Instruction
Why moving off the ball is causing you to lose distance
One of the more debatable topics in golf instruction is whether moving off the ball in your backswing is beneficial and will produce power and consistency. Now, with golf heading into the direction of fitness (which is great for strength, accessing physical limitations and mental health), amateur swings are getting even longer with swings moving in every direction possible. Terms such as “power,” “loading” and “guaranteed distance” are being promoted left and right to students. Even swings from long drive champions are being used to teach students how to get that extra 10 yards.
With all this information taught and published, both instructors and students have forgotten the most important element to hitting the ball with consistency and distance: Striking the ball in the center of the club face consistently.
This topic is now even more relevant with upcoming stars such as Maverick McNealy and Bryson DeChambeau making headlines, both having very efficient golf swings with no lateral movement. This is contrary to older teaching methods, which stressed moving off the ball with a lateral shift of the body. So how do we increase our chances to consistently hit the center of the face with speed? Having spent countless hours researching this, I can assure you whenever we limit movement and turn our body in the right direction, we increase the probability to not only hit the center of the face, but to produce speed.
Before we dive into the instructional side of this — on how we get ourselves to not move off the ball and get rid of all those extra moving parts — let’s examine the reasons why moving off the ball can hurt your chances to a consistent shot.
Balance
Balance is a very important aspect to having a solid golf swing. Poor balance will affect a player’s ability to transfer weight and turn in the proper direction. Balance is comprised of three control centers: the eyes, the inner ear and our proprioceptive system. How do these three control centers relate to our golf swing? Let’s examine the eyes. Whenever we readjust our eye line, or have our head move off the ball, we have to readjust to our original position, which affects our balance. Just think about a three-foot putt. Our head must stay still to make solid contact and start the ball in the direction we want it to go. Moving your head to the right during your stroke will make it much more difficult to start the ball on the intended line. Then there is our proprioceptive system. Simply put, our proprioceptive system is our ability to figure out where our body is at a current time without seeing it. With less movement of the body, the less we need to rely on finding our body positions throughout the swing.
Golf is not a moving target sport: Too many times I hear instructors compare swinging a golf club to hitting a baseball pitch. Yes, a baseball hitter loads back on his trail foot. But does a MLB hitting coach compare the baseball swing to a golf swing? Golf is a sport, and unlike most sports, the ball is not moving when we start our swing; the ball is static. Although there are positions similar to any hitting motion, how we get there should be taught differently. In “The Quiet Eye” by Joan Vickers, she classifies sports into three categories:
- Single, Fixed Target: Shooting a basketball into a hoop
- Moving-Target Tasks: Throwing a football to a wide receiver
- Abstract-Target Tasks: Putting a golf ball into the hole where you cannot see the target
Each one of these types of sports require a different skill set, and how we use our eye sight to process information to perform the task.
Great golfers and athletes do more with less
Ever wonder why it looks like Tour players aren’t swinging very hard? I can assure you that they are. You don’t get 115 mph driver speed by swinging lightly. Usually, amateurs hit it farther and have more success when they slow down their swing because they can have more success hitting the center of the face. Tour players are able to swing as hard they want and still hit the center of the face due to either great timing or efficient swings with their body coiling in the right direction. This makes it easier for them to make repeatable solid contact, which gives the perception of a smooth swing that produces speed. Think of a swimmer swimming in a race: Swimming in a direct line results in a much faster pace than one with lateral movement.
Now let’s put aside all the kinematic talk and implement this into our golf swing. The majority of amateurs I teach have a lot of lateral movement into their trail foot. This is usually done with their hips in an effort to get what they feel as their weight into their trail foot. The glutes are the engine of our swing, and critical to making a proper coil. We can still move pressure in our feet laterally without excess lateral body movement.
Here are several things I look for, and drills to get rid of that lateral movement and make your swing more efficient.
The Setup
A proper setup is critical to being able to make an efficient backswing with no excess or lateral movement. I like to see a tilt to the upper body, so our head is back behind the ball, and our right shoulder is lower than the left, for a right-handed golfer. This will limit the amount of movement we need to make in our backswing. To practice this, check your setup in a mirror face-on and take note of the position of your head in relation to the ball and the angles of your shoulders. Take advantage of the camera on your phone and have someone photograph your setup next time you are on the range.
Right glute toward the target
Feel as if your right glute moves directly toward the target on your backswing. The direction you turn your hips and body is more important than the amount. We can still move our pressure into the inside of our right foot while feeling our right glute rotate backward, toward the target. Almost feel as if your right side moves instantly back and your left side moves out, putting your left side in the way. To practice this, put an alignment stick across your waist and note how the shaft moves, specifically the right side of the shaft. If executed correctly, the right side of the shaft will move directly back.
Alignment stick next to hip drill
This is a great drill to keep your hips “in the box” and not sway laterally, which changes your spine angle. Place an alignment stick at hip height, angled in so that it almost touches the side of your hip. Give it a few inches of space outside your hip. When you take your backswing, your right hip should not touch the alignment stick. If it does, you have shifted laterally and made an improper turn. A proper turn with your hips will create slightly more space next to the alignment stick.
Practice at home in front of a mirror, face on. Start by checking your setup, and swing back making sure there is no lateral movement with your hips and head. You can practice your backswing while keeping your head up looking in the mirror. This will give your swing a much more efficient move at the ball.
Remember, golf is hard, we don’t need to make it harder on ourselves with extra movement in our backswing.
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Corey Anthony
Dec 22, 2017 at 7:28 pm
I am sorry but I must question a few things here…how can you tell golfers that having their head still in the backswing is going to help anyone play better golf when literally the list of the best players to ever play the game all had NATURAL head movement at a minimum. Jack even preset his head. Of course you don’t want to shift your weight outside of your trail foot. That would cause a loss of balance, stability,power, and the ability to return their center of gravity back to their front leg and into a proper finish. But telling people to consciously limit movement is a sure fire killer. Stack and tilt tried this and it’s a great way to hit low, powerless shots for those who aren’t excellent athletes..
Golfers need to be able to get the ball into the air and acquire the ability to generate power. Telling people to keep their heads still is a great way to limit that and hurt those with limited flexibility. Not all people who golf can take TPI or anything of the like to become strong and flexible enough to literally not injure themselves swinging hard while trying to keep your head still.
First your analogy to baseball is so off base. If you were to try to hit a baseball off of a tee ball as far as possible you wouldn’t keep your head still would you? I think not.
The fact that the golf ball is static makes no difference at all it is just simple physics, and using other activities that involve propelling anything forward with power and accuracy require the same thing as well static or not.
A hockey puck that’s static requires natural head motion.
A baseball on a tee requires natural head motion
A soccer ball at a free kick requires natural body and head motion
So does closing a heavy sliding door and the list is endless. We don’t suspended this when we get to golf.
(In one breath you say baseball isn’t a good example to use for golf yet swimming in relation to golf is? A direct path isn’t the key to distance, speed,contact, and weight and how it transfers are the keys period)
Secondly your previous article I was linked through is also confusing I’m sure to anyone attemping to follow the instruction of moving the club and shaft first in order to not have golfers get the club wrapped behind themselves and stuck? This literally makes zero sense and is a great way to teach people to rapidly open the face of the golf club. While I a fellow instructor understand what you are getting at the average golfers will be fanning the club open and hitting more slices than ever. Using Dustin Johnson as a visual example is not wise because you neglected the fact that he bows his wrist severely to keep his club face square after so so much club and arm movement early.
Why not use tiger jack Hogan Snead Nelson or Jones to show that a one piece takeaway is ideal and not generated by thinking about only moving the club and arms. Absolute insanity. Most golfers in the world are pure ARM swingers and that’s a fact. Golfers need much more rotation from other parts of the body to remedy this not more effort to swing the arms.
And lastly I seriously advise anyone to look very closely at the cupped position that is claimed to be ideal by this instruction series….miller absolutely did not cup his wrist they were flat or close to it when attempting a straight shot. This can be found simply and quickly be googling and image of miller’s swing and as a matter of fact the best ever iron player Mr. HOGAN cupped his wrist at times to fight against the ball hooking to his left or drawing. So if you like most golfers have an issue with slicing DO NOT CUP YOUR WRISTS because this helps the ball fade.
To honestly advise golfers to cup their wrist…limit head motion consciously..and to initiate the swing with all hands and arms is one of the best ways I’ve ever seen to get golfers hitting more and more slices with less and less power on their shots.
Please do your own research of the world’s best and compare for yourself when it comes to this info. But my real advise to anyone who happens to read my response is to not get so technical, don’t try to emulate anyone, and use as much of the natural motions from other activities like balance, rotation, and rythem that you use or have used at other points in your life.
Cheers!
Great writing but I disagree.
For a comprehensive explanation about more into why this is the case please email corey@sunsetridgeme.com
Steven
Jun 22, 2016 at 1:54 pm
Great article Kelvin. I think a large problem with amateur golfers is most of us (me included) are trying to execute tour swings/positions that are complicated. Moving off the ball requires precision to move back to the right spot with our lower body while also controlling the head to stay slightly behind ball, but we also need the hands ahead of the ball at impact. Tour players have the timing and ability to do it because they practice it exponentially more than we do. I think your advice is a simplier swing that will produce consistent results for most of us. Now if I could only follow your advice on every swing.
Kelvin Kelley
Jun 22, 2016 at 8:27 pm
Steven,
Glad you enjoyed it, great insight as well.
surewin73
Jun 20, 2016 at 11:17 am
I’ll stick with my Jimmy Ballard swing.
Steve
Jun 18, 2016 at 2:01 pm
Great article. Very informative and helpful. Thanks.
michael johnson
Jun 18, 2016 at 10:50 am
great article. this is something that i have been struggling with for a long time. now that i learned how to get rid of the hipsway, i shot 62 at oakmont a couple of weeks ago. it was very easy.
DJ
Jun 22, 2016 at 11:20 pm
front 9 or back 9?
MP-4
Jun 17, 2016 at 6:44 pm
One of the best instruction articles to date on GolfWRX.
mikee
Jun 17, 2016 at 12:46 pm
Recently cut my driver down to 45 inches from 46…….hitting more consistently in the middle of the face….longer drives
Mike W
Jun 17, 2016 at 12:55 am
In the last drill the alignment stick is a few inches away from the hips. So, does that mean it’s ok for the hips to sway a little (ie. less than 3 inches)?
Kelvin Kelley
Jun 17, 2016 at 3:13 am
Ideally you would get the shaft as close as possible
Pete
Jun 17, 2016 at 12:53 am
Again, and again the dynamics and rythm is overrun by positions. You may learn the positions and lateral move elimination are fairly easy to learn, but club head speed is a result of proper rythm and sequencing more, than restricting something, that would create more power, if done properly.
Comparing baseball batting and swinging is very good analogue to, what is needed to create your maximum rotational speed and what to do at impact. Stepping in drill is also very good for the same reasons.
Anyway the problem is not mostly in the clubhead speed, but the quality of contact, that varies, when you don’t have strong enough legs to your desired swinging speed. Dynamic balance and proper support for front hip at impact is the most important single variable to hit hard.
If the initially lateral movement can be changed consistently to rotational speed there is no trouble flushing it.
Pete
Jun 17, 2016 at 2:31 am
Right glute toward the target -picture is not the best selection to implement, what to do, instead of the basically right things explained in the text your eye catches the more horisontal alignment stick on the “Correct”-side of the picture. Instead having your hips turning horisontally, the front hip may drop towards the ball, when turning back giving relief to your lumbar spine.
If you turn your hips too much horisontally, spine will take all the strain of holding early extension off swinging the hands around your torso. The picture would be more informative, if you had your right thigh already opened towards the target and loaded to be ready for the front leg to fire for front hip support to produce solid pivot for your rotation and down swing.
KK
Jun 16, 2016 at 10:32 pm
Mechanics are great but spin control is very poorly understood. Vast majority of golfers I see have too high-spin drivers. And poor mechanics.
Other Paul
Jun 16, 2016 at 9:26 pm
Now we just need kelvin Miyahira and golfwrx will be complete.
Jorge
Jun 16, 2016 at 5:44 pm
Hi Kelvin, thanks for your article. We hear a lot about correct sequencing in the backswing especially around trying not to rotate your hips/glutes too early in the swing as this will cause over-rotation and get the arms and body out of sync. The long hitters such as Jason Day state that they try to minimise hip rotation as much as possible in order to create torque, which ultimately creates speed/power.
In your opinion, at what point should we start activitating the hip rotation in our backswing (as part of the takeaway or halfway back)? Also, are you an advocate of keeping the right knee flexed or letting it straighten a bit in the backswing because when you focus on hip rotation, the right knee reacts by straightening?
Thanks!
Kelvin Kelley
Jun 16, 2016 at 5:57 pm
Jorge,
Great question. The ideal sequence would be moving the clubhead/shaft first (since this is the furthest point away from us) and letting our arms pull us into a turn or coil position. Still start start the swing moving the shaft, and then let your arms almost feel they pull your right glute around as you get closer to the top of your swing. This will give you the resistant and proper coil and more importantly, maintain your spine angle. Will also prevent getting too long. Feel it in your glutes and groin, not in the knees… I don’t mind if the right knee doesn’t stay the same flex, but obviously not straightened.
Hope this helps
larrybud
Jun 16, 2016 at 3:12 pm
” If executed correctly, the right side of the shaft will move directly back.”
How can the right side of the shaft “move directly back” when the hips are set at an angle when looking at them down the line? The right shaft should move back and UP.
Kelvin Kelley
Jun 16, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for the comment/question,
The alignment stick would move up eventually you are correct… The initial direction should “feel” directly back and will in fact start directly back when looking down initially, and this is a very subtle move. More importantly, feel and reality are separate.
Adam
Jun 16, 2016 at 3:01 pm
Great to see Kelvin Kelley on golfwrx, he’s one of the top instructors around”
Joe Brenna
Jun 16, 2016 at 2:17 pm
Wow, this technique really helped me out a lot. Thanks man..
KJ
Jun 16, 2016 at 11:04 am
Nice job Melvin!