There are only two constants when you make a golf swing.
Firstly your feet start off connected to the ground and secondly your hands are connected to the club.
Here we are going to look at the role of the feet and shoes relative to the ground.
Without good pressure pushing down through the shoes into the ground it becomes very difficult to generate power.
The ground is our constant, it is our stable platform which we can swing back and through and use it to generate resistance.
Imagine trying to swing a golf club whilst suspended off the ground.
There would be no resistance build up from the lower body and subsequently minimal power.
Your golf shoes are a very important factor when it comes to generating power by compressing your body weight down into the ground.
The shoes need to be flexible enough to follow the movement of your feet throughout. But more importantly provide lateral stability as you make a back swing.
Helping to promote a rotational motion without allowing the back foot to fall over onto its out-step.
This lateral stability also helps to provide a firm and solid foundation to transfer the body weight through onto the front foot as you change direction from the back swing to the forward swing.
With lateral stability going forward as you fire through impact it helps prevent the front foot from rolling over onto its out-step.
The front foot can now act as an anchor allowing the swing to unwind around it at speed.
This crucial stability also goes hand in hand with balance.
It makes it more difficult to maintain great balance with a pair of golf shoes that don’t offer this level of support throughout the swing.
You might have heard of tour players practising in their bare feet.
This increases your awareness of what your body weight is doing throughout but also makes it more difficult to maintain balance when moving at speed.
Putting a bigger workload on your intrinsic muscles to keep you balanced.
I’d go with a decent pair of shoes any day.
Applying downward pressure through the shoes also causes the cleats to grip more into the ground helping create even more traction.
A regular inspection of the condition of your shoes is very important.
Monitor your cleats and get them changed if necessary, don’t leave it until its too late!
As you are on your round have a quick check of the soles of your shoes and use a tee peg or pitch fork to scrape away any grass and mud stuck in or between the cleats.
Keeping them clean will give you more traction.
