"Posting" the forward leg - advice needed

[Chas]

My main effort at the moment is to work on shifting my weight fully onto my left foot (right hander) as I move through the contact zone into the follow-through, which means that I need to well-and-truly "post" that left leg as I keep the rotation going to a full finish. Sounds pretty straighforward, right?

I have this unfortunate tendency to hold my weight back a tad as I approach contact and (perish the thought) even beyond, which can lead to fat hits as well as loss of power/poor trajectory. Doing this correctly should I hope help me to hit down on the ball more and get the correct trajectory going - which we all know to be the Holy Grail of all golfers (with the middle and short clubs anyway). I suspect that I have a subsconscious fear of getting ahead of the ball with my core and pushing it right, a fairly major problem until recently and still lurking in the background. My bad tendencies are to push or to hook - very rarely these days do I slice or pull the ball - in case that helps you to understand what else might be going on.

Please focus more on the leg posting issue here, although of course many other things are linked. My question to you expert (and not so expert) ball-strikers is, how do you achieve that critical act, namely full and complete rotation around a well-posted forward leg, that ALL good golfers have in common?

All tips, tricks and swing thoughts are welcomed. Thanking you in advance for your kind consideration etc etc,

Chas.

p.s. I never had this front leg posting problem in tennis, e.g. with my favorite play - the driving topspin backhand passing shot. So what's with this issue in my golf game?

[iacas]

It's late so I'll be short.

You can probably think of it two ways, neither of which are really about your "leg" per se.

1) Drive your left knee forward and down.
2) Push your left hip as far forward for as long as possible.

The follow-through will bring you up into the "posted up" pose. Post up too early - straighten that left leg too early - and you'll just spin out.

[Jay-Bird]

In all seriousness, you should try Stack and Tilt.

[umpiremark]

I'm looking for help - especially from anyone that has gone through this (if there are any). I am a two-nights a week league player with a 7 and 8 handicap (9 holes). I regularly shoot in the low 40's. All of a sudden this year, I've got the shanks, blocking everything right - dead push plus bad slice. I went in to the pro for a lesson and I am keeping all my weight on my right side opening wide up and pushing everything weakly right. I need - as he pointed out - to transfer to my left side and through. (I'm pretty sure I used to do this without effort).

My question is this - I know WHAT I'm supposed to do; I know WHAT a good swing is supposed to feel like. For some dumb@ss reason I cannot make the shift, cannot make the transfer and I do not know WHY?

If anyone out there can post range drills that will help me get back to my left side consistently AND make solid ball contact again, I'm all ears. I have a hitting mat and net in the back yard and just want to re-build my swing from the ground up. Any helping drils, please? THANKS.

[opie]

Try placing something under the outside edge of your right foot (golfball, book, etc). Something that will make it pronate (i think that's the right word) inwards. When you start your downswing that way it should help you get onto your left side.

[HookEmHorns]

My question is this - I know WHAT I'm supposed to do; I know WHAT a good swing is supposed to feel like. For some dumb@ss reason I cannot make the shift, cannot make the transfer and I do not know WHY?

Subscribed to this thread now! I have the exact same problem umpiremark. I know I know exactly what I need to be doing, yet I can't make myself do it... I have a problem with not wanting to move my lower body at all. I try to keep my feet planted in the same spot and not move them at all. I have been having some consistency issues with that so I guess that is how I have been dealing with that. Looking forward to some good practice drills to do to help out. One thing that I did see was to practice hitting on a downslope to get used to moving forward on your front foot.. if I find the link to the site I will put it up, but got to go to the principle golf classic now!

[toddmcguire]

I see a lot of different swings everyday at work. I see this a lot. Try opening your leading foot a little toward the target. That will help you in getting around and helping your chest open toward the target. This also occurs with players that have a negative attack angle, so ball positioning may be something you may want to look into.

[Chas]

1) Drive your left knee forward and down.

Makes sense. I'll try not to post up too soon but I do need to end up in that position or I know I haven't shifted weight forward properly. Sometimes when I chunk one it feels like I didn't drive my knee enough, the leg sort of buckles a bit. Maybe I need to do some leg presses.

So that's what "spinning out" means - I didn't really know. When interviewed after a round recently Tiger complained that he kept spinning out, now I know what he was talking about. He said he just needed some time on the range to get it fixed. Tiger may be the fastest "poster" of all time, his timing must have to be very precise.

[dr_faustus]

I had that. Started setting up with two keys:

- right knee kicked in a tad
- weight more on the inside of my right foot

This way the right knee stays stable and I can swing back against my right side in balance.

This helped me not hit the ball fat with irons anymore, which was a joy, and also not to wipe it right.

[Chas]

Good points. Yes, I'm aware of that and try to do it consistently (right knee in, weight on inside of foot). But maybe I'm backsliding sometimes, I'll check on it and see. That's the thing about golf: you think you've got something licked, only to find later that it's reared its ugly head again (without you seeing it).

[squaddie]

Here's two Shawn Clement videos that are relevant to your questions about "posting" the forward leg. He refers to the motion as being braced against his forward side (assuming a right-handed golfer).

Watch this one first, on the downswing weightshift:


Then watch this related video on "Clearing the hips" drill:


He has a few other videos on the related topic, but these two videos are good to start with.

I was having problems with my right hip shifting forward on the downswing, causing all sorts of problems. Watching these vids have helped me alleviate the problem somewhat.

Another good video Shawn has is his One Leg Swing drill, which helped me get a feel for bracing on my left-side better.

[TN94z]

I had a problem with straightening my left leg too early, almost to a hyper-extended position. Be careful not to do this...this is what caused Tiger to have to have surgery on his knee. The actual straightening of the leg is after impact....keep some knee flex until after impact.

[JaY_B]

One key feeling, get your right heel off the floor in your downswing as soon as you can, this will force you on to your left side. You could his shots with your right heel off the floor at address, and keeping it there throughout the swing to exaggerate this feeling.

[tm22721]

If you complete your backswing most weight will be on a bent left leg. In the downswing your rotational axis will be formed by your left foot and a steady head which must stay behind the ball through impact.