When you use the ground properly, the final piece in a powerful downswing is a forceful push with your feet straight up from the ground. In this video, Titleist staff member Joe Plecker takes a deep-dive into these vertical forces and details the importent role that your lead leg (in particular) plays in releasing and accelerating the golf club.
Explore even more tips and drills from some of the best instructors in the game at https://www.titleist.com/instruction
Learn more about pressure, ground reaction forces and the golf swing at https://www.golfgroundup.com
» Subscribe to Titleist: https://www.youtube.com/@titleist?sub_confirmation=1
#titleist #swingcatalyst
this is how we want to generate some force in the golf swing this is power vertical forces are the final force in the golf swing and it’s the last part of the sequence and I’m here to share with you that vertical forces are not bad and for a long time in golf players have been told to stay down to not lift up to make sure that they don’t eject up out of the ground and I know you’ve seen this uh some Elite long drive players that when they swing their feet actually leave the ground they levitate as the club’s coming through so when verticals happen is not at impact but actually prior to it players that push up when the club is at the right position will actually start to lift their feet up off the ground and this vertical force is really important it’s a stabilizer in your golf swing think about it if you didn’t have any breaks or a way to stop your body or vertical forces you might just keep going towards the target so vertical forces act as a way to stabilize your body to create a better release of the club and they actually have an effect of the path of the club to shallow it so many players that I’ll run across in the studio they’ll come in and they’ll have a good sequence but maybe a very late vertical and the golf club tends to to work a little bit out to in or across the golf ball and this can cause pulls or if they open the face a Big Slice the effect of standing up with the golf club it actually makes the path of the club shallow it brings the club head more inside the hands and it actually has an effect of very gently squaring the club face another important feature of standing is so that the club head can go faster it can release past the handle and a myth about a lot of golf is that you’ve got to keep the hands ahead of the club all the way through impact in this direction but what’s actually happening is the golf club is catching up and passing the handle into the release vertical forces help make this happen and this raising up Force raises up the grip end of the golf club and this aligns the club to the ball it puts a very consistent low point in your golf game if you struggle with consistency with irons if you hit it fat or thin or have a little bit across the ball adding this or making sure that you’ve got a little bit of the verticals will get the club to shallow out right in front of you right over the golf ball so this last step in the forces this last step in understanding what you need to do to stand end up has a very consistent effect on the golf club shallowing having the same attack angle and squaring up the club face when the club releases so does the body and standing up out of posture has a lot of very good elements to it one in particular is speed it helps the club go faster and the other one it’s for your back so a lot of players that tend to stay down in this posture a long time while the club’s trying to come up they get an impingement on their lower back and some back pain can ensue it’s no secret that a lot of elite players that go through back injuries change their release to incorporate more verticals so that they can take pressure off of their lower back and getting your body in the right position to use verticals it’s all about that sequence and when you start away with your pressure unweight to the top and there’s that top of the roller coaster into your front foot you might weigh two times your body at this point so this lead leg again very important how it works to push away and up from the ground these directions are all in that front foot all in the lead leg a great drill that you can practice again is with the club upside down making your pressure leading the back swing fall falling into your front foot and pushing up from the ground this gives us the energy that we need to let the club go now I never want you doing that drill with the weight of the club away from your hand because you can’t stop the club but when you do that drill enough times take a shot and I want you to try to finish tall and when you do the sequence of starting with pressure falling in and opening up you’re going to feel the club go faster and this final effect of verticals has so much to do with squaring the club bringing The Sweet Spot into the ball making the club go faster taking pressure off of your back these are great things you can do for your golf swing so let’s put away that old myth that everybody has to stay down in the golf swing we want you to maintain your posture but as you’re pushing up releasing to a tall and balanced finish position so how to work on your verticals a really important thing is to get the timing right and if you were to do something with a small swing and you could take an iron really anything from a seven down to a wedge is a great Club to use for this and you’re going to put the ball right in the center of your stance and I want you to practice swing inside of the ball and you make a small back swing and don’t shift don’t turn don’t lift don’t do anything but just bring the club down to the ground and you’re going to hit the ground about a foot behind where the golf ball is going to be now your arms when they’re going down they’re pushing down this way your body if it just gently starts to lift or I push up you’re going to feel the divot start to move forward so I’m not changing this force that I’m pushing on the golf club I’m releasing I’m sending it back towards the golf ball but you’re going to find that if you didn’t move and you push down the divot back there will change as you start to add a little bit of a vertical Force so syncing these two up I like to say you’re you’re learning how to rub your belly and Pat your head at the same time you know this is going down this is going up and when you do that correctly you’re going to flush it you’ll hit a small shot and crush it and that might actually feel like a great knockdown shot that you can use but if you struggle with low point if you struggle with where you’re hitting the golf ball on the ground you’re likely misaligned with the timing of your release and your vertical Force get this right and you’ve got the timing it’s actually a really good warmup drill pre- round is just to tap the ground start to add this this up bring the divot forward and you’ll flush it and that’s going to incorporate the down and the up the vertical forces in your release
