After years of coaching with force plates, patterns emerge. Certain GRF issues appear in session after session, across different players, different handicaps, different body types. They are not universal, every player is different, but they are common enough that understanding them gives any coach or player a significant head start.
These are the five GRF patterns that S2M coaches encounter most frequently in amateur golfer sessions.
1. Late vertical force peak
This is the most common GRF issue in amateur golfers, and it is responsible for more lost distance than any other single variable.
The vertical force peak should arrive in the early downswing, well before impact. In most amateur golfers, it arrives late, at impact or after. The energy has been generated but it has not had time to travel up the kinetic chain before the club meets the ball. The player feels like they are hitting hard. The data shows the force arriving too late to matter.
The cause is almost always a sequencing issue at the transition. The player begins the downswing with the upper body before the ground force has been properly loaded on the trail side. The fix is not to try to generate more force. It is to improve the timing of the transition, so the vertical loading happens earlier and the peak arrives at the right moment.
2. Insufficient lead side vertical loading
In an efficient swing, the lead foot progressively loads during the downswing, reaching a peak force significantly higher than body weight at impact. Many amateur golfers never fully load the lead side. They shift their weight but do not drive into the ground with the lead foot in a way that generates a useful GRF response.
The result is a soft impact zone. The player is hitting at the ball rather than through it. On force plate data, this shows up as a lead side vertical force that plateaus or even drops before impact, rather than peaking at or just after impact.
This pattern often correlates with a hip clearance issue. When the lead side does not load properly, the hips cannot clear efficiently, and the club approaches the ball on a path that produces inconsistent contact.
3. Early loss of trail side pressure
A common pattern in players who have been taught to shift their weight aggressively is an early and excessive loss of trail side pressure during the backswing transition. The player shifts forward before they have finished loading backward, interrupting the tension that should build between the upper and lower body during the backswing.
On the force plate, this shows up as a premature drop in trail foot pressure during the late backswing, before the transition has been initiated. The player never fully loads the trail side, so there is no stored energy to release into the downswing. The swing looks like a weight shift but produces the power of a swing without one.
4. Poor AP force coordination
Anterior-posterior force is less discussed than vertical force but equally important for consistency. AP force drives the forward momentum of the swing and determines whether the club approaches impact on the correct path.
Amateur golfers commonly show one of two AP force problems. Either the AP force on the trail side is too large for too long, meaning the player is pushing backward when they should be pushing forward, or the lead side AP force peaks too early, meaning the forward drive happens before the vertical loading has been completed.
Both patterns produce the same visible result: the player looks like they are hanging back or coming over the top. The cause is in the AP timing, not the hip or shoulder position.
5. Left-right asymmetry under load
Many amateur golfers have moderate asymmetry between their two feet that is not visible in normal movement but becomes significant under the load of a full swing. The right foot generates more force than the left, or the left loads more quickly than the right, creating an imbalance that produces inconsistent ball striking.
This pattern is particularly common in players who have had a previous lower body injury or who have a dominant side that has been further developed through other sports. The asymmetry is often compensated for in everyday movement, but the speed and load of a golf swing expose it clearly.
Force plate assessment makes this immediately visible. Correcting it requires specific single-leg loading drills that develop the weaker side’s ground force capacity and teach the nervous system to coordinate both feet symmetrically under load.