You hang back when your hips stay on your trail side at impact, or when your upper body falls away from the target as you swing through. To stop hanging back, shift your hips toward the target as you start down, then turn: the tour pros and a skilled amateur in our test clips moved their hips 3.8 to 8.2 inches toward the target by impact.
Hanging back drags the bottom of your swing behind the ball. You take a divot that starts behind it, thin the next one, and lose speed. TPI calls hanging back a major cause of lost speed, because your weight shift ranks among the most important skills for clubhead speed (TPI's hanging back page).
Spot hanging back at impact
Face on, you look like you're hitting off your trail foot. Your belt buckle sits at or behind its address spot, your trail heel stays flat on the ground, and your lead leg never takes your weight.
TPI describes hanging back as too little weight shift toward the target in the downswing, which usually leaves you on your back foot at impact. It also points to a common workaround: moving the ball back in your stance so you can still make contact. That keeps the fault and hides it from you.
The second version shows up after the ball has gone. You make contact, then your upper body tips away from the target, and you finish with your hips behind your lead foot. Past 7 inches behind it, you're falling back.
Know the numbers for your shift
Face on, your hip shift at impact tells you most of the story, and your head and finish fill in the rest:
| Face on checkpoint | Number | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Hips toward the target at impact | Less than 1.5 in | You hang back |
| Hips toward the target at impact | 3.8 to 8.2 in | The tour pros and a skilled amateur in our test clips |
| Hips toward the target at impact | More than 11 in | Your hips slide past |
| Head toward the target at impact | More than 5 in | Your head gets ahead of the ball |
| Hips at the finish | More than 7 in behind your lead foot | You fall back |
TPI's figure lands inside the same window: it says a normal weight shift brings you about four inches closer to the target by impact.
Your hips get a wide lane, from 1.5 to 11 inches, so you can shift plenty without sliding. Your head gets a tighter one. Let it travel more than 5 inches toward the target and it gets ahead of the ball, which trades one fault for another.
On our fault list, hanging back carries the top weight, level with early extension and flipping your hands. Your head getting ahead of the ball and falling back sit one tier lower.
Shift early, like skilled golfers do
Lab studies point to timing. In a force plate study of 30 golfers, the skilled group, with an average handicap of 0.8, moved weight to the lead foot earlier in the downswing. Early in the downswing, their lead foot carried 59% of body weight, against 33% for the group averaging a 30.8 handicap. Both groups reached the lead foot by impact, and the skilled golfers got there sooner (Okuda and colleagues, 2010).
A second study split 28 men at a 9 handicap. The low handicap group moved more vertical force from the trail foot to the lead foot between the top and impact, and hit its force peaks earlier through the swing (Queen and colleagues, 2013).
The largest of these studies, with 104 amateurs and researchers from The R&A's equipment standards team, found the same direction: lower handicaps and faster swingers tended to shift pressure toward the front foot fast at the start of the downswing (Jones and colleagues, 2023).
A late drift back can still work. In a 2007 force plate study of 62 golfers hitting drives, one group's pressure moved back toward the trail foot through impact, and the researchers found that style at every level from professional to high handicap, so they didn't call it an error. Both groups still moved pressure toward the lead foot early in the downswing (Ball and Best, 2007).
So make timing your cue. Start your hips toward the target as your arms finish the backswing, then turn through to the finish.
Watch for the reverse pivot
A reverse pivot sets up hanging back before you even start down. You keep your weight on your lead leg in the backswing, then move it back onto your trail leg in the downswing. TPI lists it as one cause of hanging back and says it can come from a trail leg that can't load properly in the backswing.
Face on, look at your head at the top. If it moved toward the target from its address spot, your weight went the wrong way. Load your trail side with a turn and let your head drift back a little: the tour pros and a skilled amateur in our test clips moved theirs back 0.7 to 3.5 inches. Keep it under 4 inches, or you trade a reverse pivot for a sway.
TPI's other causes sit in your body: limited mobility in your lead hip and ankle, a core or lead leg that can't hold steady when you post onto it, and a lower body without enough power, which hands the swing to your arms and upper body.
See what hanging back does to your low point
The bottom of your swing follows your body. Shift your hips and chest toward the target and the bottom moves forward, so you strike the ball first and the turf after it. Stay back and the bottom stays back with you.
That gives you two misses from one fault:
- Fat: the club reaches the ground behind the ball. TPI points to heavy divots that start behind the ball as a sign of hanging back, and the fat shots guide covers that miss on its own.
- Thin: the club passes its lowest point before it reaches the ball and catches it on the way up, with the leading edge.
Your hands then try to rescue the strike. When your body stalls, they flip the clubhead past the handle to reach the ball, and the shaft leans away from the target at impact. In Scratchmaxx, you also see whether your hands lean the shaft forward or flip it at impact, and a flip carries the same top weight as hanging back.
Fix it with three drills
Drill 1: Step through
- Set up to a ball with a 7 iron and your feet a little narrower than normal.
- Swing at about 70% effort. As you swing through, let your trail foot step forward past your lead foot toward the target, like you're walking after the ball.
- If you can't step through, your weight stayed back. Make the next swing slower.
- Hit 10 balls, then 5 with your normal finish and the same shift.
Drill 2: Hold your finish for three seconds
- Hit a ball with a mid iron at your normal speed.
- Finish with your weight on your lead foot, your trail heel up, only your trail toe on the ground, and your belt buckle facing the target.
- Hold it for three seconds. If you wobble, step back or have to catch yourself, you hung back or fell back.
- Hit 10 balls and count the finishes you hold.
Drill 3: Clip the tee
- Push a tee into the turf a hand past the ball, on the target side.
- Hit the ball, then clip the tee.
- Finish with your weight on your lead foot.
- Hit 10 balls. If the tee stays in the ground, start your shift earlier on the next one.
You'll find Clip the tee in Scratchmaxx as the drill for iron strike.
Check your shift face on
Record five swings face on before you start the drills, with your phone in the same spot each time. The filming guide shows the setup.
Read three numbers on each swing. At impact, your hips should sit at least 1.5 inches toward the target from address, ideally near the 3.8 to 8.2 inches of the tour pros and skilled amateur on our bench, and less than 11. Your head should move no more than 5 inches toward the target. At the finish, your hips should sit within 7 inches of your lead foot.
Check the top as well. If your head moved toward the target there, fix the reverse pivot first.
Down the line, check one more thing. If your hips move toward the target and toward the ball at once, you've swapped hanging back for early extension.
After a week of drills, record five more swings and compare.
Record one swing face on in Scratchmaxx and you see each of those numbers. Your height sets the scale for the inches.
