Symptom
I don't know where my weight should be at address
Before the club moves your weight is already loaded onto the trail foot, jammed onto the lead foot, or pushed out onto your toes or back onto your heels.
Fat, thin and topped shots are one problem seen from different sides: the lowest point of the swing arc is not where the ball is. Where it sits instead, and why, is what separates the causes below.
Common ways golfers describe this
Where should my weight be at address?
Should my weight be on my front foot at setup?
Too much weight on back foot at address
Weight on lead side at setup
Weight on toes or heels at address
- Swing arc
- Lowest point
Narrow it to one cause
Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- Set up to a mid-iron and hold it. Which foot is carrying more of you?
- At address, where is the pressure inside your trail foot: on the inside of it, or out toward the little toe?
- In the same address, is the weight toward your toes, back on your heels, or through the middle of your feet?
- Does the split change between a driver, a mid-iron and a greenside chip?
- At address with a mid-iron, how much room is there between the grip end and your body?
Where this can come from
These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.
Weight hanging on the trail foot
Pressure stays on the trail foot through impact instead of moving toward the target. The low point of the arc sits behind the ball, so the club either bottoms out early and takes turf first, or is travelling upward by the time it arrives. Both misses come from the same cause, which is why fat and thin so often alternate.
Read the fix
Reverse pivot
Weight moves toward the lead side going back and returns to the trail side coming down, the opposite of the order the swing needs. The low point ends up behind the ball and the club is rising at impact, so the strike is thin and the flight is weak.
Read the fix
Swaying off the ball
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.
Read the fix
Standing too close to the ball
The hands start nearer the body than the swing needs, so the arms have no room to pass and the club works out away from the golfer through impact. Strike drifts toward the heel, and the heel is the same continuum that ends at the hosel.
Read the fix
Standing too far from the ball
Reaching for the ball moves balance toward the toes and pulls the strike toward the toe of the face, which costs ball speed and adds draw-side spin through gear effect. Posture usually collapses as the swing tries to find the ball.
Read the fix
Posture that cannot be held
Bending from the middle of the back, standing too upright, or sinking into too much knee bend produces a position the body has to leave during the swing. Any change in height between address and impact moves the low point, and the strike moves with it.
Read the fix
Related symptoms
These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.
- My shoulders and head tilt the wrong way at addressSeen face-on, your trail shoulder sits level with or higher than your lead shoulder, or your upper body leans a long way back, so the arc is out of place before the club moves.Shares weight hanging on the trail foot
- Hitting it fatThe club hits the ground before the ball and takes turf first, so the shot comes out heavy, weak and well short of the target.Shares weight hanging on the trail foot
- Losing balance and falling out of the finishThe swing ends in a stumble, a step or a fall instead of a finish you can hold, and the strike is unpredictable with it.Shares swaying off the ball
- Blading chips across the greenThe leading edge catches the middle of the ball on a chip or pitch and it shoots off low and hot, running across the green and well past the hole.Shares weight hanging on the trail foot
- Chunking chips and pitchesThe club hits the grass before the ball on a chip or pitch, so the ball pops forward a fraction of the distance you wanted, sometimes only a few feet.Shares weight hanging on the trail foot
- Good off mats, bad off real grass, or the reverseContact that looks fine off a range mat, a home mat or a simulator turns fat or thin off real turf, or a golfer who strikes it well off grass cannot hit off mats at all.Shares weight hanging on the trail foot
What this rests on
- 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
If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.
Discussion
Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.
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