Today, we’ll look to answer a question from a reader – if you have questions yourself, be sure to drop us a line on our contact page.

I am a girls' high school golf coach and have a player with a habit of going up onto her tip toes at contact with every club. She can't seem to break the habit and I'm out of ideas as to how to help her. Suggestions and drills PLEASE.

Todd

Hi Todd, thanks for the question. I’ve got some insights and suggestions to help you on your way. First things first, I want to understand the severity of your students habit of standing on her tip toes at impact. On tour, and as the image below shows, you’ll find many professionals have their trailing heel off the ground at impact. This isn’t a bad thing. It shows that your weight and power is transferring through to your front foot.

Now, likely as a golf coach you would already know this. So I will assume, and your e-mail suggests that you mean your student is going up on her tip toes of both of her feet at impact? If this is so, it makes me wonder what would cause this motion...as it’s not natural; it’s likely something in her swing caused this to happen. I can only think of one cause – and that would be a ball that is too close to her body at address. To compensate for this, she would have to lift up at impact to even make contact with the ball. Likely her body position fundamentals are out of whack. Double check that her clubs are properly fit to start and then her address fundamentals.

 

If you’ve just hit a thin shot, 9 times out of 10, your spine angle changed throughout your swing. What does this mean to the average player? It means that something forced your body to shift slightly upwards before impact. Usually this is caused by poor fundamentals such as standing too closely to the ball or having the ball too far forward in your stance. But without me seeing your swing, I can’t say for sure.