Pulling a Rope to Teach Rotational Weight Shift

Golf: Pull a Rope for Better Weight Shift

Pat Aitken

During the swing, the golfer's weight shifts from the front leg to the back and then vice versa.

It's important for your players to make this weight transfer by rotating their body rather than swaying from side to side at the hips. That's because rotation coils the hips and torso to unleash greater power during the swing.

Rotation Exercise
Your students can get the feeling for this rotation by performing the following exercise.

Give them a skipping rope and place it around a spike, javelin, or other “anchor” placed in the ground.
Tell them to visualize their backswing while pulling on the rope with their right hand, arm, shoulder and hip. Pulling on the rope will produce the appropriate rotational movement while shifting the weight to the back foot.
Then have them visualize their swing while pulling the rope with their left hand, arm, shoulder and hip. This will produce a forward weight shift using the correct rotational movement without side-to-side hip sway.

References:
1. “Imagine pulling a rope.” Golf Digest, March 1996.
2. John Hoskison, A Golf Swing You Can Trust [Kindle Edition], ePublishing Works, 2012.

To download the pdf version of this
article, click here: Download Now