You’ve probably heard the term “load into your trail side.” This means shifting your weight away from the target during your backswing. It’s something that the best players in the world do in their swings, and you should, too.
But what many amateurs get wrong is that they load too much weight into the trail side, which leads to your center of mass being too far behind the ball and causes inconsistent contact.
While it’s crucial that you load your weight into your trail side, you don’t want to overdo it. Elite golfers tend to start shifting their weight away from the target during the takeaway, but by the time they reach the top of the backswing, that weight already has shifted back toward the target.
GOLFTEC‘s Director of Teaching Quality Josh Troyer explains how it all works below.
Don’t ‘overload’ in the backswing
When you start your backswing, you should feel your weight shift away from the target ever so slightly. This helps you turn your body away from the target and coil into a powerful position.
Once your shaft gets around parallel to the ground, though, your weight should start drifting back toward the target. This move, commonly referred to as “re-centering,” helps initiate the downswing and gets you into a better position for solid ball striking.
“The best players in the world don’t continue to move into their trail side throughout the backswing,” Troyer says. “They do it very early on and then from that point forward, they’re always moving towards the target.”
This move allows the best ball strikers in the world to generate ball-first contact, which is essential for compressing the ball and generating spin and power.
If you want to get some expert insights into your swing — and learn how to execute this crucial ball-striking move — book a swing evaluation with GOLFTEC below.
