Golf Leg Action, How Have The Role Of The Legs Changed In The Modern Swing (Video) - by Peter Finch
Golf Leg Action, How Have The Role Of The Legs Changed In The Modern Swing (Video) - by Peter Finch

How has the role of the legs changed in the modern golf swing? Now the role that the legs play when swinging the club are very, very important because they provide stability and it kind of provides the base for everything that the golf swing is built upon. So how you move them and how you actually help them operate throughout the swing is very, very important to the rest of the technique. It impacts onto other factors.

Now with the old fashion swings what you tended to see was a very big leg drive. Now with a very big leg drive players used to get to the top of the golf swing often with the left heel lifting quite a long way up off the ground. And then through impact is really driving the legs down towards the target. Now this was the belief that this leg drive could add power, it could get the weight shifting towards the target, generate more power, generate more speed, but also generate a little bit more accuracy. So you tended to see the legs being a little bit looser to the top of the swing, and then really driving towards the target. And often a common sight was the back swing -- the through swig should I say to finish in a position where the legs were almost beyond the hips, and the body was actually leaning backwards through the point of impact. Now with the use of modern kind of video technology, and club technology, ball technology getting better and better and better. It's able the club -- the body is able to stay, and the legs in particular are able to stay a lot more solid throughout the swing. Now as you get to the top of the backswing you want the legs to be remaining nice and solid. Nice and steady, allowing the upper body to coil against the lower. But then during the downswing rather than having that big drive of the legs, all we really need to do is a slight lateral press, and then a rotation. If you can just rotate the hips and keep the legs nice and steady it's going to be able to produce so much more consistent golf shots. It's very hard to drive those legs in that manner and connect with the ball very consistently. It’s a lot more easier just to actually rotate and turn rather than drive and thrust. So it’s a big, big difference in how the legs have actually changed in the way that the modern golf swing is coached. That rather than the drive it's just more of a little bit of a turn. And from that position you're able just to turn and swing the body a lot, lot more consistently. So if you are struggling with a slight kind of leg drive and you do want to kind of change how the legs operate, give that a go and see how you get on.
2014-11-14

How has the role of the legs changed in the modern golf swing? Now the role that the legs play when swinging the club are very, very important because they provide stability and it kind of provides the base for everything that the golf swing is built upon. So how you move them and how you actually help them operate throughout the swing is very, very important to the rest of the technique. It impacts onto other factors.

Now with the old fashion swings what you tended to see was a very big leg drive. Now with a very big leg drive players used to get to the top of the golf swing often with the left heel lifting quite a long way up off the ground. And then through impact is really driving the legs down towards the target. Now this was the belief that this leg drive could add power, it could get the weight shifting towards the target, generate more power, generate more speed, but also generate a little bit more accuracy.

So you tended to see the legs being a little bit looser to the top of the swing, and then really driving towards the target. And often a common sight was the back swing — the through swig should I say to finish in a position where the legs were almost beyond the hips, and the body was actually leaning backwards through the point of impact. Now with the use of modern kind of video technology, and club technology, ball technology getting better and better and better. It's able the club — the body is able to stay, and the legs in particular are able to stay a lot more solid throughout the swing.

Now as you get to the top of the backswing you want the legs to be remaining nice and solid. Nice and steady, allowing the upper body to coil against the lower. But then during the downswing rather than having that big drive of the legs, all we really need to do is a slight lateral press, and then a rotation. If you can just rotate the hips and keep the legs nice and steady it's going to be able to produce so much more consistent golf shots. It's very hard to drive those legs in that manner and connect with the ball very consistently.

It’s a lot more easier just to actually rotate and turn rather than drive and thrust. So it’s a big, big difference in how the legs have actually changed in the way that the modern golf swing is coached. That rather than the drive it's just more of a little bit of a turn. And from that position you're able just to turn and swing the body a lot, lot more consistently. So if you are struggling with a slight kind of leg drive and you do want to kind of change how the legs operate, give that a go and see how you get on.