Many golfers get happy feet when they try to take a healthy cut at the ball. They look as if they’re spinning out of control, like a car on an icy road. A lack of stability in the lower body puts them in a weak position coming into impact. To consistently make better contact and finish your swing in a comfortable pose, follow these four steps for improved lower-body action.
1. Get Your Legs Aligned
A balanced setup promotes good use of the lower body. Bend from your hip joints a little so they’re stacked over the backs of your knees, down through your ankles. Check this with a club-shaft.
2. Perfect Your Pivot
As you go back, sense your weight being increasingly supported by your right heel. To get a feel for this movement, cross your arms and practise your backswing pivot without a club, like I’m doing here.
3. Shift, And Then Rotate
Initiate the downswing with a shift of the lower body towards the target. You’ll feel it initially in the forward half of your left foot. Make this shift before you rotate your upper body around that leg.
4. Move To The Left Heel
Finally, settle into your left heel and use your left leg as a post to swing around. Feel as if that leg is screwed into the ground, letting you brace for the strike and complete your swing in balance.
David Leadbetter is an Australian Golf Digest Teaching Professional.
