster #2) as you start your downswing. 

At this point your weight should be moving from your trail heel to your lead foot. This is where the energy will be released as you make explosive contact with the golf ball! The driving force created as you push into the ground, releases the built up potential energy and is what will give you the extra distance you are looking for. 

There is a proper way to go about the springing motion. In almost every physical activity you have ever done, you are typically doing them on the balls of your feet. When you go on a walk, you don’t have the weight back on your heels as you stroll down the street. It would be very difficult to get from point A to point B by walking on your heels.

Same goes for your golf swing. It is much easier to create the powerful springing motion if you use the balls of your feet instead of your heel. You are able to spring higher and create more energy through impact. 

Benefits Of The Springing Motion

There are plenty of benefits of this motion. Not only does it provide an extra boost of power, but it helps you out during your downswing as well. When you start the downward movement and begin to shift your weight from the trail heel to the ball of the front foot, it helps slot the club in the right position. If you’re looking for more tips on how to “find the slot”, we have a vault of over 400+ videos with top level instruction in our ELITE Vault!

Improving Your Weight Distribution

As you were learning the game of golf, the topic of using the ground may not have come up early on. But as you start developing your swing it becomes essential to generating powerful shots. The pros make it look easy and hit shots further than any humans on the planet, which makes it seem impossible for average golfers to perform the same task.

The thing about golf is that you can continue to improve no matter what skill level you are at. Whether you’re looking up “Golf Tips For Beginners” (Link to https://golffanatics.com/10-helpful-tips-for-beginners-to-enjoy-your-golfing-experience/) or detailed tutorials on how to increase your clubhead speed,  you can find something to help your game. Sometimes you just need a little nudge in the right direction on how to start. Then it’s up to you to put in the work.

What can you do to put what we’ve talked about so far into action?

The Pump Drill

To work on this motion and implement it into your own swing, the “Pump Drill” is an effective one that will have you pounding the ball in no time! You can work on this on the driving range or wherever you have room to swing a club.

• Setting Up To The Ball

You want to set up with a balanced and stable stance and get ready to begin your swing. Now for this drill you want to perform it without hitting the golf ball first, so set up as if you’re taking a practice swing next to the ball. 

• Start Your Swing

Now that you have set up properly, you want to begin the process of starting your swing. You will want to take the club about ⅔ of the way back in your backswing. At this point you want to get the feeling of leaving your shoulders and arms in place.

• Push Into The Ball Of Your Foot

With your shoulders and arms in place about ⅔ of the way back in your backswing, now it is time to get the lower body working. You want to begin pushing your weight into the ball of your lead foot, putting pressure into the ground. You will begin to notice and feel more bend in the lead knee while having a leaning, straighter leg look with your trail knee.

• Start Pumping

This is where you will begin pumping your weight into your lead foot multiple times without starting your downswing. You want to pump 2-3 times to develop a feel of how your weight should be distributed as you transition into your downswing. This will allow you to practice pushing that pressure into the ground and learn how to apply it to your actual swing.

• Spring And Swing Through

After you have pumped 2-3 times, now you can use the distributed weight of your last pump to swing and spring through. This is where you will start using that pressure to generate some vertical movement creating an explosive follow through. Once you’ve done it without the ball, you can then step up and try it with the ball in front of you.

With this drill, you don’t have to go at it full boar and swing as hard as possible. This drill is designed to teach you what it should feel like as you distribute your weight from your trail heal to the ball of your lead foot. When you do this, you become a more dynamic ball striker. 

Conclusion

The world of golf as we know it in this day in age is obsessed with distance and how can we get more of it? From the professional level, all the way to the everyday golfer, power and distance is one of the most sought after parts of the golf game. Finding and using every advantage you can to gain a few extra yards will help your game out. The closer you are to the hole, the easier it is to score. 

Understanding how weight distribution works in the golf swing allows you to utilize the ground and use it to your advantage. You become more balanced in your setup, preventing a swaying motion that will ultimately cost you distance and accuracy. When you miss fairways and greens, the game of golf becomes significantly harder, so having the right setup will get you going in the right direction.

Although you may not have the pro’s seemingly perfect swing, you can take bits and pieces of what they do well and apply it to your own swing! The springing motion will take some practice to get the right feeling of using the ground, but once you start getting the hang of it, that’s when it starts to get fun. No more hitting long irons or hybrids into every green!

Next time you’re at the range or just bored in your backyard, try what you’ve learned here. You’d be surprised what you can do once you create the right feel. Your playing partners will be in shock once you blow it by them and start doing it consistently!

Want more great tips like this to keep improving your game?  Join Golf Fanatics ELITE Membership today and get full, unlimited access to our entire video training vault packed with in-depth video lessons from our team of top ranked and award winning golf coaches, plus expert contributors.  

Join here now: https://golffanatics.com/plans/

A misunderstood concept in golf happens to be a key component to striking the ball well. This concept being weight distribution. 

We know that weight shift happens in the golf swing, but what do we do, how do we do it, and when do we do it? Weight shift is also dependent on the clubs you’re hitting, such as your driver and your irons. Weight shift differentiates between an iron and a driver as well. It can be confusing, but we’re here to help!

First things first, let’s get some clarification on a few things.

The goal is to create good weight distribution in the golf swing. Now when you think of weight distribution you may think of shifting your entire body to create the necessary weight shift. 

There is a difference between shifting pressure vs. shifting mass.

Both fall into the category of weight shift but the latter will leave you struggling on the golf course. Which is why understanding the difference between the two and learning how to shift weight properly will be beneficial to your swing!

The golf swing consists of different motions but is very rotational in nature. There is lateral movement and vertical movement within the golf swing. With these movements, it can become easy to over exaggerate which moves you off the ball, making it difficult to have consistency in your shots.

How To Shift Your Weight Correctly

You want to be able to stay in balance and shift your weight efficiently with power. To do that you need to do a couple of things. 

One being shifting your pressure and rotating. To do this properly you need to:

• Brace on the inside of your trail foot as you begin your swing
• Keep your head relatively centered (it’s okay if it moves a couple of inches)
• Keep your weight within your stance width
• After you’re in rotation, begin shifting your energy to your lead foot toward the target

A key point to remember, is to stay within the boundaries of your stance. If you look at any other sport where athletes change direction constantly, you will see them staying within the boundaries of the foot they push off of. If they didn’t, the explosiveness of their movements would be gone and they would be unstable.

Difference Between Driver & Irons

As you know, the lengths of your irons and driver are different. With your irons, your stance is slightly more narrow. You can test to see if you’re shifting your weight properly with a simple trick.

You want to keep your upper body within the boundaries of your stance. A good checkpoint for this is to put your club up to your chest as you rotate. If the club is sitting on the inside edge of your trail foot, you’re good to go. If it’s outside of your foot, you know you shifted your weight a touch too far.

You can perform the same test with your driver. The difference is, your stance is a little bit wider and you should have a slight tilt at address. You should still be moving on the inside of your trail foot, so if you catch your upper body outside of that boundary, you can make corrections and adjust.

Conclusion

Keeping your body within those boundaries will give you an idea of what good weight distribution should feel like. This topic is often misinterpreted and golfers over exaggerate what they should be doing. Understanding the feel of proper weight shift will have you balanced, and you will be able to create powerful and consistent shots!

 

Become an ELITE Member Click Here Now.