We are going to continue our discussion of weight transfer in golf and how it affects the hips — specifically the position of the trail hip line during the backswing.
The right hip stays on the line when you transfer your weight correctly in the golf backswing
If you take video golf lessons or analyze your own golf swing on camera, you will start to understand what the hip line is and how to use it to evaluate your swing and understand what it should look and feel like.
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When we analyze swings on video — whether in online or in-person lessons — we like to draw or imagine a line on the outside of the trail hip. You want to see your trail hip stay on that line as the club goes back and you transfer your weight.
Try Hogan's Umbrella Trick
Ben Hogan's backswing drill for weight transfer
Hogan discussed this concept in his book. He described leaning an umbrella or golf club against his trail leg and ensuring that the angle of the umbrella did not change as he moved the club back and shifted his weight.
One of the most common problems we observe is when golfers take the idea of staying centered in the golf swing to the wrong extreme.
In the attempt to stay perfectly centered, they actually move off center and shift their weight onto the lead foot, which pulls them away from that trail hip line.
If you try this yourself, you can see what happens. Imagine a line on the outside of your trail hip. As you go back, concentrate on staying completely centered. Do not let anything move — just rotate and watch that hip line.
As you rotate back without transferring your weight, you will see that the hip has clearly moved away from the line. Did you stay centered? Absolutely. You did not move your head an inch; everything feels locked in and centered. But in reality, your weight has shifted forward or stayed the same — and the trail hip has drifted off the line.
Working too hard to stay centered
The weight transfer happens very quickly during the backswing. If you are not aware of it and have never observed it on video, you may have no idea you are doing it.
You are actually placing your body in an extremely awkward and weak position, and missing the opportunity to use the trail side of your body for power generation and energy storage.
When you work too hard to stay centered, your hip shifts in one direction while your torso moves the opposite way as a counterbalance. Your hips move toward the target, your head drifts away from it.
The photo at right shows an exaggerated version of what this looks like at the top of the swing. Instead, you want to stay on that trail hip line as you load up to the top of the swing.
Weight Shift is the Key - But It's Not for Everyone
How do you stay on the line? The key is weight shift.
For whatever reason, many golfers believe there is no weight shift in the Rotary Swing. We have certainly stated that staying on the lead side is perfectly fine for golfers who do not practice much and are simply trying to hit the ball more consistently without investing significant time working on swing changes. That position has not changed. It is still 100 percent true.
If you do not practice your swing frequently and just want to go out and play once a week with your buddies without working on technical changes, definitely stay a little more on the lead side — on the lead leg throughout your golf swing — and you will be fine.
It is far more important that you are on the lead leg at impact than it is that you make a full shift going back and through. If you make a great shift on the backswing but are still hung up on your trail leg at impact, you are going to encounter all sorts of other problems.
If you are not a dedicated golfer and you do not spend a lot of time playing and practicing, go ahead and err on the side of staying on that lead leg.
Now, For the Serious Golfer - Weight Transfer
The head stays centered
If you are a member of this golf instruction website, the above probably does not apply to you. You are likely interested in maximizing your swing and extracting as much power from it as possible. You are willing to invest time to work on it and get as good as you can. Here is how you can keep your trail hip on that line.
The truth is that if you are serious about optimizing your golf swing, of course there is a weight shift.
You shift to the trail side to prevent moving off that line. If we isolate the weight transfer without the rotation for a moment, you can see in the photo that it is just a one- to two-inch shift to the trail side with your hips, not your head.
You are not swaying your entire body. You are simply shifting your weight through your hips. Your head stays centered, even as you load into your trail side.
Everyone Does It
Remember, in the last weight shift lesson we discussed a baseball pitcher loading into the trail leg, or a batter loading up for a split second before the swing. This is the exact same athletic movement. It is a completely natural athletic motion.
It does not matter what sport you examine. Any athlete preparing to make a throwing, hitting, or swinging motion is going to do the same thing. For a brief moment, they load into that trail side, then shift the load to the lead side for release.
Don't load onto the outside of the leg
In order to keep your hips from drifting away from that trail hip line, you actually have to transfer your weight — by shifting your hips — to the trail side. This increases the weight on the trail side.
By the time you reach the top of the golf swing, you should be approximately 80 percent loaded into the trail side. Some golfers will go slightly more, some slightly less, but 80 percent is a solid target.
Make sure, when you are loading 80 percent onto that trail leg, that you are on the inside of the leg, not the outside. Your hips should never move beyond that line. To see how your weight transfer and hip position compare to elite standards, try a free AI swing analysis.
Doesn't the Weight Transfer Take You Over the Line?
The hip is on the line
As you shift to the trail side, you will notice that you will initially tend to move past that line. Let us break the move into two parts to understand what is happening and how you compensate for it.
First, shift to the trail side — your hip will move past the line. Now, add the rotation. The rotation brings your hip back onto the line. When you combine both parts — shift an inch to the trail side and rotate — your hip appears as though it never moved.
It is an illusion. Your hip has actually moved 45 degrees. It has to, in order for your swing to appear on video as though the hip stayed on that line the entire time. Your hips shift to the trail side as you rotate, and that combined movement is what keeps them on the line.
You will see that your hips are actually moving back behind you as you shift and rotate. You are loading up onto the trail glute, and that is where you should feel all the pressure at this point in the swing.
If you are feeling pressure in your knees or quads — the front of your thighs — that means you are getting the weight onto the balls of your feet.
Settle Into the Trail Glute as You Transfer Your Weight in Golf
The hip is on the line
Move back onto your ankles, and then further back onto your heel as you reach the top of the swing, settling all the weight into your trail glute. Settling into this position maintains that trail hip line.
You need to understand that your hips are not simply pivoting throughout the swing. Many golfers just turn their hips without realizing the nuance of what is actually happening.
In fact, the two components of the hip movement — the shift and the rotation — are creating internal rotation of the trail leg in the hip socket.
Look at the golfer's trail hip in the photo below. Notice that the rotation has created a crease in the pants at the hip as the leg rotates within the hip socket. If you just turn your hips without properly loading, that crease will not form because there is no torque.
Look For the Crease
Look for the crease
You can use that crease as a checkpoint. It confirms that you did not just take your hips and pivot them without torque, and without loading into the trail side.
Remember this when you are out on the course. Load into the trail side, make sure you have achieved internal hip rotation, and you will see a distinct crease across the trail hip — confirming that you are fully loaded up on that side.
The same phenomenon will actually occur on the lead side as well. It will be somewhat different because, as you rotate through impact, your hips are going to come all the way around to approximately 90 degrees, whereas in the backswing it is only about 45 degrees of hip rotation at most.
Again, you are going to transfer your weight to the trail side while rotating, look for that internal hip rotation, drive everything down into the trail ankle and then the trail heel. For real-time feedback on how your weight transfer and hip mechanics are working, try a free AI golf lesson.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
