Why Golf Rotation (Not Weight Shift) is the Key to a Better Swing

Updated January 20, 2022

Weight Shift! It sounds like something you should have in your golf swing. I read about it in a lot of magazines but it is a flawed concept, at least in how most students try to use it.

Weight Shift: The Common Mistake Golfers Make

What we often see in students is that they keep their head still and try to turn their shoulders around their torso and shift their weight back. If you try to do that you can see that you are not in an athletic posture or ready to hit a golf shot from that position.

Part of the problem with the concept of shifting weight is that it is a lateral movement to the hips. What you should understand is that there is weight movement in the golf swing, just like when you throw a ball there is weight movement, but I would not describe that as a weight shift.

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How to Fix Your Form

What you want to do is change the words. If we go back to our set up, the body is going to move and rotate into your back leg at the beginning of the swing. So there is the movement of the body into the back leg and then on the downswing the body moves into the front leg.

What I want you to see is how slight that movement actually is and that it is not a shift but rather a rotation back and then front. Part of the problem with the shifting movement is that we create a balance loss.

The proper stance is the foundation of the house and by shifting weight you lose that foundation. So let’s not shift our weight but rather let’s get a rotational body movement that also allows for a little natural head movement. So eliminate the weight shift concept, get your body into a rotational movement. It will add energy to your golf shots and it will definitely improve your contact.