Lateral Weight Shift at Transition.

Something I'm dedicating quite a bit of time to at the minute.

Not so much the whole downswing, more the 'bump' or lateral weight shift at transition to the left.

The issue in my swing comes from a poor weight shift at transition. Not so much getting the weight left, but how I actually do it.

From the top of the back swing, as I have a poor lateral hip bump/shift I tend to rotate my weight forward, from my hips, from the top of the backswing, which (.... I think) throws my arms OTT and causes my bad shot as my shoulders follow my hips.
Am I talking nonsense or is there some remnant of truth in there?

You never want to turn/clear you hips at start of transition, just gives you the dreaded 'spin out' & this will as you suspect throw your right shoulder out towards ball/target line along with your arms & club, the shaft gets too steep & you'll always suffer from an out to in swing path, over the shaft plane & over the hand path, swing will also always be way too steep.

Simply turning hips left straight off at transition you'll never be able to get the hand path, club or body in the right delivery position for the best impact conditions.

First move down from transition has to be lead from the ground up. Although thinking of a small lateral hip movement may help as a swing thought from the top. (as you'll know, I have detailed this before in the 'disassociation thread' it's all part of the same thing)

As ever the move going back from takeaway has a great bearing on being able to be able to make the right sequence back down at transition.

The biggest killer of a good transition move (assuming grip, address set-up & posture is correct) is a move off the ball to the right of your center of gravity during first takeaway, be that a only slight lateral move off right or worse a big sway right. This will make a good transition move from top extremely difficult if not impossible.

You have to keep the weight going back, on the inside of the right foot whilst still maintaining some flex in the right knee to stop a lateral move/sway right off the ball.

Best way to practice & cure both the first move back & first move down is with a couple alignment sticks.

'The Two Stick Drill'

On grass push one stick touching your right heel & running up middle right leg but at an angle so it touches your right hip at address. (Making sure it's pushed in the ground far enough so you won't catch your right elbow on it on a downswing!)

The other stick is pushed in at your left heel but runs up middle of left leg, vertically, so it will be some 21/2" to 3" away from your left hip at top of stick.

You make a takeaway, backswing & body pivot & your right hip turns back inside the stick without any sway right pushing the stick away from your right hip.

At top of swing at transition there's a feeling of weight into the ground through the left foot vertically, this moves your left knee back in line over foot (as I've spoken about before).

At this point the 'gap' between the left knee & the right knee should widen (at this point it's important the still flexed right knee feels that it's being left in place left knee moving away from the right, something Sir Nick Faldo speaks about often)

The right knee doesn't/shouldn't 'kick in' from start of transition, at transition it still needs to feel stable/still. It's only when the shaft gets to delivery position parallel to the ground & the elbow is at the right hip (as Hogan) that the right knee 'kicks in', It's this I think Watson was referring too but it often seems to get misinterpreted & folks try to kick it in, unnaturally sooner at transition start, it shouldn't.

This widening again of the space between the knees, is the 'squat move' you see every Tour player, elite golfer make. (to the best of my knowledge there is no exception to this)

This moves the left hip laterally some 2" to 3". This is where the other stick comes in, in the 2 stick drill, your left hip moves to touch it.

As at transition the weight into foot, left knee aligning back up, gap between left & right knee widening moves the left hip to touch this stick, only then on touching the left hip to stick should you then turn & clear the left hip.

You also want to keep in mind you don't want to 'jump' on your left side & really slide your left hip laterally ways too much as this will put your arms & club unit a ways too far back behind you and you'll end up either nearly flipping or flipping at impact & presenting too much loft through impact & creating too much height without any real forward penetration to the shot.

This is why you just want to touch the left stick in the drill before turning & clearing, you don't want to really whack through the stick pushing it angled to target, as that will just get the club stuck to far behind you.