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Left foot coming off the ground for extra power


Valleygolfer
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The longer drivers who are vertically challenged like, Rory, Justin Thomas and now Fowler have had their driver swings analyzed showing that they have their front foot coming off the ground at impact.  I am considering trying to incorporate this in the simulator to see if I can produce some extra power. Does anyone else do this or tried it. Opinions?

Here is Fowler's swing @ 1:06 where it shows him doing lit.

 

 

Edited by RandallT
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"My ball is on top of a rock in the hazard, do I get some sort of relief?"

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I'm interested is learning about your outcome.  My thought, however, is you are letting the tail wag the dog (a common problem I have with many teachers have forgotten how to learn).

In my experience, consciously lifting the foot involves different actions and muscles than "performing something that results in the foot being raise".  It would be akin to a football punter.  Most punters get lifted completely off the ground by the force of their kick, but I've never heard of a coach advising someone to hop into the air at impact.

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  • RandallT changed the title to Left foot coming off the ground for extra power

I don't think you would want to do it on purpose.  Meaning like @MRR stated you don't want to do it consciously as this involves different muscles and memory patterns and will probably throw your swing off.  I'm not sure that any of these guys realize they are doing it.  Obviously they have seen it while watching themselves, but I don't think its something they were trying to do for extra power.  Bubba Watson does it too, so its not just the "vertically challenged" that do it they are just swinging at 120+mph so that's the result of it.

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1 hour ago, MRR said:

I'm interested is learning about your outcome.  My thought, however, is you are letting the tail wag the dog (a common problem I have with many teachers have forgotten how to learn).

In my experience, consciously lifting the foot involves different actions and muscles than "performing something that results in the foot being raise".  It would be akin to a football punter.  Most punters get lifted completely off the ground by the force of their kick, but I've never heard of a coach advising someone to hop into the air at impact.

Well it is not as simple as just throwing my leg up. It would be more of a result of increased momentum of my turn. I do try to catch the ball on my upswing  and hope to carry it through.

"My ball is on top of a rock in the hazard, do I get some sort of relief?"

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If your swing is such that you lift your foot a little bit, then it probably doesn't affect accuracy as much. I agree with MRR and Grind that purposely doing this is probably not really going to help you gain more distance.

As for being vertically challenged as you mention, my son is only about 5'9.5" and is one of the longest hitters on his team and at my home course(s). He's in the top 20 for sure at my home course with an average driver swing in the 110 to 112mph range. He pretty much does a 5SK swing with feet flat on the ground and shaft parallel at the top. He doesn't plant the feet or anything, they're just naturally there.

The concept of allowing the feet to lift might be a better thought? It would be terrible to lose accuracy because you are trying to "go after it" every swing?

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Bubba Watson does this, no? He's like tall, no? Definitely not short. Tiger Woods did this too IIRC. I'm guessing if you did a pressure plate trace, you'd see a lot of players who hit it a long way do some semblance of this.

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36 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Bubba Watson does this, no? He's like tall, no? Definitely not short. Tiger Woods did this too IIRC. I'm guessing if you did a pressure plate trace, you'd see a lot of players who hit it a long way do some semblance of this.

Jack Nicklaus . . . not short anyway. . .

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10 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Bubba Watson does this, no? He's like tall, no? Definitely not short. Tiger Woods did this too IIRC. I'm guessing if you did a pressure plate trace, you'd see a lot of players who hit it a long way do some semblance of this.

Yes, the same as Bubba. I only feel like this will work if it is not forced. I am fairly athletic and can often emulate things reasonably well so I am going to give it a go. It has to be coordinated to work though and I can't get crossed up during the movement.

"My ball is on top of a rock in the hazard, do I get some sort of relief?"

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6 hours ago, MRR said:

In my experience, consciously lifting the foot involves different actions and muscles than "performing something that results in the foot being raise".

Good point, MRR. Also, it appears Fowler "rolls through" the left foot and ankle rather than really raising it. I judge the left foot action as an artifact of the swing, not a conscious movement.

This winter I saw assorted clips and online tips telling us to press against the ground with the feet to supposedly increase driving distance. If I try anything like that, I go "up on my toes" and losing balance on the follow-through.

Another thing: Humans have individual differences in how their joint sockets and tendons connect up. So, my finish might not match that of @Valleygolfer - in part - because of structural differences in our bodies.

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4 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Bubba Watson does this, no? He's like tall, no? Definitely not short. Tiger Woods did this too IIRC. I'm guessing if you did a pressure plate trace, you'd see a lot of players who hit it a long way do some semblance of this.

Lots of LD competitors do this. Many are tall.

4 hours ago, Lihu said:

Jack Nicklaus . . . not short anyway. . .

The OP is about the lead foot at impact, not the top of the backswing. 

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3 hours ago, colin007 said:

all theyre doing is "jumping" through impact, pushing off the ground.

Maybe the momentum of their arms and shoulders lift them off the ground just from the sheer speed of the swing relative to their body weight?

It's possibly due to the age of the person when they started golf? Many kids do this.

 

13 minutes ago, billchao said:

Lots of LD competitors do this. Many are tall.

The OP is about the lead foot at impact, not the top of the backswing. 

My bad. . .thought Jack also lifted up. . .

58b5ded77083b_NewBitmapImage.png.25792eff1e9db08ae118d545bd11bc75.png

I guess it's just an optical illusion on my part.

Yeah, those LD guys put pretty much everything they have into their swings.

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14 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Maybe the momentum of their arms and shoulders lift them off the ground just from the sheer speed of the swing relative to their body weight?

No, I don't think so. If anything, that momentum of the arms, shoulder, hips is turning them around, possibly what would look like spinning out in the case of Fat Pat Reed, but it's the jumping that's putting him in the air, and the spinning that rotates him.

Colin P.

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IIRC, this has been talked about by instructors here. GRF (Ground reaction forces) accounts for some percentage of power, but the torso and arms provide more, there was a video of @david_wedzik making a swing from a chair. I would think if you've got the arms/torso part working well (and I'm guessing most of us don't), then you can start trying to get more from GRF. Those swings where they're jumping out of their shoes, they're basically "loading into the ground" on the downswing and then jumping around impact and beyond, bat signal to the sky. It happens so fast, they're not aware they're getting airborne, like McIlroy isn't stalling out his hips on purpose.

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3 hours ago, colin007 said:

all theyre doing is "jumping" through impact, pushing off the ground.

Yes, but note really jumping back away from the ball.  Sort of a combo pushing off the ground along with the rotation that drives the front hip back and up.

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