Pressure Shift in the Golf Swing

Proper pressure on the feet during the golf swing can be a big factor in consistent quality contact.

Hey golfers, PGA Teaching Professional Todd Kolb here with another segment of Teaching with Technology; and today again I’ve got my Swing Catalyst system, and the topic for today is understanding how I can actually—what you might feel is—shift in your weight, or what in golf terms we call “pressure shift”; because there’s a little bit of confusion out there for the average viewer and the average golfer.

So I’ve got two examples today here. I’ve got this first example over here on the right where I’ve turned and literally moved my upper body off the golf ball, or—what you might say—behind the golf ball. I’ve literally tried to shift my weight, shift my head, shift my body to the right side; and at the top of the swing, what you’ll notice is I’ve attained 87 percent pressure on my right foot. Now that’s a good thing, there’s nothing wrong with that; I should have more pressure—or what you might feel as more weight—on your right foot. But when I move my head off the golf ball a lot, I also move the bottom of my golf swing.

On the left, what I want you to see here is a little bit of a different style. In this particular example, I’ve kept my head in a much more centered position. Has it moved some? Yes, but not nearly as much as the first example; because even at that—even with the centered turn—I’m able to achieve 76 percent pressure on my right foot; once again, what you might feel as weight shift, or weight on the right foot. So even though I’ve had a centered turn, I have 76 percent pressure on my right side. So my body is rotated around and behind the golf ball, so I have something to move into the golf ball, and hit it with some force.

So the takeaway from today is this—you can get pressure on your right foot, you can get weight shift on your right side without moving your upper body all the way off the golf ball. Personally, I think a center turn is better, and I think that you’ll find that your contact improves if you do that, and you’ll certainly be hitting longer and straighter shots.

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