THE NICKLAUS HEEL LIFT

We all love watching the wide, smooth and powerful swings of today’s tour professionals… and, of course, we instinctively see them as actions to aspire to. Yet we have to be careful. The modern tour pro is a honed athlete with different physical capabilities to the club player, and this allows them to find positions that are, frankly, beyond the vast majority of us. In this article, we’ll look at one such area – the lead heel – and discover why Jack Nicklaus’ classic advice of allowing it to lift during the backswing still works for the vast majority of amateur golfers.

Heel down: The problem

A full trunk and shoulder rotation – getting your back to face the target at the top – is a staple of a sound swing. But unless you are super flexible, you’ll need a reasonable degree of rotation through your hips and pelvis to achieve it… and that means allowing your lead heel to be pulled up and off the ground as the hips turn. Many elite golfers have the flexibility to get to the top with their lead hip grounded – but for most of us, following this ‘elite move’ will only limit trunk rotation and lead to a short backswing… or a disconnected one with the arms simply lifting the club to the top.

Freedom to turn

Nicklaus was a great advocate of allowing the heel to lift. In Total Golf Techniques, he wrote: “Allowing the left heel to rise quickly and high during the backswing is sometimes the only way an elderly or heavy-set golfer can assure a full body turn.” We can add a stiff or sedentary one to that list. Fundamentally, even if you don’t possess tour pro levels of mobility through your core, following Jack’s advice will allow you to make a full and dynamic golf swing.

Downswing bonus

While lifting the lead heel is mostly helpful to completing the backswing, it offers another key advantage. In giving yourself the chance to replant it, you set up a strong, forward weight shift and encourage your downswing to work in the ideal ground-up sequence. This ‘lift and plant’ motion is employed by many long drive champions. That’s a lot of positives… from one simple move.