In his latest instructional video, renowned instructor Mel Sole shows the important roles your ankles and proper footwork play in the golf swing. This video was shot on location at the <a href="http://www.melsolegolfschool.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mel Sole Golf School</a> at Pawleys Plantation Golf &amp; Country Club in Pawleys Island, S.C.

This month’s tip is about something I don’t really read or hear a lot about, but is such an important part of the golf swing, and that is your ankles.
I see so many students rolling this (forward) ankle in, spinning this (forward) foot out, with no stability down below. And your ankles are a very, very important part of the golf swing, and help you with the stability.
So here’s what I’m talking about. When you’re in your address position, you want your back foot (right foot for right-handed golfers) at 90 degrees in relation to where you’re hitting. That’s going to help you with a little bit of stability here. If you have a problem on your backswing, if you’re an older golfer and you’re losing your flexibility a little bit, it’s okay to flare that foot out a bit to help you turn a bit. But not too much &#8211; try to keep it square if you possibly can.
Now, with the front foot &#8211; a huge amount of golfers stand with their front foot at 90 degrees. You want this front foot flared out slightly so that it helps the hips rotate around (you can see how my feet are working here). When you do your backswing, you want to keep your weight on the inside of this back foot. So when I go back, what I often see is this (back) ankle rolling over … and when you’re trying to start your downswing from this position, I guarantee you’re going to start with your arms every time because you’ve got nothing to push off with. This would be like a sprinter running a 100-yard dash, but trying to start off his heels &#8211; you have nothing to push off with.
So you want to keep that weight on the inside of that back foot, and then feel it on your backswing. Occasionally, what you can do to help you get that feel is to take a golf ball and put it under the outside of that back foot. If you roll over, you’ll feel it &#8211; you want to keep that weight on the inside of the foot.
When you start down, you want your back knee to move to your front knee, so now this back foot rolls over, you’ll see the heel start coming off the ground, and the weight is now transferring to the inner part of this back foot and the outer part of the front foot. Now, the strain is being taken on the front ankle, and what usually happens is that I’ll see this front foot spin out. So you want to feel when you’re going here that the weight shift is going more to the ball of the foot &#8211; don’t let it go to the heel too quickly because your front foot is just going to spin out. You want it to feel like it’s shifting to the little toe of the front foot.
To recap:
<ol>
<li>Square back foot</li>
<li>Flared out front foot</li>
<li>Stable on the backswing</li>
<li>Weight shift felt on the inside of the back foot and outside of the front foot</li>
<li>The back foot turns on the follow through</li>
</ol>
Good footwork will make you a good golfer!

Aberdeen Country Club Reopens After Historic Rainfall

Courses in this Article

Aberdeen Country Club

Additional Myrtle Beach Golf News