Do You Feel the Weight of the Clubhead?

According to some of the top golf teaching pros, you should feel the weight of the clubhead throughout the swing. They state that you should hold your club halfway between vertical and horizontal and then close your eyes to feel the weight in the clubhead.If you want better rhythm in the swing this is what you should feel throughout your swing.

This recommendation is somewhat confusing because most golfers will tell you that they do not feel the clubhead through most of the downswing. You feel it mostly on the backswing when you are more conscious of what is happening mainly because of the slower movement.In the downswing the clubhead weight is not felt in the early phase of the downswing where concentration is on the body actions that are occurring rapidly and powerfully. In the late phase of the downswingmost golfers say concentration is on hitting through the ball or simply keeping their eye on the ball,and they have no idea of clubhead weight.

For example, when the shoulder turn begins the clubhead is up above the arms. Thus there is very little weight that you must support. It is only when the clubhead is away from your body at its furthest point that you can truly feel the weight.This occurs with the wrist break which in top golfers begins when the hands are hip high.When you break the wrists the clubhead action is so fast and powerful that it is hard if not impossible, to distinguish the exact weight that you may have at the end of the club.

Note that clubhead weight “changes” because of speed and location. For example, if you quickly throw the arms downward your body will register a greater weight. When you throw the arms up you are “lighter”. The same occurs with the clubhead.It still has the same weight but because of the speed and repositioning, weight changes.

Perhaps even more important is to ask is why the weight of the clubhead has anything to do with rhythm. Rhythm is determined by body actions and changes in speed, not by how much weight you may be moving.If the pros said that you should have a feel for where the clubhead is, it would be more accurate.It is therefore erroneous to state you should feel the same weight throughout the swing.

It is equally important to improve your ability to handle the clubhead speed and force throughout the swing and to develop the correct feel for the total action. To this end it is important that you strengthen your grip to have a better feel of the club, and your wrists to improve your ability to execute the wrist actions not only in the backswing but in the downswing.Highly recommended are exercises with the ExerRings to strengthen the fingers both individually and collectively for the grip and to use the strength bar to duplicate the wrist break and the turning of the arms to square the clubface at contact.

For details on these exercises and for more information on the golf swing see Explosive Golf.