Master the Golf Transition

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Show of hands, how many of you struggle with the transition? Well, no more after working through this sequence of movements. Do this program for 30 days and your transition will be as good as any golfer in the world. The trick is the sequence in which you practice the movements and where your focus lies. This program is about making you focus on the movements that really matter like weight shift and core rotation, so you stop worrying about that darn club and little white devil!


The transition is a make or break move for all golfers. If your transition is off, it doesn't matter how pretty of a backswing you made. Nothing is going to work in sequence in your swing. And that's why the RST five step stuff starts with weight shift and core rotation. That's what we're going to talk about today, but we're going to do it specific to the transition. We're going to start out without a club, and then we're gonna start working our bodies into guiding the club back in there. And once the body movements are correct, these are drills that you can do anytime anywhere. So if you really struggle with your transition, I want you to work this drill all the time so that you can get a, make this transition move just second nature for you. Cause it's really not that difficult. It's difficult as you start stacking more pieces on, but the piece that we're going to start with today, it's going to feel really simple.

And then we're going to start adding pieces to it as this video goes on and make it more challenging and make it more in the context of how you make a normal golf swing. So at first, absolutely no golf club. We don't need it. We want our arms across our chest. We're going to focus just on doing the transition. And I'm going to show you and walk you through the key things that I'm feeling and thinking about as I'm making these moves. So right now, we're going to not worry about the backswing. I'm going to assume you have this stuff pretty well dialed in at this point. And we're just making that initial shift. As I'm doing this from down the line, I want you to watch a couple of things. Notice my left knee flex. It doesn't straighten up right away. I'm actually increasing my knee flex.

I'm actually sitting down into my left side and from down the line, I'm exaggerating this slightly, but it's a little bit of increase of knee flex. This helps load that leg. So I wouldn't want you to feel first. It's kind of sitting into that left leg during the transition. So this first move back and then just kind of sit into, I'm just moving this hip over and letting weight start to transfer. And by letting this knee bend, it helps me shift more weight and take weight off the right side. So this is the little baby squat move. And as I get a little more comfortable with just increasing the knee flex in the left side, I'm starting to feel my left glute quad, hamstring. Everything here is starting to work. So this is the first little key, just getting the feeling of shifting over. And as I do that, now I'm going to combine it with a little bit of rotation.

So now both knees are squatting slightly. At first. I just want you to feel the left side, feel these muscles activate. And then once you get comfortable with that, as I'm doing this, this is technically a closed hip slide, right? My hips aren't rotating at all right now. I'm just feeling weight transfer. And then I'm going to let my hips turn. And as I do that, you'll notice both knees flex slightly. This is just pushing force, leverage into the ground that I'm using from both legs now and helping shift my weight and rotate my hips back. This is the whole first key to that weight, the transition getting into the left side and beginning of the hip, the rotation, technically these are happening simultaneously. So as you're increasing the Knee-Flex and sitting into this left side, the goal is to get to the point where you're doing that while turning your hips back to square.

That's our first step left knee, right? Knee hips are pretty close to square from there. All I need to do is post up. Now that's more in the impact stuff. So we're not going to focus on that too much. We're just trying to dial in just the transition. So we're trying to get left knee, right knee post up from downhill, from face on. As I come through this left hip should be over the left ankle. When you're looking in the mirror, that's what I want you to be paying attention to. This pants seem going right through the center of my hip, knee, and ankle and the right foot, staying down as I'm posting up. That's what gets that knee flex out of there and pushes your hip back out of the way so that you're now posted up to be able to release the club from the transition stuff. This is all the lower body needs to do. So then how do we get the club? What does it need to do during that time? Well,

As I go back, I'm doing

Just the left knee first, right? So I'm just doing this little baby step. Look, what's happening to my hands. Technically. Yes, I'm still doing a closed hip slide. We don't want to do a closed hip slide in the real swing, but you're just focusing on feeling weight, transfer and movement from your lower body. Not from anything up here, not moving my arms or hands at all, but they're being moved by that little left knee move, left hip move. And then as I add the right leg into it, but both in there look how far my hands are down from here. All I gotta do is post up and release, but that's in another video. So for here, just that transition move. This is getting the club to drop down in the slot, shallow out and get in position. But again, the only thing you're focusing on is trunk movement.

You get lost with this, or the club starts coming over the top or anything. When you're doing these drills, take the club out, go back to left knee. As I'm doing this, I'm really trying to keep my shoulders pointing back at the mirror behind me, because I don't want to start opening up my shoulders. That leads to all the problems that most amateur golfers have. So I'm trying to really keep my shoulders shut. The only thing that's turning them is my hip rotation. So now if I get that feeling back in there, I can go back to the club again, not doing anything with the golf club,

I'm just shifting and getting

My weight, posted up a little squat move. And then that's, what's going to bring me down into impact. That's the whole key to the transition. If you can do nothing with your upper body, feel this little weight shift, little bit of rotation, your transition is going to bring the club down on plane. It's going to shout it out for you and get you into a great impact position.

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Jens
Hi Craig! starting to feel results from my commitment already, body is starting to default to initiating the movement with core rotation instead of the arms even when i want to do a faster turn which is great . Found this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed716XKIh0c it's hell of a long video but if you could look at 13:37 there is an awareness drill they are doing on some low friction plates of some sort. So the thing i am wondering about is the turning of the feet, especially in the downswing. Drilling now i very much just try to feel what we talked about in our live lesson, finding pressure early on the ball of my left foot and then sitting into my left side and using my obliques to help with turning the hips and it works great when i do it in slowmotion. however, doing it just a bit faster i find that the sitting into the left side gets the club moving but doing the same turn motion as i do in slow motion makes it happen too late and i have my hips more closed then i would like at impact. Yesterday just to try it out, as i was sitting into the left side i simultaneously moved like i would want my left foot to twist open just like in the video and i think i overdid it a bit cuz now i instead was way waaaaay too open at impact. Don't know from where i've heard it before but someone once told me that golf is all about straight line forces, that i shouldn't think of turning, if i push back that in itself turn the hips automatically. So this way of moving feels very contradicting to that since i am applying a movement pattern that would if i wasnt planting into my left foot make it twist open. Realise that i've dragged this out a bit but what i wanted was to get your opinion on whether this movement pattern is sound or if it could be unsafe for my body to use.
February 9, 2021
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Jens. I would get a little concerned someone would start spinning too much with those friction plates. But, I can see how it would awaken someone's legs that aren't used to an athletic motion. If you push your lead leg back/hip it will rotate and clear (like your straight line thought). However, there is external rotation lead leg. Weight moving from different parts of the foot. I don't think this is bad, but I would have to experiment to make sure it doesn't cause all sorts of rotational issues.
February 9, 2021
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Jens
Or not s, but curved
February 9, 2021
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Jens. Correct. Curved pattern isn't necessarily bad.
February 9, 2021
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Jens
But feeling like pressure is moving over the foot more in a S pattern rather than straight isn't nessecarily bad?
February 9, 2021
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Greg
Just a saw a video this morning (can't remember which one) where Chuck talks about the transition and how stomping the heel (planting the left heel) is a great key to starting the downswing. I've heard that before but never have understood WHEN it happens. Is that "stomp" the first thing that happens after you reach the top of the backswing or does it happen simultaneously with the downswing shift. So to make it easy, do you "stomp" the left heel before "squat to square" or at the same time? Thanks
August 23, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Greg. Stomp and settle into your squat to square. It will trigger shifting left. Like stepping into a baseball. Take a look at How to Swing From the Ground Up and RST Tempo Drill.
August 23, 2019
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Bernard
Hi Craig, I assume that all the movement should come from the left side. Ok with shift, but when it comes to second part of the movement, i.e. the hip turn, then it feels like the right side is becoming involved.
June 4, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Bernard. Your trail side will be acting more as a braking system in the swing. Sounds like you are trying to push with the foot to help you clear the hips. You need to allow it to be pulled.
June 4, 2019
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Shane
This is a great video and has really helped with my understanding of the transition. The one thing I struggle with is when to transition. I can get into a good backswing position, I can correctly do the transition but I always feel like I don't know when the transition should start which leads to pushing with my right side and coming over the top. Are there any videos on when to start the transition? Or any triggers I can use?
March 13, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Shane. Take a look at Start the Downswing Before Completing the Backswing. Should help you find a trigger and when to go.
March 14, 2019
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Ted
Thanks for extra video effort on transition. I studied everything on the site concerning it (am Academy member as well). Really have had a hard time "getting it." This may be the first video that actually discusses the dynamic involvement of the right leg (knee) in the weight shift sequence. Before I've had issues with shoving over to the left with the right. Not good. However, after looking at this video for about the fourth time (and practicing the moves) it's feeling like, once the left glute is engaged, that sequencing a slight right knee flex can actually work in conjunction with the left to help me use both glutes to twist the torso back to square. Is this correct...or anywhere close to correct? I worked at this today and felt for the first time like I was on my way toward successfully dealing with getting stuck in a closed hip slide with upper torso in no man's land, still unable to get stacked up on the left, etc..
August 26, 2018
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Ted. The obliques will be more involved to square the hips/torso. But, as you shift and squat the trail knee will increase in flexion slightly to help keep the glutes engaged to stabilize proper hip motion and help you pull more leverage from the ground. Some of the Sam Snead Power Squat Video may help you as well since that trail knee motion seems to be key for you.
August 26, 2018
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Ted
The Sam Sneed video did indeed "square" with everything I started to feel when engaging the slight right knee flex following the initial engagement of the left glute. The feeling of "turning outward" (counter clockwise) using trail side (ankle, quad, glute) that seems to provide some assistance and improved base support for turning the hips is really something I think I've been searching for. I'm looking forward to drilling this in. Thanks.
August 27, 2018
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graham
You do a wonderful job of describing the transition and what it should “feel like“. However when you use the phrase post up, I do not have the same sense of what exactly that means and how it should feel. Especially how it should feel.
July 20, 2018
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Graham. Take a look at You Hit the Golf Ball with Your Legs and Step 2 - Core Rotation.
July 20, 2018
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