Loading up on the back leg and firing through the ball to the front side is one of the keys to good play. Sounds easy enough, but in case you’re a little foggy about the details, Grayhawk Learning Center Instructor John Kostis runs through the finer points in this video.
Athletic Base
As he indicates in the video below, it all starts with “an athletic base; weight distribution on the balls of your feet; shoulders a little bit out on your toes; tailbone up in the air; back of your armpit falls down in front of your knee; now you’re prepared to have proper weight shift and footwork.”
Shift versus Slide
He then makes the point that “shift” doesn’t mean “slide.”
“A lot of people hear the word shift and they think slide,” he said. “We don’t want your right hip to slide sideways at all.”
Hip Moves Up and Behind Back Leg
Instead, Kostis said, in the case of a high-handed player: “Your right hip is going to work up and behind you, and that allows your left shoulder, left thigh, left knee to move over behind the golf ball. So, as long as your right leg is working behind you, into your right heel, you can let your left side release and that will shift weight over onto your right side.”
With the hard part over, Kostis then advises to “go ahead and swing the golf club and move through it onto your left side, hold a nice athletic follow through.”
Baseball Drill
“One of the main drills we use out here to accomplish this is called the baseball drill,” he said. “Normal grip; normal posture; good weight distribution; pick the left foot up; tap your right ankle going back; your left knee and left thigh are going to be up above your right leg. Then you’re going to put your left foot back on the ground; swing the club forward; hold your follow through and watch the golf ball take off.”
Contact John
To master this move, along with any other challenges in your game, contact John Kostis at JPKostis@gmail.com, or 480.502.1800.
