When I look back on some of the greatest players in the history of golf, I find it simply amazing to see how much flow they had to their swing. Don’t get me wrong its not as if there is no method to their swing, but they always seemed to let loose on the golf course. There was rhythm and movement when the swung the golf club and appeared to lack any kind of stiffness in their swing.
In contrast to the players of the past when we look at many of the modern day players they often seem overly methodical about what they do. We see very little movement and their body seems to often stay excessively neutral as they swing the club. However when you look at some of the really great ball strikers of the modern era, we do sometimes see a glimmer of the movement that so many displayed in the past.
When we look at players such as Ben Hogan (Top), Jack Nicklaus (above) and Slammin’ Sam Snead (below), you may notice a common feature among all three when it comes to their lower body. All three players show a quite distinct raising of their lead foot as they get to the top of the backswing. This movement shows us the flow that I had mentioned earlier, however more importantly it shows us the the players of the past allowed their weight to shift into the back foot during the backswing. This is a key aspect of loading the right side, coiling into their trail leg and producing a pure strike.
Even as we look at some of the great ball strikers in the modern era we can see the same trait with the players weight moving to the trail leg in the backswing. With modern players we tend to see a far less obvious “lift” of the front foot however if you look at the image of Rory below you can clearly see the left heel is slightly off the ground and the weight is loaded onto his trail leg. From this position Rory can use the ground to drive the golf club through the golf ball with maximum power, while also maintain a perfect strike on the golf ball.
Allowing the weight to shift towards the trail leg in the backswing has several benefits that almost every golfer could do with. This movement will not only allow better ball striking, but will also allow players to create far more power and consistency than a static, centred body movement.
