Here’s Why Every Golfer Can Benefit from Re-Examining the Lead Side

Whether you’re a beginner golfer or an experienced player, re-examining how to use your lead side is a worthwhile exercise. If you’re a beginner, your golf swing is a less practiced motion in comparison to an experienced player. Therefore, focusing on how you engage your lead side during the swing itself is especially valuable. Most of us play golf on the same side of the ball as our dominant hand.

As a righty, right-handed player, learning how to engage your left/lead side could produce enormous gains. John Daly practices using his lead side more than anyone in professional golf. If you’re a “feel” player like John is, you may find that working on drills that require less thought and more constant motion is best.

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We play our best golf when we’re able to stand behind the golf ball, pick our target, visualize the shot, step in, and fire. We don’t want a ton of swing thoughts floating around our heads when we play. Obviously speaking, sometimes a swing thought or two keeps everything from going astray.

Practicing how to use your lead side mitigates the inefficiencies in its consequent use when we swing the club. Unless you’re a low handicapper who plays really good golf with a very weak lead hand grip, practice how to use your lead side. After all, the lead side (vs. the trail side) is the “motor” to your golf swing.

Your trail side should play a supporting cast role during the golf swing. If you want to hit the ball longer and straighter with a more efficient move, implement the following drills/practice routines into your game:

Lead Hand Drill:

Take your trail hand off the club, and swing! Don’t be surprised if you whiff, this may be the most difficult drill that exists. Just to clarify, all we’re doing in performing this drill is swinging with one hand on the club. I know we’ve been over this before, but stressing the importance of this drill over time is incredibly helpful.

In other words, you’re not going to be able to perform this drill three or four times with a couple dozen balls per session and expect to feel the difference. Grab your 8 or 9 iron and start by hitting 20-yard pitches/bump and runs. You can stand with your feet in a more narrow chipping stance or by taking your normal wider stance. Again, since this can be a very frustrating drill in the beginning, take your focus off the golf ball.

Make one-handed practice swings while focusing on where your clubhead is bottoming out. Pick a spot, any spot, on the ground and allow the clubhead of your 8 or 9 iron to feel the turf. Most times, those who struggle with this drill are unable to stay compact thru impact. In other words, their lead side breaks down, and their right or trail/dominant side does more of the work.

When we do this, we’re inevitably sacrificing stability, efficiency, and control in terms of how our body moves. When you make your one-hand swings, don’t be afraid to slam the clubhead against the turf. In order to do this effectively, you’ll have to engage your body properly.

During this drill, too many people take a huge backswing and “die” at the ball. Focus on rotating behind the ball on a slower, controlled backswing. Once we’ve completed our small backswing by rotating rather than whipping the clubhead back with your hand/arm, turn your chest in the direction of your target in order to strike the golf ball.

Because we don’t have our right hand on the club in order to support the club, we have to focus that much more on how our body moves in order to strike the ball. If we don’t, we’re going to hit the ball with very little consistency when we do the one-handed drill. It should feel very awkward in the beginning, but over time it’ll become comfortable.

Drop Right (Trail) Foot Back:

Along with the above exercise/drill, try hitting balls with your trail foot/leg “dropped” way back in relation to the golf ball. Just as you normally would on the golf course, start by addressing the golf ball with your typical setup position.

With the clubhead of your 8 or 9 iron resting on the ground behind the ball as it always is in preparation for a typical golf shot, lift your back or trail foot off the ground and place it 2/3 feet behind its original location. If done properly, your feet should be aligned miles right (for a righty) or closed to your intended target. Now, strike the golf ball with this new modified setup position.

In order to get the most out of this drill, do not strike the ball by taking a backswing and losing your balance by trying to move your trail foot back to its original position. Often, too many people will make an effort to hit the ball by moving their trail foot closer to the golf ball on the downswing.

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With this dropped-trail foot/modified setup, check where your chest/belt buckle/belly button is pointed. Ideally, our imaginary toe/feet line when we address the golf ball on a typical shot and during this drill should be perpendicular to the imaginary line drawn from our belly button through our golf ball.

Many times, I’ll witness students perform this drill with a shoulder/hip line that’s open in relation to their trail leg/foot. So, if we do this drill properly, our feet/hips/shoulders should all be very closed in relation to the intended target. From there, make an on-balance golf swing without moving or “cheating” with your trail foot.

You’ll find that in order to both strike the ball in the center of the clubface and fairly online, you’ll have to pull the butt end of your golf grip down towards the ball/ground and let your arms/hands “go.” Essentially, you’re learning how to involve your lead side both at the setup position and during the swing by hitting balls with this modified stance.

If your shoulders/hip line is open in relation to your feet line, you know you’re “overusing” your trail side. Drop the back foot, and swing away on balance. Just like the previous drill, don’t get frustrated in the beginning. This is designed to be a difficult drill.

The “Baseball” or Happy Gilmore Drill: Like Adam Sandler in “Happy Gilmore” or a hitter in baseball, practice hitting balls by stepping in with your lead foot.

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Start with your body further behind the golf ball than you typically would, and make controlled, aggressive swings after you’ve stepped into the golf shot. In a typical golf swing, we must transfer our weight back into our lead foot/side prior to striking the golf ball in order to maximize distance and control.

If you like to “hang back” excessively via a back foot (off-balance finish), you’re not getting enough weight into your lead foot at impact. You will hit the ball with more consistency by performing the step-thru drill as if you’re Happy Gilmore (without the RUNNING start; it’s just a single step).

If you’re a backfoot finisher, perform the step-through drill. Many backfoot finishers finish their golf swing in this manner due to their inability to transfer their weight properly during the backswing/downswing.

Specifically, their weight is being transferred in the opposite direction/way it otherwise would be if they were pivoting in a more optimal fashion. If you’re a backfoot finisher who also makes a backswing that’s too long, chances are you’re performing a reverse pivot. In other words, your weight is more towards your lead foot at the top of the backswing and more in your trail foot at the finish.

In order to reverse this inefficiency, perform the step thru the drill. If you start well behind the golf ball and not in your typical setup position, the only way you’re hitting the ball consistently via the step-through is thru proper weight transfer. If you struggle to keep your lead arm straight/engaged during the golf swing, try the lead hand drill.

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You may be wondering: If John Daly is a master at using his lead side, then why isn’t his lead arm straightened at the top of his backswing? Amazingly, Daly is able to transition the golf club by pulling the clubhead down to the ground using tremendous force and stability.

If you have a very long golf swing via a straightened lead arm or a flexed lead arm (like Daly’s), there’s a high probability that you’re “throwing” clubhead in transition. Unlike Daly’s “dropping” of the clubhead in transition via lead arm stability/strength, you get your hands/arms/ and club/clubhead too far from your body in transition.

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This existing inefficiency in your golf swing is caused by your dominant, trail hand/side “taking over” on the downswing. When it takes over, your lead side “crunches” or loses its stability in transition.

If you watch the Golf Channel, you may have seen Raymond Floyd giving a swing lesson once or twice. Raymond attributes amateurs’ struggles to improper alignment via a closed stance. Also, he mentions how “this thing on top of our shoulders,” aka our brain, is smart in how it compensates for certain backswing flaws.

Oftentimes, amateurs will set up too closed to the target, and on their downswing, they’ll return the club to the ball using an inadequate “over the top” move. In this lesson, Raymond is merely pointing out how our mind chooses to associate a good shot with an over-the-top downswing.

However, without mentioning so, Raymond is alluding to our brain’s tendency to associate our dominant arm with hitting a golf ball or performing an action. When we throw the club “over the top”, our dominant arm is performing the work that we incorrectly associate with hitting a good golf shot. So, we must rewire our brains in order to use our lead arm/side.

Rewiring our brains in such a fashion will not happen overnight. But, with every practice session using either 1, 2, or all 3 of the above drills, the more we will improve our golf swing in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency.

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