Rotate vs Reverse
By Dr. T. J. Tomasi, Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
A reverse weight shift results in an ugly position in which your upper body is curved toward the target during your backswing. It’s called reverse because the weight is heading in the opposite direction of where it should – if you’re right-handed, your weight should shift into your right hip, just the opposite of the player in the photo.
This young player will have a hard time correcting his awkward spine tilt, plus he’ll have to rotate to create a power coil and doesn’t have much time to correct his mistakes.
When you rotate your upper body during the backswing, you shouldn’t allow it to tilt toward the target. The correct motion is to turn your upper body toward your back foot so that your weight shifts automatically onto your rear hip. To better understand what this means, pretend that your legs are two posts on the ground. All you do during the swing is turn your upper body away from the target and around the right post (for a right-hander) in the backswing, and then back toward the target and around the left post in the downswing. Your upper body should never move to the right of your right leg in the backswing. Your sternum—or, for easier reference, the buttons on your shirt—rotate to the right until your back faces the target.
With his legs directly underneath him, all this player needs to do is keep turning his back. Once he’s fully coiled at the top, the spring will uncoil all on its own. He does ‘something’ [coil] on the backswing, and ‘nothing’ on the downswing as the spring uncoils – the recipe for a simple, repeating swing.
The College of Golf at Keiser University can help. With PGA professionals on staff and state-of-the-practice technology available to our students, we can prepare you for the golf career of your dreams. Contact us today for more information.
