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When you go to the driving range or practise ground to hit a few balls, you can very often see golfers there working on specific drills to help them improve particular areas of the golf swing. One of the most common drills you can see being used is the walk through swing drill.

This drill will see a golfer set up in their usual address position ready to play their golf shot. They will make their back swing as usual and then on their down swing they will step their right foot (if they are a right handed golfer) in front of their left so that it lands and is placed down to the left of their left foot, as they strike the golf ball and swing in to their follow through.

In order to be able to take this step and walk towards the target with their right foot, the golfer must be pushing their right foot off the ground so that their weight is on their left foot as their right foot walks through when they strike the golf ball. If the golfer has too much weight on their right foot as they strike the golf ball, they will not be able to walk their right foot through towards the target. This drill is really useful if you struggle to transfer your weight correctly on to your front foot through impact.

Ideally, you should have the majority of your weight on your front, or left foot for right handed golfers, at impact and your lower body should be turning towards the target to instigate your weight transfer on your down swing. The walk through drill helps you to learn how to shift your weight correctly and the feeling to have in your lower body and where your weight should be located in your feet through impact and in to your follow through. Leaving your weight on your back foot through impact will result in your centre of gravity being too far behind the ball, and you will hit the ground with the club head before you strike the golf ball. In doing this, all of the speed in the club head will transfer into the ground rather than the golf ball and your shots will be hit short of the target.

To increase your shot distance and also how cleanly you strike the golf ball, you need to transfer your weight from your right foot to your left foot through your down swing, impact and your follow through.

The walk through drill with definitely be very useful for you if you struggle with getting your weight on to your left foot during your down swing and then into your follow through and you notice that you finish with your right foot flat on the floor, or your heel only just up off the ground.

The walk through golf drill has great value but only to golfers who struggle to shift their weight correctly on their down swing, through impact and into their follow through. If you do this well already, then there is no point in working on this drill. Only use this drill if you need to improve your weight transfer in your golf swing.

If you keep your weight on your back foot as you strike the golf ball, you will hit fat golf shots, where the club head strikes the ground before it strikes the golf ball. As a result of this, you will hit the ball short of the target. For maximum shot length, learn to transfer your weight correctly on to your front foot as you swing.

If your body remains still through impact and you only use your arms to swing the golf club, you will never hit the ball as far as you potentially could. Only using the strength in your arms with never hit the golf ball as far as you could if you used the strength of both your body and your arms, and to get your body involved through impact, you need to rotate towards the target, rather than staying still.