Correct Your Lean for Better Impact and Follow Through

This drill trains a better impact and follow-through pattern if you tend to drop your hips, buckle downward, or dive through the ball. That motion often comes with an arm throw, inconsistent low point, and heavy divots. The goal here is to teach you how to keep your pelvis higher through impact, organize your spine more effectively, and create more space for the club to move through the strike. When you do it well, you can improve solid contact, control your divots, and reduce the feeling that your body is collapsing into the ball.

How the Drill Works

The “lean the wrong way” drill is designed for golfers whose body motion gets too low and too far down through impact. Instead of rotating with the pelvis staying relatively high, you may feel your trail side drop, your belt buckle dive, or your hips move excessively downward and away from their ideal position. That pattern can push the low point too far down, which is one reason fat shots and overly deep divots show up.

This drill gives you the opposite feel on purpose. You exaggerate a motion that may seem incorrect at first, but that exaggeration helps you find a better impact geometry. In many good ball strikers, the pelvis is actually a bit higher at impact than it was at address. That doesn’t mean standing straight up. It means your body is using the ground, your core, and your side bend in a more organized way instead of just collapsing in the hips and lower back.

The key idea is this: rather than letting all the bend happen in the hip and low back, you want to keep the hip more “up” and then curl or crunch over that hip to reach the ball. That creates a more functional blend of pelvis height, side bend, and rotation.

For players who tend to stay too rigid in the torso, this drill also helps free up the middle of the spine. Instead of locking the rib cage and then dropping the entire body toward the ground, you learn to create shape through the trunk while preserving room for the arms to swing through.

Step-by-Step

1. Start in your normal setup. Address the ball as you usually would. You do not need a full swing at first. This is primarily a position drill, so begin slowly.

2. Stand up and rotate toward the target. From your setup, come up out of posture and turn so your chest is more open, as if you are moving into a follow-through orientation. This helps you isolate the impact-to-follow-through body shape without worrying about the backswing.

3. Push the hips slightly toward the ball. This is the “lean the wrong way” feel. For many golfers, it will feel as if your pelvis is more over your feet or even over your toes. That sensation is intentional. It is an exaggeration meant to offset the tendency to drop back and down.

4. Keep the lead hip high. From this rotated position, feel as if the lead hip is hiked up rather than dropped. You are trying to avoid the common pattern where the pelvis sinks and the buckle dives through impact.

5. Crunch the torso over the high hip. Now bend back down toward an impact-like position by curling the upper body over that elevated hip. Think of your trunk doing more of the work, not your pelvis collapsing downward. This is where you begin to feel the core engage.

6. Try the entry-level version first. On the basic version, you can allow the lead foot to react a little as you find the position. The main goal is simply to feel the hip staying up while the torso bends to the ball.

7. Progress to the advanced version with the foot flatter. In the more advanced variation, keep the lead foot flatter on the ground as you hike the hip up. Instead of lifting the foot to create the shape, use more of a crunch through the core and side body. This helps isolate the pelvis and trunk more cleanly.

8. Face the ball and recreate the same shape. Once you understand the motion while turned toward the target, try building it while facing the ball in a more normal address orientation. Hike the hip, then bend over that structure to arrive at an impact-like position.

9. Make small “delivery” swings. From this preset impact position, make short arm swings through the ball. The goal is to preserve the feeling of pelvis height and trunk crunch while the club moves through. Keep it small and controlled.

10. Hit short 9-to-3 swings. Begin making waist-high backswings to waist-high follow-throughs while trying to return to the same impact shape you rehearsed. This is where the drill starts to blend into your real motion.

11. Build to 10-to-2 swings if contact improves. As you gain control, lengthen the motion slightly. You should feel more space for the arms through impact and less need to throw the clubhead to find the ball.

What You Should Feel

The first thing you should expect is that this drill may feel strange. If you are used to dropping and diving into impact, a better pattern can feel almost backward. That is normal.

Pelvis staying up

You should feel that your pelvis is higher through impact than you might expect. Not lifted in a stiff, vertical way, but certainly not collapsing downward. This higher pelvis helps keep the low point from bottoming out too early or too deep.

Core engagement

You should feel your abs and side body working. The advanced version especially creates a crunch sensation rather than a hip dump. If you feel this in your core, you are probably organizing the movement correctly.

More bend through the trunk, less collapse in the hip

Instead of all the side bend happening in the hip or low back, you should feel the shape distributed more through the middle of the spine. That usually looks and feels much more athletic and can be easier on the lower back.

More space for the arms

As the rib cage and pelvis organize better, your arms should feel less trapped. Many players who drop their chest and buckle into the ball block the arms, then compensate with a throw. This drill should make the through-swing feel more open and less jammed.

A different source of speed

If you normally create speed by falling into the strike with your arms, this drill will feel different. The speed may feel more like a brace or a push away from the ball, with the club releasing through more space rather than being flung at the ball from a collapsing body position.

Pressure shifting toward the heels without getting stuck

When you exaggerate this drill, you may notice a sensation of pressure moving more toward your heels. That can be useful if you normally dive toward the toes. But the important checkpoint is not just heel pressure by itself. It is that you can still rotate through impact instead of getting trapped or stalled.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Standing up without bending back to the ball. The drill is not just about getting tall. You still need to curl or crunch back down into an impact-like posture.
• Dropping the lead hip while trying to rotate. If the hip sinks, you are losing the main purpose of the drill.
• Lifting the lead foot to fake the position. In the advanced version, keep the foot flatter and create the motion from the pelvis and core.
• Locking the torso rigid. If you brace your spine too much, you will not create the useful side bend through the trunk.
• Overdoing the push toward the ball. The “wrong way” feel is an exaggeration, not a literal goal for your full swing. Use it to find a better pattern, not to shove yourself onto your toes.
• Trying to hit full shots too soon. This is a precision drill. Start with rehearsals, then mini-swings, then 9-to-3 motions before adding speed.
• Letting the arms take over. If you immediately throw the club from the top of the downswing, you will lose the body shape the drill is trying to build.
• Ignoring balance in the follow-through. You may wobble at first, but the long-term goal is a stable finish with room for the arms to swing through.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is especially useful if your misses tend to come from a body pattern that gets too low through impact. You may recognize yourself if you:

• Take deep, digging divots
• Hit fat and thin shots inconsistently
• Feel your chest and belt buckle diving toward the ball
• Throw the arms through impact to save the strike
• Struggle to create a free, balanced follow-through

In the bigger picture, this drill improves how your body moves the club by helping you manage steep and shallow tendencies. When the pelvis drops too much, the club often gets driven too far down into the ground, and the release becomes more of a rescue move than a clean strike. By keeping the pelvis higher and the trunk better organized, you give the club a more predictable path through the bottom of the arc.

That is why this drill can help low point control. Low point is not just about your hands or your head staying still. It is heavily influenced by how your body is moving through impact. A downward buckle or hip drop tends to move the bottom of the swing around too much. A more stable, elevated pelvis with functional side bend gives you a better chance of striking the ball first and the turf second.

It also connects directly to your follow-through. Good follow-through positions are not just cosmetic. They are often the result of a sound impact pattern. If you can move through the ball with more space, more core support, and less collapse, your finish will usually look more balanced and less forced.

For some golfers, this drill will feel like they are much more bent over. For others, it will feel like they are taller and more vertical. That difference usually depends on what part of the body you notice most. Do not get too caught up in the exact sensation. Focus instead on the checkpoints:

• Lead hip stays high
• Torso crunches over that structure
• Arms have room to swing through
• Contact becomes shallower and more solid

If you blend those pieces into short swings first, then gradually into longer motions, this drill can help replace a collapsing impact with a more stable, athletic one. The result is usually cleaner contact, more reliable turf interaction, and a follow-through that looks and feels much more organized.