Balance
Hold your finish on your front leg
Loss of balance in the follow-through
Finish every shot in a position you can hold: pressure on your front foot, chest and belt buckle towards the target, back foot off the ground.
Recognise this?
- After the shot you have to take a step so as not to fall over.
- You fall backwards, or forwards towards the ball.
- You stay hanging with your weight on your back foot and never arrive on your front foot.
- The contact is inconsistent: one shot pure, the next fat or thin, without you knowing why.
Why it happens
The finish is a diagnosis, not decoration. If you cannot hold the finish, balance was already lost somewhere earlier in the swing: in the sequence of the movement, in the weight distribution or in the rotation. The direction you fall points to the cause. Stumbling forwards indicates that your arms took over the swing, or that the torso rotation stopped at impact. Falling backwards indicates that the pressure was not shifted to the front foot in the downswing and you stay hanging on the back foot. Having to take a step points to a rushed tempo or a wrong sequence. The finish you want is the check: most of the pressure on the front foot, the heel of the back foot light, and you have to be able to lift your back foot without losing your balance, with hips and torso fully turned through and the belt buckle towards the target.
What the drill fixes
By lifting your back foot immediately after impact you can no longer hide that your pressure is still behind. If the finish works, the sequence and the pressure shift were right; if you wobble, you know the fault is earlier in the swing.
What you need
- A wedge or a short iron
- A flat surface
medium
How to do it
Step 1: Hit at half power
Hit a shot at about half your normal power. Check: it is not about length, only about whether you reach the finish.
Step 2: Lift your back foot
Lift your back foot completely off the ground immediately after impact. Check: that only works if your pressure is already on your front foot. If you stay hanging on your back leg, you fall straight away.
Step 3: Hold the finish and check
Hold that finish for two to three seconds and check: pressure on the front foot, chest and belt buckle towards the target, club finished over the front shoulder. If you wobble, the fault is earlier in the swing.
Step 4: Only then build up to full swings
If you can hold the finish three shots in a row, only then do you go on to full swings. The requirement stays the same: the same pressure on your front leg, the same held finish.
How often
Three sets of five shots at half power, then one set of five full swings
The hold time comes from the sources themselves: Foy names three to five seconds, HackMotion two to three. The number of sets is a practical choice by the researcher, to get enough repetitions without fatigue itself starting to disturb your balance.
Safety
Do not do this drill on wet grass or on a slope, and skip it if you have ankle, knee or hip problems: you are deliberately standing on one leg just after a powerful movement.
Sources
- Why You Can't Hold Your Finish (and What It Means) (Foy Golf Academy, Nick Foy)
- Proper Follow-Through in Golf: Complete Guide & Drills (HackMotion)
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