Lifting your left heel up - right handed golfers

Guys,
In the olden days, golfer like Jack Nicklaus advocate lifting the left heel up and replant them during the downswing.
This method of swinging has 2 advantages:
- Firstly, it encourages you to turn your shoulder behind the ball.....a full shoulder turn. (useful for ppl with limited flexibility)
- Secondly, by replanting the left heel it ensures that you start the downswing from the ground up.

In modern day swing, instructors have been teaching about x factor, maximum shoulder turn with minimum hip rotation.
This school of thought advocates that the tighter you coil, the more resistance you have and hence the faster you can uncoil.
And the faster you uncoil, the more speed you can generate and hence greater distance.

I used to swing the modern way but found not much success.
Someone told me do not over turn the hip, if you overturn, you have less time to rotate them open during the downswing leading to blocks and slices.
However, I find that if I coil my shoulder tight with min hip rotation, I will tend to swing over the top.
This is because during the downswing, my first move will be to release the coil and that instantly translate to an upper body rotation which resulted in an outside in swing path.

Conversely, if I rotate my hip to the max, my instinctive 1st move in the downswing will be to rotate this hip in the opposite direction and this will achieve the desired correct downswing sequence.

I know there are many ways to swing and ppl are build differently and hence different swing styles.
I would like to hear about bros lifting their left heel on the back swing and what are their thoughts.
Thanks.

I fully agree with you Skybobo.

I've always had problems myself with activating my hips, swinging with just my upper body instead.

IMHO, the keeping the heel planted in the modern swing is too hard for beginners to learn and understand weight shift, I find it's too counter intuitive to the way the human body moves.

I used to swing with my heel off the ground and have moved to keeping my heel planted, but my finish is more of a reverse C from the Nicklaus era. On good days, I manage to get to a more modern straight body finish, which I find more consistent and powerful.

Like you, I first learnt and felt weight shift by re-planting my left heel on the ground. In fact, it was a more of stamping my left heel (from a tip I read). I've tried the walk through drill in the past, the one where instructors say we take one step forward with the right foot after impact like Gary Player. It didn't work too well cos my body wanted to stand straight up and I kept losing my spine angle and impact positon.

I've moved to keeping my left heel planted, but initially I couldn't get my weight to shift for the longest time no matter how hard I tried, it was just too difficult. Even now I get lazy with my hips, especially on the first few holes.

So yes, I agree with you that heel off the ground is probably the easiest way for most of us to initiate the downswing. I would advocate going to a planted heel later though, it is more powerful and consistent. For me at least (when I get it right).

like u said, there are many ways to swing the club and ppl are built differently. so if lifting ur left heel off the ground comes naturally to u and helps u hit the ball better and more consistently, then so be it

my personal view however is that lifting the heel will generally make consistent ball striking more difficult as it introduces another variable / moving part in the swing

in addition, i think that whilst lifting the left heel may seem to come 'naturally' to a lot of beginners, it may in fact be simply a result of a misunderstanding of the golf swing. This is because many beginners lift their left heel either in any attempt to generate power in their swing, or because they think of the golf swing simply as an UP and down motion. but if someone explained to them that there are more consistent (and possibly more efficient) ways of generating power, and that the golf swing is not just about lifting the club high up and then hitting down on the ball, they may come to find that what was once 'natural' is not so anymore.

that said, Masters 2012 winner Bubba watson lifts his heel up, and so does Long drive champ Jamie swalovski.

so at the end of the day, it's back to what u said. no one swing fits all.

I agree with left heel off the ground,it a kind of timing to me.Once My left heel started to step on to the ground...here come to my down swing and feel that it gaven me more swing speed.But when time come by,my kaki kidding at me...<what a old man swing>...

scottycollector wrote:

like u said, there are many ways to swing the club and ppl are built differently. so if lifting ur left heel off the ground comes naturally to u and helps u hit the ball better and more consistently, then so be it

my personal view however is that lifting the heel will generally make consistent ball striking more difficult as it introduces another variable / moving part in the swing

in addition, i think that whilst lifting the left heel may seem to come 'naturally' to a lot of beginners, it may in fact be simply a result of a misunderstanding of the golf swing. This is because many beginners lift their left heel either in any attempt to generate power in their swing, or because they think of the golf swing simply as an UP and down motion. but if someone explained to them that there are more consistent (and possibly more efficient) ways of generating power, and that the golf swing is not just about lifting the club high up and then hitting down on the ball, they may come to find that what was once 'natural' is not so anymore.

that said, Masters 2012 winner Bubba watson lifts his heel up, and so does Long drive champ Jamie swalovski.

so at the end of the day, it's back to what u said. no one swing fits all.

Food for thought SC, allow me to weigh in further.

The modern golf swing with the heel planted has been around for plus minus a decade?

Yet since the beginning of the game, the left heel has mostly been shown to be off the ground. I'm not so sure that having the heel off the ground is any less consistent than the having the heel planted.

For the sake of discussion, Tiger Woods (planted heel) versus Jack Nicklaus (heel off ground). Is Tiger more accurate?

Greg Norman not only lifted his left heel off the ground on the backswing, but he had the signature move of sliding his right foot forward and slightly back on the downswing. He was the dominant player of his era and world no 1. More importantly, he was very long and accurate off the tee.

That said, both swings have their advantages or disadvantages.

All things being equal and in isolation, which really is the easier move to learn and activate weight shift? Heel off the ground or heel planted.

Personally, I feel the less athletic will find the former easier, it is less static and keeps the body in motion for an easier transition into the weight shift.

I will state again that while I used to lift my heel off the ground, I now keep it planted.

I've seen meia do the ballerina left heel off until he tip toes his left foot, all the time
he hits it 50m further than me on my good days when he catches it flush.

oh and he's got elephant stumps for legs..

Thanks to all bros for your input and comments. Really appreciate it.
This is an article I came across.
http://positiveimpactgolf.co.uk/pdf/August09ArticleHeel%20Up%20or%20Down.pdf

Take a look.
Note: I want to qualify that both ways of swinging are acceptable
Its just like the popular debate of whether one plane is better or two plane is better or whether right sided is ok or left sided is more ok.

Like I say, swing the way that gives you the best result.
Having said that, I do find left heel planted is more appealing to the eye  ha ha

Keep the comments coming so we can all learn from one another.
The important thing is to have an open mind and do not shut out other ideas even though you are accustomed to another.

Skybobo,

I have a friend who not really lifts up his heel and tiptoes per say, he rolls his ankle more. Allowing for more shoulder turn.

I also face the same problem with you by going out to in when I keep my hips wery still...now i try to have a feeling of my left knee pointing towards my right foot on the back swing and I have the feeling of my arms "starting" the down swing and not the hips. which I know break all traditional rules of hte golf swing. but it has helped me solve the problem slightly. hopefully permantly...

Ah Bro Winston, nice to see u again.
Oh I miss HCMC and the shampoo shops