The most common fault we see in golfers completing Move 4 is failing to fully transfer weight to the lead hip in the follow through. This incomplete weight transfer creates many different problems in the golf swing, affecting everything from ball-striking consistency to long-term joint health.
As we learned in the "Move 4" video, it's critical to protect your knees, hips, and back by getting your weight fully over onto your lead heel and getting your hip into neutral joint alignment so it can pivot safely, the way it was designed to. This isn't just about power — it's about protecting your body through every swing you take.
A lot of golfers don't do that. They don't realize how big a move is required for most people to get all the way over onto the lead hip. Without a proper golf swing weight transfer, the entire kinetic chain breaks down at the finish.
Fortunately, there's a simple way to check whether you're making a full weight shift — and you can use it every single time you practice.
The Shoe Test
Going into the follow through, a lot of golfers finish like the photo above. That golfer looks like he's standing pretty straight, pretty much in neutral, but if you look at his trail foot, you'll notice that the shoe is bent.
A lot of amateur golfers struggle with this follow through fault, and you'll see it all the time at the driving range. It's one of the clearest indicators of a weight transfer problem you can spot without any technology.
When the trail shoe is bent, that means there's weight back there. It's as simple as that. Your body is telling you exactly what went wrong.
If your shoe is bent and you shift your lead hip into neutral joint alignment, the weight comes up onto the lead side and the toe box of the trail shoe straightens out, leaving the trail foot in a vertical position. That single adjustment can transform your follow through position instantly.
When the shoe is straight, you know your weight is balanced all the way onto that lead hip. You want to start to become aware of this. When you look at your swing on video, check your trail shoe as you finish each swing. Better yet, get a free AI swing analysis to measure your weight transfer objectively and see exactly where your follow through is breaking down.
If it's bent, you're leaving some weight over on the trail side and it's going to cause all sorts of problems in your swing. You're losing power because you're not able to get all your body weight transfer to the lead side, preventing you from pivoting with very much speed. This is one of the most common sources of lost distance that golfers never even think to check.
It's as simple as that. Check your trail shoe. If it's bent in the follow through, there's weight back there and you need to go back to Move 3 and work on getting your weight all the way over to your lead heel at impact. For a structured approach to fixing your weight transfer from the ground up, the GOAT Drill video lesson walks you through every phase of the correct weight shift sequence so your follow through naturally reaches the right position every time.
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Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
The right shoe is bent
In neutral, weight is on the left
