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The golf swing has changed substantially over the past years, from bodys lateral movement to keeping more stable and rotating.

The legs have played a huge role in the development of the golf swing. Players of the Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan, Trevino and Seve eras used a lot of leg movement during the swing in the hope it would generate more club head speed through impact. With the development in technology over recent years, the golf swing has developed on a huge scale from set up fundamentals such as the grip, posture and even width of stance to adaptions and theories into the weight transfer during the swing.

One obvious change that can be noticed when watching golf is the role which the legs play during the swing because they have gone from being used in a rather flamboyant sense to being used in a more stable and solid sense.

In the past, when hickory shafts were used or extremely heavy shafts were fitted into small headed drivers, players had to create their own spring effect at impact, their own club head speed through impact and their own power with the body. The clubs offered no help on this front.

The knee movement was particularly impressive during the swing because the knees would be over active during the back swing, especially the left knee, which would drop a long way in towards the right knee and then both knees would drive through impact, some players being fully rotated at impact. This gave them maximum power but little control.
Golf has changed a lot since then due to:

• The increasing improvement in physiology in golf
• Better clubs
• Longer balls
• Better quality of shaft

These improvements allow the player to be much more robotic about the actions created and allow the equipment to do a lot of the work. The left knee rotates a little during the back swing and then straightens through impact allowing the hips to lead through rotation as opposed to any lateral movement.

A player now doesnt need to throw their whole body into the ball and drive the knees so fast to create club head speed. They just need to be custom fitted and find the shaft that suits their swing speed.

All aspects of the golf swing have adapted over the years. The legs in particular have had a huge impact on the distance the ball can travel, but more importantly, the control a player can now feel through impact.

There are many theories on what the legs and weight should do and how they work together. A straightened right leg and weight to left side at the top of the swing would mean the player has reverse pivoted, causing an array of bad shots.

Many coaches would advocate that the right knee stays flexed during the back swing with the weight shifting slightly across to the right side during the back swing, then the rotation of the hips can help drive towards to the target.

The role of the lower body is to aid the upper bodys swing path because depending on where the weight is and how it has rotated, the swing path can be affected and therefore direction. It has a huge role to play in maximizing the distance of the shots too because the transition to the down swing can start with a squat of the knees followed by the hip rotation to drive power and the club head into impact.