I have been watching Lags youtube video’s on this topic and I started thinking…We all know that Stack and tilters start with thier weight completely on thier left leg. Since ABS is complete opposite of S and T would it be benefical for ABSers at address to start all your weight on your right leg?
The right leg loading is an interesting concept. When I watch the videos in the Vault, in just about all the swings of the greats I see the weight bifurcating. The lower body weight is moving forward, but the upper body weight is staying back…maybe just another way of saying spine tilt.
In the Greg Norman Vault, go to page 3 of his film/video section. Check out the 5th video down the page. There is an excellent example of seeing the lower body weight transfer while the upper body weight stays back. (Sorry I couldn’t figure out a way to copy that video here). Greg turns this move into a big reverse C finish, but other players do the move and finish more vertical.
i have had a problem of falling back and getting a big reverse C when i try to pressure my right let in transition. This causes back pain.
I have been trying to get more horizontal pressure with my right leg than vertical pressure. I have also been trying to cover the ball with my chest a little more.
Great thoughts so far on this topic. Its amazing how modern day teaching focuses on keep your weight left, keep your head still, tilt your shoulders… A huge light bulb came when i watched the Curtis Strange video from the vault. Curtis gets way behind the ball with his weight/head. I told myself if Curtis won two back to back US Opens with this lateral movement than why am I not doing that. This was eye opening cause it taught me that in order to get properly on the 4:30 I must get fully right loaded or else any slight left leg weight on the backswing putts me OTT! Curtis Also talked about the Reverse C which is caused by trying to keep your head behind the ball (or keep your head still).
right leg loading is important, but eventually any good swing is going to have to load the weight into the left leg to finish the swing. The hard part for me is when does the weight go from the right leg to the left leg…
Remember that right leg loading is then meant to be UNLOADED through the strike. The weight transfers from right to left while you are hitting the ball. Another critical element is swing pace or tempo. The quicker your backswing, the more pressure you can load into the right leg.
Strange had a slower backswing so he had to move more laterally with his body. With a quicker tempo, you can keep the upper body a bit more stationary as Hogan did. However, with a quicker tempo comes an increase in muscular responsibility, particularly in the right knee.
This has to be done correctly.
[quote=“lagpressure”]
The weight transfers from right to left while you are hitting the ball.
I’ve always had this thought, and I think I had a problem that many people do. My upper body would shift forward along with my lower body before the hit and it contributed to a steep downswing. It’s one of the things that I worked on with Brad.
And Lag, I’m probably misunderstanding your point, but when I watch the greats all the way back to Bobby Jones I see the right foot coming off the ground at impact while the upper body is back. Many even have their head moving down and backward (away from the target) at impact. That’s what I meant by weight bifurcation…lower weight forward, upper weight back.
My thoughts are alot of it depends on your own personal biomechanics as chris said & swing method. Eg alot of modern players are switching to a modern “rotary” type swing ala Hunter Mahan, Rose, Manassero, Tiger. The point of their swing is to get onto the left pivot point as soon as possible then rotate hard around it.
No-one doubts that there is more than one way to skin a cat here. The problem is when people start comparing a Mahan swing to Hogan just because its all low & left post impact, when in reality under the surface the pressures & intents are poles apart.
ABS has it right (pun intended drum roll). Norman backs us up 
One question that has been on my mind for a while is-
(According To ABS standards) When your loading on the right leg and completing the backswing Should your arms and Body stop moving simultaneously right into the transiton to the downswing? Its easy for your arms to keep moving away from the target even when you have finished your turn. I thought this was a good question and something that has stuck with me for a long time.
Thanks
As a Drill/Module 2 student this topic is really important to me as I search for the correct feel.
I haven’t got to try it yet but I imagine that the ground pressures should feel the same as when I throw up a baseball and hit it to the outfield during a game of 500 up. I toss the ball up, squat on my right leg and then as the ball comes down, push towards my left and my weight falls on to the left foot after impact. The heavy bat really shows how impossible it would be to hit the ball just off the left foot. Am I in the ballpark ? 
As a Drill/Module 2 student this topic is really important to me as I search for the correct feel.
That’s how to hit a home run…
you’re in the ballpark and you get a free bag of peanuts if you can hit the flag pole just over the fence right of center.
Thanks lag. The last season I played baseball was after a couple years away from the game. I played a lot of golf in the interim and when I played baseball again I found that my baseball swing had become very much a “golf” swing and I was pulling everything down the left field line. My miss in golf has always been a hook and I wonder if that was from getting to quickly to the left side. Anyway, it will now take a lot of drilling and work to break the habit of getting on to the left foot so quickly. But I can really imagine the power it will generate based on the last time I hit fly balls.
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I find that, through drilling Mods 1 and 2, by maintaining the spine angle relative to the 4:30 line and being really active with ground pressures my weight transfer kind of takes care of itself. I have also noticed lately that with the ground pressures and really firing the hands my power is starting to significantly increase. I have gained almost a full club length in distance with my irons since starting on Mod 2.
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youtube.com/watch?v=1Jr_ocx45wU
i like this. seems to line up with what we’re saying here and also makes the distinction between center of mass and center of pressure, which is why we can look like our weight is left, but the scale under the right foot says otherwise.
Nice find Swan…I think he is right on with regard to transition having a COM shift but not a weight shift. I disagree that by delivery he has lost all pressure on the right foot. In fact, as I stated in my take on Hogan, I think there is a secondary shift of pressure back to the the right foot after the initial catch and grab of the left leg of the COM shift.
Question from the Web:
Good morning John, had a question for you because I know you did a segment with Brendon from Be Better Golf. He just did a video with Lee about weight transfer and that most players don’t get their weight to the front side fast enough and that Hogan and others had their weight to the front long before they finish their swing. Didn’t know if you had watched his video.
Anyway, as you might remember, I’ve followed you for years and your teachings and I know you say that the weight really isn’t on the front front yet until the swing actually comes through, hence, your video jumping off the back front. Could you elaborate exactly your stance on this and what we should be doing? Just thought I’d ask. Thanks John.
There is a lot of confusion about weight transfer … and this is a good question.
Ideally we want the transfer to happen through the strike… but this is intrinsically tied to swing tempo.
We should have all or nearly all of our weight loaded into the right leg/foot into transition. The faster our backswing, the more pressure we can load into the right foot.
We can then apply either a quick sitting action… (Snead) or a fall into the left leg (Hogan and more complex).
A slow backswing… will not load as much pressure into the right leg/foot… so with a slow backswing… even if all the weight is on the right foot, it will not transfer the same as with a quick backswing…
Also the length of the backswing is a factor.
A short quick backswing can load a tremendous amount of pressure into the right leg if done correctly.
I can add about an extra 100 pounds of pressure into my right leg… much more than the 175 pounds of my body weight. So about 275 pounds into my right leg through transition.
When we have all those extra pounds of pressure… it is much harder to transfer that to the left… so this of course will delay that full transfer much later into the downswing…
With a very slow backswing I could just put my 175 pounds on my right foot… then gently move that 175 pounds over to my left foot… then hit the ball (I’m simplifying this a bit)… the weight would transfer very early into the downswing.
With a quick backswing, I could pressure 275 pounds into my right foot and maintain a lot of that deep into my downswing and it could even hold all of my weight through and beyond the strike as I have demonstrated in the “one legged” video I did years ago.
So the begging question is… "why would we want to do this? “delay”…
The answer is to save our rotation for later into the downswing… so that we can then rotate quickly and pressure the shaft … hold shaft flex into the strike.
This being idealistic… to then have our weight transferring through the strike… and not so early … because… once we have our weight left… we have to start spending rotation to keep pressure on the shaft.
If we go left too soon… it’s easy to run out of rotation or over acceleration of our rotation and then we find ourselves compensating by throwing our right arm at the ball… or hand throwing etc… taking us out of sequence… adding lots of timing to the strike and so forth.
A bit winded here… but hope this helps clear things up…
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Great explanation John
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