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Step 1 - Weight Shift
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Step 1 of the RST 5 Step System - Mastering Weight Shift
Okay guys, So we're finally ready for this unveiling of the rotary swing five -step system, and yes, it starts with weight shift.
And that may seem kind of strange to many of you, but I'm going to explain to you why.
It is one of the most important fundamentals of the golf swing, and why you must start with it first before you worry about anything else and trying to master the golf swing.
So what does the weight shift do? And specifically, what we're really talking about is weight shift during the downswing and transition, but it's just as important during the backswing.
But I'm gonna primarily focus on the downswing stuff here.
So in the downswing what does weight shift really do? Well it does several things.
The first thing that it does is it helps you change the direction of the club.
When you start swinging the club back, it's got a lot of momentum and it's going back this way.
And at the top of the swing, you want it to start going this way because it's got to get back down to the ball.
So in doing that you have a few options available to you.
You can take your shoulders and spin them from the top.
That generally doesn't work out very well unless you want to come over the top and hit a big banana slice.
You can take your arms and pull the club down really hard, but then you're just using your arms to power the swing and taking out your whole trunk.
Or you can use your arms and hands and throw the club at the top and lose all your lag.
Of course none of those things are very ideal but one way or the other you have to change the momentum of the club going this way back this way.
The most efficient way to do that shift your weight.
As I'm going this way and I start shifting my weight back to the left and start to unwind my hips a little bit.
That changes the direction of the club without me having to use my arms and hands.
In fact my arms and hands can stay very relaxed and relatively passive.
What that allows me to do is store energy and remember that's one of your primary objectives in the swing is to create and maintain lag.
Your job is to preserve lag, and if you're pushing against the shaft with your arms and hands at the top, you're doing the exact opposite of preserving lag.
You're getting rid of it.
Weight shift allows you to preserve lag.
It allows you to keep your arms in reserve so that you don't have to fire them from the top.
And you allow them to release later in the swing, when it really matters and where you want speed.
So this one little move of just shifting back to the left changes the momentum and direction of the club while allowing your arms to remain relaxed.
We're going to remember my dump truck and drag racer video, The Arms of the Drag Racer.
But they need to get brought to the track in the trailer first because they don't have that much fuel.
They burn a bunch of fuel in a short period of time.
They don't they're really really fast but they can't travel very far.
The dump truck needs to pull them all the way back over there.
Lots of torque big heavy movement so your hands we need to leave them in reserve.
Second thing it does and I just highlighted on it is it allows you to create lag.
Your job in the swing is not to set your wrists and try to create lag like this.
Because all you're doing is creating a lot of tension, and your body uses tension as a signal to release it.
So of course you create a lot of tension by setting your wrists really early.
What's the first thing you're gonna want to do at the top of your swing? You're gonna want to get rid of it.
So your arms and hands need to remain relaxed.
So as you go to the top of your swing my arms and wrists still haven't really set yet and they actually get set by using my weight shift.
It causes my wrists to bend back on themselves.
Because I've got the momentum of the club going this way and my body's beginning to unwind the other way.
It creates lag at the right time in the swing and the golf swing is all about sequencing.
So when you sequence the swing correctly and you get the club moving this way and you shift your weight.
It bends my wrists back down, which we call a down cock.
And you've seen that term used on the site.
So that's the second thing that it does.
The third thing is incredibly important.
Because at the end of the day, the path and the plane that the club travel on are gonna dictate what that ball is gonna do.
Of course it can't combine with the clubface angle.
Now the problem is, most people try to fix what's happening in the periphery, the swing, plane and path by monkeying around with the club and the arms and the hands.
The reality is what's happening in the center, remember the fundamentals, central origin, absolute primary is gonna dictate what's happening to that swing plane.
So when I move my body a certain way or set my body at certain angles that's going to dictate swing plane and path.
So I'm gonna show you an example.
So as I go to the top of my swing, the most common swing fault that every amateur on the planet wants to do is go this way.
And they don't shift their weight at all, and they fire, start unwinding their shoulders early.
Well it brings the plane over the top.
The way that you fix that is not by telling them hey take the club and reroute it with your arms this way.
That's nearly impossible to do.
So as you go back I'm not gonna do anything with my arms or hands to try and create a swing plane.
I'm gonna shift my weight.
Watch.
Now what does the path of my hands look like it's doing? Well the same thing as most every tour player on the planet.
It looks like they're going straight down in a vertical line.
I am NOT trying to move my hands down in this path.
I'm not doing anything with my hands.
I'm trying to leave my hands alone and shift my weight, and if my arms are staying relaxed, my hands will drop straight down and shallow out the swing plane.
And that's what weight shift really does in the downswing in terms of affecting swing plane.
That's how you actually fix swing plane and somebody coming over the top.
As you don't try and reroute the club you fix what's happening in the center.
If the center is working correctly the club will go where you want it to.
So again to shallow out your swing plane shift your weight.
So that's the three primary things that weight shift does in the swing and they're extremely important.
What are some great drills for weight shift? That's what we want to cover next.
So one of my favorite drills that we use for weight shift of this at our golf school all the time is what we call the step drill the stride drill.
You're gonna take a step to the right take a step to the left.
Now this seems really easy right? Just starting with your feet together, taking a step, taking a step.
And you don't have to be hitting balls doing this, but you want to work up to be able to do that.
But why is this so important? Well for one it gets golfers out of the idea of being frozen over the ball and it's okay to move.
The golf swing is about movement it's it is movement.
So when people get over the ball, like, all right, I'm hitting the shot.
And I watch them go through this pre-shot checklist in their head.
And they're so frozen, their muscles get so tight, they can't move fluidly, athletically at all.
You've got to know that it's okay to move and in fact you must move.
Your legs have got to move.
Your trunk has got to move in the golf swing.
It's the center.
It's the fundamental of the swing.
So when you start getting to the point where you can lift your feet and get comfortable with this now, all of a sudden you're like, Oh, it's okay to move.
It's okay to move athletically.
Golf swing is athletic.
So by taking this step back and forth it really helps master weight shift because it's forcing you to shift 100% your weight.
Now of course we don't actually want to hit balls like this all the time in our full swing playing on the course.
You can but at some point we don't really get a step.
So what we start doing instead of taking these big steps and strides to the right and left we make them smaller.
Again RST everything is designed to be progressive and stackable.
So So not only can you stack this drill the step drill with other drills on the side, but you can also make it progressive.
And what I mean by progressive is, instead of taking big steps, you start making little steps.
So I'll start with my feet closer to neutral or where I'd be at set up and take a little step.
As I get comfortable with that, and I'm still shifting my weight well and moving back to the left, the club shallowing out well.
Then, instead of actually taking a step, I may just lift my heels up in the air a little bit.
So now as I go back I'm going to lift my heel up then I'm going to plant my left heel on the way down.
As I'm doing that, each step becomes a little bit more in happening.
Like it's in the real context of the swing, where we're not taking these big steps.
But it's still ingraining in your head that it's okay to shift your weight, and it's helping you do things.
Accomplishing those three things I mentioned earlier in the video by taking these little steps.
So just by taking a little step, lifting your heels up in the air and then you just start kind of feeling like you just lightly.
Instead of lifting your feet literally up in the air, you just kind of lift your heel up in your shoe a little bit.
Again, as you can see me doing this, I'm just making little tiny weight shifts.
It's very easy to shift your weight once you start focusing on weight shift, and as I mentioned, it's incredibly important.
So use this drill, this little step drill, to start getting you comfortable moving around and moving your feet.
Now, of course, we don't want you swaying and sliding all over the place, that's silly.
It's very small movements that you're doing in order to master getting your weight shifted.
So you can get all these other good things to happen in your swing.
So first things first you're going to focus on shifting your weight before we worry about anything else.
Once you can shift your weight, then go on to the next video where we're going to add rotation on that weight shift, but weight shift is primary.
It has to happen it in order for the club to shallow out, for you, to create lag, all of these other things.
So simple drill, take steps, make them smaller.
All of a sudden, you're on your way to building a really, really great golf swing.
And that's the first step in the RST five step system.
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