Weight Transfer: Timing and Magnitude

Weight transfer is an often overlooked aspect of the golf swing. How and when your bodyweight transfers between your trail and lead leg during the swing will affect your ball-striking (fat or thin shots), clubhead speed, power, and accuracy. Several studies have also suggested that golf skill is more influenced by the timing and pattern of weight transfer during the swing than the magnitude alone.

To that end, here is a summary of a 2013 study out of Duke University entitled “Difference in Peak Weight Transfer and Timing Based on Golf Handicap.” At the time of this study, there was little attention paid to medial-lateral ground reaction forces (defined below) in the golf swing. These authors sought to explore the magnitude and timing of both the vertical and horizontal ground reaction forces in the golf swing, and compare between low and high handicap golfers.

In this study, 28 male right-handed golfers were studied. They were divided into low handicap (less than 9) and high handicap (greater than 9) groups. After warming up, the participants hit balls off an artificial turf tee with a 5-iron until 7 solid ball contact swings were completed. The key pieces to this study were the “force plates” the golfers stood on when swinging. A force plate is basically a sophisticated scale, which can analyze the magnitude and direction of the golfer’s weight and momentum of each leg throughout the swing. While a simple scale measures weight, a force plate measures the ground reaction force. Side note, with Star Wars ep. IX approaching, it is worth emphasizing that force plates do not measure midichlorians.

Without further ado, here are the results. This study revealed that compared to the high-handicap group:

1) The low-handicap group had a greater transfer of weight onto their trailing leg on the backswing as well as a greater transfer of weight onto their lead leg from contact to follow-through.

 - These results are consistent with previous studies that lower handicap golfers enact a greater weight shift from trail to lead leg during the golf swing. 

2) The low-handicap group exhibited a smaller lateral ground reaction force (toward the person’s right or toward the outside of their right foot for a right-handed golfer) on their trail leg during the backswing.

- Combining and highlighting points 1 and 2 above, the low handicap group put more of their body weight over the trail leg on the back swing and specifically over the inside of their trail foot

3) The low-handicap group exhibited an earlier and larger peak medial-lateral ground reaction force (an earlier and larger weight shift from trail to lead foot) as the downswing commenced.

Conclusions and limitations:

This study found different magnitude and timing of peak ground reaction forces between high and low handicap golfers, which could be a modifiable factor in improving golf performance. A couple study limitations include lack of performance or accuracy data on the golf shots, and all swings/data pertain to swings on a level surface. In summary, improving your weight transfer could be one way to improve your performance. And for the instructors out there, using biofeedback with force plates (available out there on the interweb on the order of around $200) may be beneficial for training and reinforcement.

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Source:

Queen RM, Butler RJ, Dai B, Barnes CL. Difference in peak weight transfer and timing based on golf handicap. J Strength Cond Res. 2013;27(9):2481-6.