How to Stop Swaying in a Golf Swing

A lateral sway in your golf swing can feel powerful, but it’s actually one of the biggest leaks of power and consistency you can have. Instead of coiling and exploding through the ball, you slide back and then have to slide forward, hoping to time everything up perfectly. This article is going to show you exactly why that sway happens and provide clear, actionable steps and drills to replace it with a powerful, centered rotation you can trust.

First, What is a Sway (and Why It’s a Problem)?

In simple terms, a sway is any excessive lateral movement of your hips or upper body away from the target during the backswing. Think of it as a slide instead of a turn. Many golfers mistakenly believe they need to shift their weight by sliding their bodymass behind the ball to generate power. In reality, it does the exact opposite.

Here’s why it’s such a performance killer:

• It Leaks Power: A golf swing generates speed through rotational force, like a wound-up spring. When you slide your hips laterally, you break the chain. You’re not coiling your torso against a stable lower body, you’re just moving the whole system to the side. All that potential energy dissipates before you can use it.
• It Creates Inconsistent Contact: The bottom of your golf swing arc should be predictable. When you sway away from the target, the low point of your swing moves with you. This forces you to make a perfectly-timed slide back toward the target in the downswing. Any failure in this timing results in hitting the ball fat (behind the ball) or thin (too high on the ball).
• It Destroys Your Sequence: A good golf swing has a specific order of operations: the hips initiate the downswing, followed by the torso, arms, and finally the club. A sway flips this entirely. Your downswing becomes a desperate recovery mission, starting with a lateral slide just to get back over the ball, which usually throws your arms "over the top."

The goal isn't to eliminate all weight shift, but to achieve it through rotation around a stable center, not by sliding your entire body from side to side.

The Foundation: Fix Your Setup to Prevent Sway swaying

Most swaying issues begin before the club even moves. A poor setup almost guarantees some kind of compensation, and swaying is one of the most common. By building a stable and athletic foundation, you make a centered turn the easiest and most natural option.

Check Your Stance Width

Your stance is your base of support. If it's unstable, your body will instinctively move to find balance. A common recommendation is to set your feet roughly shoulder-width apart for a middle iron. This provides a blend of stability and mobility.

• Too Wide: A stance that’s excessively wide might feel stable, but it can actually restrict your ability to turn your hips. When your hips can’t turn, the only way to feel like you’re creating motion is to slide them.
• Too Narrow: A narrow stance is inherently unstable. It’s very easy to lose your balance and fall to the side, which naturally encourages a sway to maintain equilibrium.

Find that sweet spot where you feel both grounded and capable of making a free, athletic turn.

Establish Proper Weight Distribution

Where your weight is at address will influence where it wants to move during the swing. For a standard iron shot, your weight should be distributed 50/50 between your right and left foot. You should feel balanced and “rooted” to the ground. If you start with too much weight already on your trail foot, you’re pre-loading a sway.

Create an Athletic Posture

Being an "athlete" over the ball is about engaging the right muscles to support a turn. Stand tall, then bend forward from your hips, not your waist. Allow your bottom to stick out a bit while keeping your back relatively straight. Let your arms hang naturally down from your shoulders. This posture does two critical things:

1. It activates your core and glutes, the big muscles that power rotation.
2. It creates space for your arms to swing freely around your turning body.

So many golfers stand too upright, which forces them to lift and slide rather than turn. This athletic setup is the "ready position" for a powerful rotation.

Replace the Sway with a Turn: The "Brace and Rotate" Feel

With a solid setup, you’re ready to learn the correct movement. The feeling you want is to rotate your torso against a stable, or "braced," trail leg. This creates the coil and tension that stores power.

A great visual is to imagine yourself standing inside a barrel or a cylinder. Your goal in the backswing is to turn your shoulders and hips so your back is facing the target, but without bumping into the sides of the barrel. A sway is when your right hip (for a righty) bumps hard into the right side of the barrel.

To achieve this, focus on two feelings:

1. Feel Your Right Hip Turn Back, Not Out

Instead of thinking about your right hip sliding away from the target, think of it turning diagonally behind you. Picture a string attached to your right-back pocket pulling you away from the ball and towards the wall behind you. This is a purely rotational move that deepens your hip turn and coils your upper body.

2. Feel Braced Over Your Trail Leg

As you turn, your weight will naturally move into your trail leg. The feeling you want is for that pressure to be on the inside of your trail foot and up the inside of your thigh. This is a sign of a proper load. If you feel the pressure roll to the outside of your foot, you have officially started swaying. Your trail leg should feel like a post that you are turning around, not a ramp that you are sliding up.

Actionable Drills to Stop Your Sway for Good

Knowing what to do is one thing, feeling it is another. These drills provide instant feedback and will help engrain the feel of a proper, centered rotation.

Drill 1: The Head Against the Wall

This is a classic for a reason. You can do it at home without a club.

1. Set up in your golf posture so the left side of your head is lightly touching a wall.
2. Make a slow-motion backswing.
3. If you sway, you will feel your head push hard into the wall. If you lift up out of your posture, your head will come off the wall.

Your goal is to make a full turn while maintaining a light, consistent contact point with the wall. This trains your body to rotate around a fixed point.

Drill 2: The Alignment Stick Hip Check

This provides undeniable feedback directly where the sway happens.

1. Take your address position on the range.
2. Stick an alignment rod or an extra golf club into the ground just outside of your trail foot, angled slightly.
3. When you are in your setup, there should be about an inch or two of space between your trail hip and the stick.
4. Now, make your backswing. If you sway, your hip will instantly bump into the stick. The correct motion is to feel your hip turn away from the stick as it moves back and deeper.

Drill 3: The Split Stance Drill

This drill physically prevents you from swaying and *forces* you to find rotation.

1. Set up to a ball normally.
2. Now, step your trail foot straight back about 12-18 inches, keeping only the toe on the ground for balance. Most of your weight will be on your front foot.
3. From here, try to hit some easy half-shots.

In this position, it is almost impossible to sway onto your back foot. The only way to take the club back is to rotate your torso around a stable front leg. This will exaggerate the feeling of turning around a stable center point.

Final Thoughts

Swaying is an instinct born from a misunderstanding of how power is made in the golf swing. By correcting your setup to be more athletic and focusing on the feeling of turning inside a barrel instead of sliding, you can begin to build a consistent, powerful, and centered swing.

Practicing these feelings is far easier when you can actually see what you're doing. A great way to get trusted feedback on your swing changes is with tools like Caddie AI. It gives you 24/7 access to your own personal golf coach, helping you analyze your positions or find a simple drill right when you need it. By taking the guesswork out of your practice, you can focus on building a more powerful swing with complete confidence.