You're Correct!

If you watch todays leading tournament professionals play golf, you will see that they all keep their left heel down on the ground when they make their back swing action. However, a lot of amateur golfers find it very difficult to achieve this and actually lift their left heel during their back swing.

The reason for this difference in what the left heel is doing is due to levels of flexibility. All of todays top professionals work very hard on achieving high levels of fitness.

Todays professionals are athletes who play golf and as such they have tremendous flexibility levels. This enables them to be able to easily turn their shoulders more than their hips during their back swing, to create power in their swing and achieve maximum speed and distance to their shots. To create a powerful back swing position, golfers want to rotate their shoulders 90 degrees to the right of their initial starting position (for right handed golfers) but they only want to rotate their hips 45 degrees to the right. This creates a twist within the golfers body, or coil and it is this coil which then creates power. However, a golfer should always endeavour to rotate their shoulders to as close to 90 degrees to the right of their starting position as possible.

As an amateur golfer, you may not have the same levels of flexibility as professional golfers do and therefore you may not be able to rotate 90 degrees to the right with your upper body if you keep your left heel on the ground. If this is the case, you will lose power as your shoulders are not rotating fully on your back swing. To achieve a 90 degree upper body rotation, allow your left heel to lift from the ground as this will allow your hips to rotate more to the right and with your hips rotating more, you will find that your shoulders are able to rotate more and further round to the right. This will allow you to create a full shoulder turn on your back swing and therefore maximum power and speed.

Lifting your left heel during your back swing movement allows your hips to rotate to the right more than 45 degrees. To generate maximum power from your back swing, you want to rotate your hips to a 45 degree position whilst rotating your shoulders to a 90 degree position. Turn your hips further than 45 degrees results in less power being generated, as you create less torque, or twist, in your body.

If you lift your left heel from the ground and therefore over rotate your hips to the right, during your back swing, you now need to replace your left heel and recover your hip position before you can then strike the golf ball. This extra movement therefore makes it more difficult to be consistent, as you need to recover the position and then strike, rather than just strike.

If you watch all of todays leading golf professionals, you will see that they all keep their left heel on the ground during their back swing. Todays professionals are all great athletes who work hard on achieving maximum levels of flexibility within their bodies. Due to their levels of flexibility, they are all able to maintain a grounded left heel as they make their back swing.