Having proper balance is obviously very important in the game of golf. But, knowing how to maintain perfect balance isn't always quite so obvious. I've actually been experiencing some issues with staying grounded throughout the swing, so I thought if it can happen to me, it can most likely happen to you as well!
Your weight should be in the arches of your feet throughout the swing. This is true even with our flared feet, which allows us to maintain wide knees with outward pressure. Your posture also plays a big role in being able to keep proper positioning and balance. If you start dipping down or rotating too much, your weight is going to get dispersed in many different directions.
Focus on maintaining the pressure in your arches and try to avoid wobbling backwards or forwards with your knees and hips. Weight distribution is key to having good balance throughout the swing to impact.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
Clarify balance, position and maitaining loaded/heavy right
Surge thank you for reviving the fun in golf for me again. I've always enjoyed the game but after surgery on one shoulder and both knees it's been a struggle. Your instruction has helped bring back the power and actually improved accuracy to my game. I do have a question about a couple things you've said. I'm confused about how you say to load heavy right addressing the ball and also maintain equal insole balance "like a Line-backer" position. You've stated that to be heavy right you should be able lift your left foot addressing the ball. How can you do both? Thank you, Brad Schroeder, St. Charles, Mo.
Balance perspectives
Let's see if I can clarify this from my understanding of what Surge is saying. When he's talking about "equal insole balance," he means from front to back of the feet, as opposed to the preload heavy right, which is a side-to-side thing. It's like an X and Y axis thing. X axis is through your body from left to right. Y axis is through your body from front to back. You want to be at 0 on the Y axis and somewhere just a bit right of 0 on the X axis.
Also, you shouldn't be so heavy right that you can STAY standing only on your right leg, but rather you should be able to pick your left foot up slightly without having to shift your weight around. Surge has demonstrated this idea many times. You don't want 100% of your weight preloaded right, more like 65%-70%.
I hope that helps.
weight distribution and screwing in your foot
Hi Don:
I'd like your opinion on a technique that I feel helps achieve proper weight distribution, wide firm, knees, a stable frame etc.
On both the BUS and FUS, while keeping your feet firmly gripping the ground, you "twist / screw" your right foot CW and your left foot CCW. Add more pressure right on the BUS and bump left on the FUS.
Seems to properly engage the leg and core muscles and really stabilizes the knees and hips.
Simple and Effective Idea that helps you feel grounded
Very clever idea! Just tried it without a golf club and it felt great. It does seem to be an effective way to initiate and maintain a stable outward knee pressure. I like it because it starts from the ground up. I'll give it a try at the driving range today.
After trying on the Driving range:
This idea worked quite well for me with all the clubs. The results with my driver were dramatic. No more weak shots to the right.
An added bonus for me, was that thinking about and feeling the loading and unloading of the feet, led to an improvement in aligning my feet while setting up. One of my problems is a tendency to end up with my feet aimed to the right while setting up. Having the lead foot more flared than the trailing foot means that I can't trust the toe line. If I started to think about where the inner ankle bone knuckle on each foot was, instead of how the toes were aligned, the problem was solved. This also helps to keep the weight centered on the arches throughout the swing.
I like to think of this feeling of slight outward torque in the feet as being focused at the inner ankle joint because it encourages all the other stabilization muscles to keep the weight inside the feet, until the bump is initiated.