What Nobody Tells You About Foot Position in Golf Swing

In this lesson, I discuss footwork in the golf swing. As well as using step drills, I explain how the feet need to be moving at address, how they work throughout the swing and the role of ground force

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Welcome back to Patty’s golf tips H the 2024 version I suppose we’re here at the PNC championship at Ritz carton Grand Lakes as as usual at this time of the year so My First well my newest tip I suppose is going to be on what’s very topical at the moment Ground Force

Footwork to be honest the winner of the gold medal and the champion golfer of the year is Podrick [Applause] Harrington [Applause] So how did the feet work in the golf swing it definitely is something I had to understand myself and it it’s a reasonably tough area so okay probably little bit higher level sort of stuff for uh for most people if you’re just beginning the game of golf probably the

Best way to get your footwork not just beginners is by doing step drills so you can do two step drills you can start off you take your setup we’re not going to do it with the ball and you step as you go back remember the club always goes

Forward in practice swings it’s the best way to keep the club on plane and everything about it it’s good for movement so our step drill would be normal setup bring your right foot in and step into your back swing okay forward step into your back swing this

Is what you really you got to get this momentum from a lot more people you do the step in the down swing so bring the left foot back and just not going to hit it and about this point in the back swing you’ll see so once that club

Starts changing coming up and over your weight goes forward into that left side brilliant drill for amateurs to do okay so I’ll do that in motion one I take my normal setup I can bring my right fo okay step like so and the one that I recommend and

Maybe people should play with I don’t see why you wouldn’t play with this one for sure take your normal setup bring your left foot back we’re going to start with a normal and the big key when you see me doing that is literally the club is only about here before I’m stepping forward

The movement forward to transfer weight forward is a lot earlier than people think let go grab this tea so that’s for pretty much most amateurs just get that movement for the rest of us we’re going to talk a little bit more about in detail what’s happening H again we get

Over the ball we want plenty of movement in our feet okay static is not good we definitely never never want to see our weight going to the balls of our feet and it’s bending our knees too much this is terrible we wouldn’t want to lock out

Our legs either and our weight be on our Heels by being Dynamic over the ball and moving you will find your balance points so back swing so we’re nicely set up we’re moving so we start drawing the club away as we know the the drawway is really your hands and arms and your

Torso this kind of gets left behind to about this point from from here you there will be people who give a bit of a shift I’m not one of those who will shift and then turn I’m hoping to get about here without much movement from here I have a slight movement up into

The ball of the inside ball of this foot so there long drive guys will go quite high and we’ll turn the hip a lot for most people when it comes to control it would be about that much 45° hip turn up into this in step here right I’m putting

All the pressure right there okay like so right hip obviously goes high and back but the key here on this right leg we’re turning into this right side now from that angle you will see you turn and the hip kind of goes up and back so there is a little shift this way

We never want to keep that knee extremely flexed so the worst thing you can do is try and stay in a flexed position you’re losing balance straightening your leg isn’t great but it’s better than this one so where we’re looking for is basically our knee Shin

Shin to be at 90° right over the front side of the of the ankle okay right in that position there would be ideal not too flexed not too straight they’re the ideal points to be so we’ve turned up into a little move like that now the first

Move I say at the downswing because that’s what we said over the years but it’s actually it’s as I pointed out with the step drill it’s quite a bit in the back the first move is into the front of that foot if you weren’t going forward

Like if it’s not a real gol swing you actually want the bounce back like so but because we’re going to be hitting the ball that bounceback will just go straight up in the air rather than nestly back at it but it’s pushing hard that way okay now what you will

Find if you really want to get this feel I’m going to use a prop here around got the the Wilson guys with me here this week so might as well use them this is a great way to feel what that left foot should be doing you grab

That and I will show you here if you get a club I’ve got it hooked in here and I put it behind my left hip so I move into my left side if you come actually come up here we get this maybe just a little bit

There can’t get the help these days so right so when I move into my left side and then I turn I’m pushing hard and pushing away from there if anything if that foot wasn’t on the ground it would actually go that way like I was kicking

A ball out that Direction with a little bit of rotation this is the ideal drill turn your hips from here and you’ll see how hard I’m pushing that way into the ground my heel is a little bit off the ground I’m pushing and straightening up the worst things you can do lock your

Knee out that’s disastrous don’t pull your knee back that’s creating I can pull my knee back all day and create no pair I can slide my foot back that ain’t doing much but as you saw when I’m there I’m pushing pushing and that’s digging the ground up which is what we want we

Want to be pushing that would go that way so we’re pushing and twisting away from that do not just straighten your leg up that’s woeful gets no I can straighten my leg all day with no Force and do not just rip it back again that’s not creating

Any ground force okay I’ll actually why I have this here you can also do this in your right leg for the back swing so a miniature version not as forceful but when you turn into your right leg again if anything I’m pushing away from me that direction the foot is digging that

Way as I turn okay like so so giving you the feeling of where you want and on another way to get what the left foot is doing in the down swing think of it like this you’ve stepped in there it’s like you’re stepping up a step so if you were

Going up the stairs and you put your foot and step up that’s the right motion it’s up it’s never do pull it back that creates nothing it’s more of a Twist and up if you want to know how that left leg that band really does it nicely for me I

Do do find myself walking upstairs doing that just trying to get that twist in the upper leg but still the push that if it wasn’t ground it would actually push me my foot would slip that way if anything I’m pushing that way against it okay that’s the left leg so we move in

Early we’re pushing again it’s good to get that little habit it’s great to do it with a step okay we’ve got a little bit of turn here like so perfect the right foot now the biggest thing in the game of golf I think at the moment is ground

Force and a lot of it is definitely centered around not having an early hip thrust so for golfers the worst thing they can do in the GOL swing pretty much is when they’re in the down swing is for that right hip to get forward and they have

No room to come in if I was hitting the golf butt down the line here the worst thing would be that hip to get forward now we have no room okay so everybody’s taught if you’ve you got to get your butt back okay like

So yes we want to get our butt back but you got to do it the right way so that band will give you the feeling getting the the butt back you’re pushing away but there’s a few more things that would help for sure if you want Ground Force you need to

Be down and up in your down in your transition and up in your down swing you got to do it as early as you can get down for me all I have to think about is going up hard and I squat down more cuz it’s natural if somebody said

To you I want you to jump as high as you could you wouldn’t jump as high as you could I I can’t I don’t know if I I can’t if I want to jump jump as high as I could I’m going to squat to do it

There’s no way I ain’t going to go down first to go up this is edited by the way we took about 6 seconds of float out of that jump I was about this high off the ground just hanging it it it actually looked like the video broke but just

Demonstrate again 6 seven seconds in the air if you want to go up which we’re going to do on the down three you will squat to do it that’s the only way to get yourself up okay so don’t necessarily worry about the squat worry more about the up and when you watch it

In video hopefully you will see a squat first so let’s see what we’re looking at okay so I’m thinking up as much as I can okay that to me is as much up as I can get got a big stretch here my pelvis came up as high as it could my torso

Came up but it came up from a l Lal and down so a a new beginner to the game they’ll tend to go up back here and of course that’s why they top the ball they go up too early maybe not too early they go up when they haven’t got far enough left

So a good player will get left and up whereas a new beginner just because they’re a bit raw they’re up will come here and that’s why they could get a fresh air but do not lose the up the up is very important in the down swing

So how do we get this right we want our pelvis to go as hard as we can up okay but again as I said earlier if your pelvis went up this way you’re going to block yourself out and have no room so how do we get that we want to be

Accelerated and you watch the good players like their right foot is like this so they’ll start their down stre and they’ll be like this uh MIM like one of the most aggressive young players in the game his right foot is like here like at this stage Justin

Thomas the same right up here so they’re not afraid of early extending so how do you how do they get away with accelerating as much as they can up yet not early extending watch this there’s a couple of things that go on so once you’ve transferred in your right foot

Now behaves like a sprinter so you’re trying to sprint out of the blocks so again if there was no closed chain here if we were not attached to the ground your right foot is pushing as hard as it can that way when it’s connected to the

Ground and you push that way it will throw your quad forward which is fine I’m going to show you how to deal with that in a second you’re also trying to push as hard as you can that way laterally as hard as you can that way

And that way but here is the real kicker this stop you’re getting early extended the good players have rotation in that hip at the same time they right heel comes up and a tiny bit that direction the quad is turning in so that’s what stops it just going straight out that

Way there’s a turn the turn is in here and obviously in the left leg like so there’s a very simple way of thinking about this for me anyway a very simple visual certainly for the older people younger people won’t know this hopefully they won’t know this if you were stamping out a

Cigarette your right foot is stamping out a cigarette that’s what you’re trying to do trying to press as hard as you can and twist at the same time is the correct reaction for that foot push that way that way and bit of twist and that will create that pressure as you

Can see I can dig by doing that twist I can dig a hole in the ground again I would have been brought up to do this which doesn’t have any pressure my foot’s coming up this on the other hand has a lot of dig into the ground so

Let’s see this again so both feet at impact right we pushed into this side we’re pushing away from there we’re pushing away with the right foot from here so they’re going opposite directions okay and this at impact they will look like that this left foot will be rolled about that much straightened

Up for older guys it straightens up about at this point for the younger guys and really fast you’ll see they’ll squeeze their glutes together and they’ll get this position probably by impact okay that’s probably a bit more powerful the older guys probably getting it straightening up here cuz it just

Wasn’t what we did back in the day so again you can see my foot if you look heel is slightly off I’ve rotated my quad it’s straightened up because of the speed of things because my pelvis has come up squeeze my glutes together squeeze my bollocks together okay right

Foot has turned on top of it so this is your impact position on a driver like so very tall extending up so I’ve gone like so on a wedge or something these are all going to be passive that’s you near you’re going to have all spikes in the ground and nearly all spikes

Maybe my heel is slightly off the ground on a wedge a bit like that but on a driver we’re looking to get as much of that pressure on both feet like so so let’s see it in action so I’m just going to think of getting up again move my feet

Nicely and up I go so when I finish this this is stretched I think the younger guys can kind of get their knees together but it’s up and you use the rotation of this outward rotation of this quad internal rotation so external here internal here but we do not rake

The left leg and we certainly do not we do not straighten the knee that’s the worst thing in the world that will hurt you as well we’re actually pushing up that’s how the feet work in the swing so maybe could think about Stamp Out the cigarette this way and if you want to

Think of the left leg and watch all the longer you might want to Stamp Out a cigarette that way again the heel is coming back towards cuz you’re squeezing those glutes so the legs are coming closer to each other like so and that’s how the feet work in the swing but you

Got to get that pelvis everything up I know it might feel natural here but that’s where speed comes from the up the squeezing the the glutes and these two coming close together the heel coming back both with them like that and that’s how you get your feet to work in the

Golf swing but for the beginners just do loads of Step drills do happy gilmores do not stay still loads of step back and loads of Step forwards and you can do both of them at the same time if you want I’ll even try it now not that I’m an expert at Double

Steps okay so I’m going to step back wow I should probably use that in tournaments that was quite nice and again a very tall finish and that’s all there is to the footwork