Amy Boulden tips: How to gain more power with better footwork
You hear people talk about building power from the ground up but what does that mean?
Basically you’ve got a couple of options of generating power. You can go 110 per cent from the top of the backswing and throw everything, including your feet and legs, and see what you’ve got left at impact.
Generally this is not too much.
Solid Footwork
Or you can try and sequence things in the right order. The speed might not be much different but the balance, co-ordination and rhythm is much better if built from the ground as you can hold your lower body in shape and then unwind the upper body.
If I can keep my right foot on ground for a bit longer this allows the shoulders and the right elbow to drop back into the right slot and you can turn through the shot properly.
The Right Heel
Left to my own devices I get quite active with my feet. The right foot will start coming up and that makes me dip down into the ball afterwards. If I can establish a slight bend in the right knee as I start down and hold the knee slightly outwards to the right (this takes a lot of strength and practice), that will stop the knees driving too early.
Then the hips can apply the power and the right foot should roll inwards as the right knee moves across towards the left knee. The right heel only comes up after impact and not halfway down towards impact.
