Not sure if Tom explained weight forward this way so forgive me if this is redundant. Just watched a SnT video that explained it a bit different that what I've seen or can recall. We've all read and viewed info about the emphasis on weight forward. But what is the weight? Where does the weight come from? It's NOT the weight of the chest and shoulders on the lead side. It's hips forward. I know Tom puts emphasis on keeping the head and shoulders center so that is the same concept. If you put the weight of the shoulders and head onto your lead side you'd be too steep and chopping.
Sorry if I'm stating the obvious. I felt it was just a different way of conveying the 'weight forward' message.
This gets more important as the length of the club increases. The last couple weeks I've been working on driver. I super concentrated on keeping my head and shoulders still and gliding my hips forward. Huge improvement on decreasing backspin which improves aerodynamics of the ball flight and decreases the 'ballooning' effect.
@Gerry_Lager I personally do not think you need to focus on "weight forward" in SnT. That, IMO, is taught to get you on your left side because you (and millions of others) have a tendency to hang out on the right side on the downswing, or shift too far to the trail side on the backswing.
In reality, if you stay stacked over the ball to the top, and you have not flattened your shoulders on the way to the top, your weight will be where it needs to be. The other piece is this.....from the top, the lower body travels laterally about 3 or so inches, then the lead leg posts-up. The lateral shift, and subsequent post up move, occurs VERY quickly, so you should practice both separately, then together with very short swings.
Too much of anything in the golf swing is not a good thing, so pre-loading weight on the lead side, say more than 55/45, can create more issues. I posted a new comment under "Lower Body - Final Frontier" which I think might help you. I personally would not go to 90/10 because if you need to put that much weight on your lead side, then there's something else going on that is causing a significant imbalance. At that point I suggest doing a Video lesson with Tom.
Yes, @Gerry_Lager - you got it!!
(Sorry about the foot. I hope it heals up quickly!)
I think one part of weight forward I was getting wrong was the setup. I had a tendency to move my head and shoulders forward a tad and not just the hips. This hips forward is huge for me (probably most people). Using my launch monitor my ball backspin is directly correlated to moving the hips forward and keeping head in place. It's amazing the cause and effect. Anyone not using a launch monitor and wondering why your drives sound and feel good aren't going anywhere. BACKSPIN caused by steep angle of attack. fix it!!! ...but now I'm down with an injury to my right foot. Good time to do the 90% weight drill :)
Absolutely, Gerry! I do try to make a point of emphasizing that the upper torso and head remain in place in the downswing as the lower body drives the increasing forward weight load. This enables us to: 1) maintain our swing center and keep the low point intact, 2) keep the downswing path properly shallowed, 3) have plenty of room to straighten the arms through the zone, and 4) tuck the butt and extend the spine through impact (a tremendously powerful move).
I'm glad you found an S&T lesson that drove home this important concept for you. Without that action we would have no chance of achieving the classic S&T finish demonstrated by Plummer & Bennett below.