Right heel not coming off ground at impact

Hi guys,

I have been doing a lot of video analysis on my swing to iron out the last few things in my swing, and one thing I cannot figure out is why my right heel is not coming up off the ground at impact.

Through the bag, whether it is a pitch shot, iron, or driver the right heel stays on the ground, or maybe only comes up a centimeter until I am well past impact and almost at my follow through. (BTW, I play right handed golf)

I have tried a number of things, such as shifting my weight more to the left on the downswing, getting my right side more active, shifting my weight toward the left toe on the downswing, all to no avail.

Do you guys have any suggestions or thoughts as to why this is occuring and how to fix this? I mean, I know that it is vogue today to have your right heel not come off the ground as much, but it should still come off the ground a bit. Thanks!

Hi Guys,

One more thing I forgot to add. The only thing that I think it might be is a lack of use of the right knee during the first part of the downswing. I think that at impact the right knee probably needs to point well past the ball in order for the right heel to start coming off the ground, and my knee is just not getting to that point. If you have any thoughts on this let me know. Thanks!

How are you hitting the ball? Are you getting adequate distance? If you are, then why are you concerned about what your right foot is doing at impact.

the whole right side of the rear foot should come off the ground, while the inside stays grounded untill follow through

I appreciate your help guys. Maybe I should explain further.

I am about a 3 handicap and am trying to get rid of the last few strokes through minimizing the funny moves in my swing.

I have a good action and get good distance for my size (which is 5'9 155lbs) but I have two glaring flaws in my swing.

One of them is that my right foot does not fully get off the ground until after impact.

The second is that I tend to "swing left" through impact, which creates a slighly stuck position at impact for me. Not stuck in the Tiger sense where the club lags behind too much, but stuck in the sense that I am not reaching that position at impact with both arms fully extended, which is what I want. As a result, my swing looks more like a Vijay/Sergio type move than a classic Tiger/Trevor Immelman type move.

I am actually more concerned about the second problem than the foot. I was hoping you would have some help on that, but maybe the two go together. I have seen many instructors who could not solve these problems. This is likely because I do have a good path through impact, and I hit a nice draw most of the time.

However, to take my game to the next level I need to work these things out. Because I have good timing at impact, most of the time things are ok. However, when it is off my ballstriking is inconsistent. Any advice would be great!

both arms should not be fully extended at impact

Take a look at Tiger's swing at impact. It looks like both his arms are extended to me. Regardless of whether they are or not, that is the position I want to be in at impact, not like Vijay/Sergio where I am "exiting left" quite quickly after impact. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Ideally you want to have a SLIGHT bend in the rear elbow at impact, this will allow you to extend through the shot. if your right arm is straight too soon you are "running out of right arm" are you maintaining good spine angle through impact, if not then that may cause you to pull across too soon. Also, being sergio's build you should strive to be more like him, you dont have the build of tiger, it would not be wise to try and swing like him. Sergio still has great extension

One of the most common things one sees in any instruction thread is attempts to "treat the symptom" rather than to "seek the cause".

You mention two things:

1. that your right heel is grounded at impact; and
2. that you swing to the left.

It is probable that 2. is the result of 1. i.e. if you are rotating through the ball and your right foot is grounded then the natural tendency is to swing left whereas if you were up on your right toe at the end of your follow through you'd be swinging "down the line and getting the extension naturally".

The most likely cause of the heel being down is a slight reverse pivot and instead of turning your shoulders away from the ball on the back swing you may be swinging under your chin with the result that there is a slight tendency to "fall back' on the downswing leading to the grounded right foot.

My teaching pro taught me to get about 60% of my weight on the right foot at address and then to feel that my left shoulder was above my right knee at the top of the swing. This allows me to release through the ball much like a baseball pitcher moving on to his left side.

Hope this helps.

try standing with your feet closer together, if they are too far apart its difficult to get all your weight onto your left side.

This helped me, with the same problem--although I'm a *much* higher handicapper. My stance was in fact wider than it felt, and it was keeping me flatfooted.

But here's something else no one has mentioned. We are not all put together the same way. I am somewhat "duckfooted", i.e., when I walk my feet flare out. People who know me say they can pick me out of a crowd by the way I walk. It's just the way my ankle joints are formed. It caused problems for me when I used to ski, too.

Well, if I setup in a position that feels "natural" for me, both feet will flare out, 30*-45*. The trouble with that is that it mechanically makes it very awkward for the right (trailing) foot to lift and pivot, because the foot is facing the wrong direction and ends up being quite rooted.

By trial and error, I've found a remedy. It's idiosyncratic, and looks odd, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else--except someone else with duck feet. For them, it's worth a try.

First, when I setup, I left my left (leading) foot flare out naturally toward the target. If I try to pull it in more perpendicular, that creates resistance to my hip turn. This caused trouble for me for long time, because I wanted a stance that looked "right".

Second, at setup I do force my right foot to a perpendicular position with respect to the target line, and I cock my right knee slightly toward the ball--actually, because of my duck feet, this is the natural direction it bends with my foot lined up like that.

So, looking down, my feet look a bit like this: \ |

It looks a bit odd but when I do this I get a proper weight shift and my right heel comes up without my having to think about it.

Again, this is something to consider only for those who are duckfooted. I doubt it would do anyone else much good.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Actually this is exactly the way your feet are supposed to look!

I'll throw in my 2 cents. at a 3 handicap, my guess is you hit the ball very well and very consistently. taking those last few strokes off will probably come from your short game - making a few more putts, closer chips etc.
I'm taking a guess that you are very flexible and able to turn your body through the ball with little leg motion. I'm also guessing that you are shifting your weight properly and that keeping both feet on the ground is providing you with stability over the ball.

Nobody ever told *me*!

Then you need to get Ben Hogan's Modern Fundamentals of Golf. He has pictures on the grip, stance and posture among other things. Invaluable!