Talk long enough with anyone who has studied the golf swing and you will hear about the weight shift. The basic idea is that weight loads up along the midline of the back foot and transfers forward to the front midline during the swing. Now there are many theories about the technique and timing of this shift, but almost all golf instructors agree that it is one of the more important parts of the swing. What is not discussed is the clubhead weight shift.
The clubhead weight shift is what happens when the clubhead moves around the hands on the axis of the trail wrist. to feel this shift, take a club in your trail hand and move the club as if you were going to hammer something. As the clubhead moves back and forth the trail wrist is loading and unloading the weight of the clubhead.
Good or bad, all swings do this weight shift. Good swings rotate the trail side to push the fully unloaded position forward as much as 6 inches past the ball. Bad swings unload the club weight at about the point of our first drill, somewhere center or slightly trail to the ball. This is the classic no lag look for the handicap golfer. The better golfer has moved the trail wrist forward toward the target.
Now let’s expand our drill to understand the movement of the club weight. Start with the club in front of you in your trail hand and just practice the hinging and straitening of the wrist. Next, on a mat set up a club or alinement stick in the middle of your stance with a 7 iron start working on your load and unload wrist move. At this point do not try to move the weight of the club forward, just get the wrist move down.
Now that you can make the weight of the club move in front of your hands, start using the rotation of your trail side to move the weight of the club forward making sure not to cross the target line with the club until you have fully unloaded the wrists. This is important because the second most common swing fault is getting across the line and having a power pull that the only way you can save is to open the club up. Pull slice anyone?
Once you have mastered this little pitch shot move start adding more coil going back until you can make a full swing that moves the weight forward. By focusing on how and when you deliver the weight of the clubhead the swing mechanics will follow.
Now start using a ball with small swings at first and work your way up to a full swing stopping and going back to a smaller swing anytime the contact is not right.
If you find yourself digging too much or having trouble keeping the club head from crossing the target line too soon focus on not letting your head slide and dip forward. This should solve this issue.