Online Golf Tips

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Our online golf tips, swing technique take us to baseball for just a minute.  Lots of golfers have swung a baseball bat. A natural, and correct, swing of a bat includes a calf-muscle-induced push forward off the right foot. Just as in throwing a baseball, this push off the right foot causes the right side of the torso to rotate around in toward the ball. But, since the ball is 2 to 3 feet above the ground, the right elbow is on a different, higher pathway and runs no risk of bumping into the right side. 

Given the bend of the knees at address when hitting a golf ball, the lower part of the right leg is angled a bit, so its calf muscles are stretched. When calf muscles are used to push during the flail, the angle between the lower right leg and the right foot opens up. In the photos below, look at Mark McGwire’s right foot. 

Clearly in the baseball swing, Mark is contracting the muscles in his right calf, raising his right heel way off the ground, dramatically changing the angle between his foot and leg, in order to push his right side. But when hitting the golf ball, Mark’s right heel pretty much stays on the ground and his ankle rolls forward. Do our six pros, at the end of the ‘forward swing’ when the thigh and hip muscles are finishing their initiation of the flail, and before ‘acceleration’, have their right heels up in the air as Mark does when swinging a bat? Or do their right ankles look as if they’ve simply been pulled and rolled forward by the momentum of the diagonal pull and hip rotation?

Golf Swing Technique

Swail's golf swing technique experts remind us that even top pros can succumb to the temptation to give a hit some extra oomph by pushing off the right foot. And you see a couple of shoes with creases across the top at the ball of the foot. With proper golf swing technique, what you want to see is soles on right shoes at this point in the flail that look as they do when sitting on a store shelf. 

As the flail gets started, the strong activity in right thigh and hip muscles keeps your right foot firmly planted on the ground. Once they’ve done their job and helped rotate your right hip around and forward, your right ankle will roll forward and your right heel will come off the ground. But, until your arms are about one-third to one-half of the way from the top of your lift ‘n coil toward impact, the inside edge of your right heel should still be in contact with the ground.