Use a water bottle to master your footwork for optimal weight shift

I’m no golf teacher (and don’t pretend to be), but I’d argue that mastering the weight shift in the golf swing is the most important part of the whole thing! That might be a bold statement, and one that sets me up for criticism, but if you’re not shifting your weight properly, you have no chance of hitting a good shot.

Sure, squaring the clubface to hit the ball pure is the name of the game, but you can’t do that if you’re hanging back or leaning too far forward as you come into impact. When you make either one of those mistakes, your attack angle is all out of whack and you’re not finding the low point of the club. This leads to chunked or skulled shots — which no player likes experiencing.

So what’s a good way to dial in the correct weight shift in your golf swing? Believe it or not, by using a water bottle!

Remember that whole, I’m no golf teacher thing? Since I don’t have the credentials to explain why this works, I’ll let GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jason Baile do it in the video below (courtesy of Titleist’s YouTube channel).

How a water bottle will improve your weight shift in the golf swing

“If you’re one of those people that just hang back and don’t get the lower body shifted laterally quite soon enough, here’s a great drill for you,” Baile says.

Baile says to simply put a water bottle on the inside of your trail foot, take your normal address position, and work on getting the lower body shifting from the back to the front in the golf swing — “not necessarily turned”, he adds.

“We want to get your [lower half] shifted very early in the downswing, moving the pressure from the inside of the [trail foot] over to the [lead foot], allowing the trail foot to bank and try to knock that water bottle over by impact,” Baile explains.

Next, Baile explains how your weight should be distributed at setup, using a little more force on that lead leg, before shifting it back during your takeaway.

“Feel like there’s a little pressure on the [lead foot], maybe 55 percent, and move that to the trail leg in the backswing,” he says. “Use that pressure to load the backside and shift the pelvis downhill to the left before the club hits the golf ball.”

With the instant feedback from the water bottle, you’ll be able to master your footwork, improve the weight shift in the golf swing, and find the low point of the club more consistently at impact. So give this a try during your next visit to the driving range.

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Nick Dimengo

Golf.com Editor