The fix for Swaying off the ball

Fixing a sway off the ball

What is actually happening

The body slides away from the target in the backswing instead of turning around a stable centre, carrying the middle of the arc with it. Unless exactly that much slide comes back at exactly the right moment, the low point arrives in the wrong place.

Swing arc
Lowest point

Turn in place: ball, then turf

The fix

In the backswing your body moves sideways, away from the target, instead of turning. The trail hip pushes out over or past the trail foot, the trail knee straightens or bows outward, and the head drifts back with the rest of you. This page assumes a right-handed golfer, so trail means right; left-handers mirror every direction.

The club swings on an arc around the top of your body, and the bottom of that arc sits wherever your body puts it. Slide the body back and the whole arc goes back with it. To strike the ball before the turf, everything that slid away has to come back by the same distance at exactly the right moment of the downswing. Come back short and the low point lands behind the ball: the club takes turf first, which is a fat shot, or it has already bottomed out and is climbing when it arrives, which is a thin one. Come back too far and you slide past the ball, which is a separate fault with misses of its own. Because the return is timed, it lands somewhere different on most swings, so fat, thin and a strike that wanders up and down the face all turn up in one session.

Three faults are easily confused with this one. A reverse pivot sends the weight the wrong way, toward the target in the backswing. A sway sends it the right way and takes the whole body with it. Hanging back is a downswing fault: the backswing can be fine and the pressure never leaves the trail foot. Hips sliding instead of turning is a sideways move toward the target coming down, and a sway often turns into one, because a body that drifted back has to lunge to reach the ball.

To confirm it, look for the movement rather than trusting the misses. With the sun behind you, set up and put a spare ball on the shadow of your head. Swing to the top and hold it. A small shift comes with any turn, but a shadow that has slid well off the ball, away from the target, means your body went with it. The stick test is quicker. Push an alignment stick into the ground just outside your trail foot so it touches your trail hip at address, then make your normal backswing. A hip that turns moves away from the stick; a hip that sways pushes into it. Filmed face-on at hip height, the top of a sway shows the trail hip outside the trail foot and the pressure rolled onto the outside edge of that foot. On the turf, divots starting a hand's width or more behind the ball, mixed with thin shots, fit the pattern.

The change belongs in the first half of the backswing, because that is where the slide starts. The trail hip needs to turn behind you rather than move sideways, so seen from above it travels back, away from the ball, instead of out over the trail foot. Keep the flex your trail knee had at address and keep the pressure on the inside half of the trail foot. Weight still moves toward the trail side, but because the body turns into it rather than slides onto it. A body that turns around a stable centre has nothing to return, so the low point comes back to the same place without any timing.

The instinctive fix is to lock the head and hold the body rigidly still. That stops the slide and stops the turn with it. A golfer who cannot turn still wants a full backswing, so the arms lift and the upper body tips toward the target to find one. That is a reverse pivot, and it puts the low point behind the ball more reliably than the sway did. Moving the ball back to stop the fat shots only changes where a wandering arc meets the ball. Let the head shift slightly as you turn. The aim is a stable centre, not a frozen one.

Drills

Work through them in order. Each one says what it needs before you start.

Stick outside the trail hip
Push an alignment stick into the ground just outside your trail foot, angled so it touches your trail hip at address. Without a ball, make slow backswings to the top and hold each one for a count of two. The trail hip should turn away from the stick and never push it. Make ten in a row without touching it, then hit half shots with a mid-iron with the stick still in place. Move to full swings once ten half shots in a row leave the stick untouched and the divots start at the ball or just after it. On a mat, stand a golf bag on end in the same spot.
Needs An alignment stick, an umbrella, or a golf bag stood on end
Head shadow on a spare ball
Practise with the sun behind you. Set up to a ball, then place a spare ball on the shadow of your head. Make slow backswings to the top and hold each one while you look at the shadow. A small shift comes with any turn, so success is the shadow finishing on the spare ball or within about a ball's width of it, ten backswings in a row. Then hit half shots with the same check at the top of each. Move to full swings when the shadow holds at half speed, and check it again on the first few full ones.
Needs A spare ball or a tee and sunshine from behind you
Towel under the outside of the trail foot
Fold a hand towel and slide it under the outside edge of your trail foot so the foot tilts slightly inward. Make ten slow swings to the top and back without a ball. The tilt keeps pressure on the inside of the foot, and a slide off that edge shows up at once as a wobble. Then hit ten half shots with a mid-iron. Success is reaching the top balanced on the inside of the trail foot every time. Take the towel away and hit five shots trying to recreate the same pressure. If the wobble or the fat shots come back, return to the towel; if they do not, move on to full swings.
Needs A hand towel

Browse every drill on the site

Practice plan and log

Practise this fix, day by day

Keep a dated log of every session against this fix, so in a few weeks you can read back whether the change has taken instead of trying to remember.

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Or turn this fix into a practice plan

With a free account, the drills above become a 14-day plan: the setup checks and the first drill for three days, then the next drill, a rest day every fourth day, and a re-test on the last day that sends you back through the questions. Each day is a short list to tick off at the range, with reminders by email or in your calendar if you want them.

How the 14 days run

Day 1Ten balls as a baseline, then the setup checks and the first drill
Days 2 to 3The first drill again, one checkpoint and one feel a day
Day 4Rest, as are days 8 and 12
Days 5 to 11The next drills in turn, each warmed up by the one before
Day 13Every drill once, then every checkpoint
Day 14Re-test: the baseline again and the questions for your symptom

Checkpoints

What to look for to know whether the change has taken.

Filmed face-on at hip height, your trail hip at the top sits over or inside your trail foot, not outside it.
An alignment stick touching your trail hip at address is still untouched when you reach the top.
With the sun behind you, the shadow of your head at the top stays on or close to the ball you placed on it at address.
At the top the trail knee still has flex in it and the pressure is on the inside half of the trail foot.
Divots start at the ball or just after it, and fat and thin shots stop turning up in the same session.

Feels

A feel is not a description of what the club does. It is whatever gets your body to do it, and a correct change usually feels exaggerated long before it looks correct.

You are turning inside a barrel, and the trail hip brushes the back of it instead of pushing out the side.
The inside edge of the trail foot grips the ground while everything above it winds up.
At the top your back faces the target and your head feels as if it has hardly moved.

Symptoms that lead here

Each of these can resolve to this cause. If the page above does not match what you are seeing, start from the symptom instead and let the questions narrow it.

If this is not it: causes that produce the same shots

What this rests on

40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
The Physics of GolfTheodore P. Jorgensen, University of Nebraska, 1999, second edition; Springer reprint 2013
Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968

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