Left heel on backswing: up or down?

[JimSomebody]

My habit has been to lift my left heel somewhat during my backswing. (Could be another baseball/softball influence on my golf swing.) Anyway, I'm going to try keeping it on the ground. When I keep it down, it seems to increase torque on my right side, so I have a little more to "unload" on my downswing.

But I'm not a sophisticated student of the swing, so I thought I'd ask you folks: Do you lift your left heel on the backswing? Why or why not? And (whichever you do) how is it working out for you?

[deronsizemore]

Whatever is comfortable to you is what I would go with. There is no rule that says the heel must stay down. Jack Nicklaus was a heel lifter and I hear that guy was pretty good.

[Bigvivec]

I think that I remember that Nickalus wrote in his book that he never thought about it...sometimes it came up and sometimes it didn't but it was never a point of focus...

[JungleJ]

I try to keep my heel down but I think, with my flexibility as it is, I would make a better turn on the backswing if I lifted it

[alangbaker]

Originally Posted by JimSomebody

My habit has been to lift my left heel somewhat during my backswing. (Could be another baseball/softball influence on my golf swing.) Anyway, I'm going to try keeping it on the ground. When I keep it down, it seems to increase torque on my right side, so I have a little more to "unload" on my downswing.

But I'm not a sophisticated student of the swing, so I thought I'd ask you folks: Do you lift your left heel on the backswing? Why or why not? And (whichever you do) how is it working out for you?

I keep my heel down, and I always have, but I'm fairly flexible, so I never feel that it is preventing me from making a full turn. And so far, it's working fine...

[OnePutt]

Jim; 2 things. If you do lift your heel, you have to plant it again in the same place it was, or your setup will not be the same swing to swing. Also, if you lift your heel, you should try to re-plant it the same way every time, and use it to start your downswing. Plany your heel and let that be how you start every downswing and you'll be okay. Because you are adding a variable to your swing when you lift your heel, it would be better not to lift it if you can make a full shoulder turn without lifting. One less variable is a good thing to work toward.

[JimSomebody]

Originally Posted by OnePutt

Jim; 2 things. If you do lift your heel, you have to plant it again in the same place it was, or your setup will not be the same swing to swing. Also, if you lift your heel, you should try to re-plant it the same way every time, and use it to start your downswing. Plany your heel and let that be how you start every downswing and you'll be okay. Because you are adding a variable to your swing when you lift your heel, it would be better not to lift it if you can make a full shoulder turn without lifting. One less variable is a good thing to work toward.

Those are good points. Simpler is better! Fortunately, my flexibility is still good, so the heel-down swing shouldn't be a physical problem for me.

[Wazmankg]

I'm pretty sure I keep it down. But thanks for the new "swing thought" Jim. I also inhale on my backswing.... I think.

[Golfaddict]

I keep it down. I believe I have more stability if I keep it down.

[straightshooter]

I keep it planted: Like oneputt, I do not care for extra and unnecessary (for me) movement in my swing.

PS: JimS, if you find that you do have some trouble making a good turn with the heel planted, reposition your balance forward a bit, putting your weight on the balls of your feet at setup (if you didn't have it there already).

[titaniummd]

My heel is down and I do not consciously shift my weight to the right, either.

[Sinsation]

i keep it down. that extra movement makes me more apt to sway. so i leave it down.

[mr3856a]

I keep it down, and come to think about it, I've never thought about it before.

[JimSomebody]

Originally Posted by straightshooter

PS: JimS, if you find that you do have some trouble making a good turn with the heel planted, reposition your balance forward a bit, putting your weight on the balls of your feet at setup (if you didn't have it there already).

Thanks, straightshooter. I'm working on my swing these days, and keeping the L heel down is something I'm trying to incorporate. Will keep you advice in mind. (Just tried it with an "air swing" here at home, and I see what you mean.)

[halk]

Lifting my left heel is something I do at times if I think to try and keep it down it will mess up my swing. Here is something that I have been doing that is helping me to keep my heel on the ground without thinking, it may not be for everyone and you have to be a bit cautious when doing this move.

In my daily workout routine on of the things I do is to take two 10 pound dumbbell weights and hold them together using both hands. With the weights held together in front of your body begin to turn at the waist with your feel planted firmly turn at the waist with the weights extended at about mid chest high. Turn as far as you can to the right and then to the left do as many reps as you can. While doing this do not lift your heels of the floor it is quite difficult to do without lifting your heels but once you get the routine down I have found it carries over to the golf swing.

As I said this may not be for everyone and as I said use caution when swinging the weights I hold on to the large end of the weights with both hands if you are doing them in the house it could be a disaster.

Give it a try sometime it may help some of you out there about lifting your heel plus it will give you some additional flexibility after you have don this for several weeks in a row. This is part of my daily weight routine now.

[Left Heel Down]

Forever I had been swinging with my left heel up. Somebody noticed this when I was teeing off one day and mentioned it. I had never thought about it, but he was right, I was lifting my left heel on the backswing and quite a bit too.

I told the guy I never change anything while I'm on the course and that I might try that later on the range. I never did.

Recently, I had been having trouble with my game. It seemed like I could only hit the ball the way I wanted to about 20% of the time. I was desparate, so I thought of all the things I could try. The "flying left heel" tip came to mind and I tried it. I kept my left heel down on a couple of practice swings, then hit a ball.

Up until I had put my left heel down, I'd hit about 15 balls---none of them solid or straight. From the very first ball I hit with my heel down to the last one in the bucket, I was hitting shots solidly and exactly where I wanted them to go. It was a miracle.

Keeping my left heel down felt very strange at first and took some getting used to, but man am I glad I tried it. It miraculously changed everything from bad to good. I'm so impressed, I made "Left Heel Down" my user name.

[fireman07]

I try to keep my foot on the ground.

[JPsuff]

.

I think that lifting one's left heel on the backswing can become more of a problem with a flat swing than with a more upright swing.

I was a Jack "groupie" when I was growing up and I tried to copy everything he did and one of those things was lifting my left heel. I'm about the same height, weight and build as Jack, so I didn't think there'd be a problem, but what I didn't realize was that my natural swing plane was much flatter than Jack's and that did cause a problem.

Jack had a very upright swing and he "reached for the sky" on his backswing and as a result, his heel came up. When he dropped it back down (which was basically what started his downswing), it pulled the rest of his body right into the slot and everything worked fine.
But for someone with a flatter swing, such as myself, lifting my heel wasn't the problem, but dropping it down tended to cause me to "spin" to my left and the resulting "cast" created a whole mess of problems.

A guy I played with from time to time named named "Jerry" (Who was in his late sixties but who was a former scratch player and a great "observer") stopped me from doing this one day when, after watching me spin out on almost every shot, he asked me if there was any particular reason why I was lifting my left heel on my backswing.
After I told him about copying Jack he pointed out that Jack's swing was relatively unique and very upright and that mine was much flatter. He then suggested that I try swinging like "John" instead of "Jack" and from that point on, my heel has stayed on the ground where - for me - it belongs.


-JP

[Fourputt]

Harvey Penick taught the left heel lift. His "Magic Move" to initiate the downswing was to plant the heel and bring the right elbow back in with a simultaneous motion, thus dropping the club into the slot.

As for me, I don't really pay much attention to that. There are other indicators in my swing that tell me I'm wound up and ready for the transition... the heel may or may not come up a little depending on whether I'm reaching back for a bit extra or not. Certainly some of the weight comes off the left heel in all of my full swings, even if it doesn't actually leave the ground.