Front Leg

I am convinced most of my problems are due to the fact that I cannot post up on my front leg. There is no easy way for me to transfer the weight from the inside of my back leg to the inside of the front leg. When I try to bump my hip laterally it just becomes a big slide. I watch pro after pro swing and the hip bump, if there is one, is very subtle. Nothing seems to stop my weight from either rolling over to the outside of the front leg or hip or to keep my hip moving laterally too long before I finally rotate. As a result I either slide or spin out causing my back shoulder to go forward and over the top. It is just a maddening problem that keeps me from further developing my swing. I cannot feel my front leg at all on my irons. I know, you can favor your left leg on setup, but you still have to have a weight shift. Lately I have had the shanks really bad. I have been trying all the cures that I read on other threads with limited success. Yeah, it is time for a lesson. Any comments would be appreciated.

Consider this:

We cannot emphasize too strongly that the movement of the hips must be lateral and not a turning motion. When the hips are moved laterally to the left from the top of the swing, they carry the weight (which has been mostly on the right leg) along. They move it toward the approximately equal distribution, at least, which we must have at impact.

That is the first reason we must move the hips laterally. The second reason is that, since we are twisted and wound up tightly at the top, any turning movement of our hips turns our shoulders too. It turns our right shoulder around high and toward the ball. Hence, when we bring the club down, we have to bring it from the outside in.

The hips will turn if they are moved laterally , but they are very liable not to move laterally if they are merely turned. You can prove this to yourself by standing up and moving your hips to the left as far as they will go. As they near the limit of extension, they will turn and you cannot stop them. At the top of the swing, of course, the hips are turned some*what to the right, maybe 45 degrees, and as you move them laterally they will quickly begin to turn back to the left.

The trick is get them going to the left, laterally, before they turn too much. If you ask how much is too much, you become hopelessly involved. You might as well ask how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. You don't have to worry about that. Just he. sure you get, the hips going laterally and that you don't try to turn them.

A third reason for the lateral slide of the hips is that this is the movement which starts the club down toward the ball , by causing the shoulders to rock slightly as they turn. That movement of the hips—and nothing else—provides the first impetus for the downswing.

No, my hips do not turn when I move them laterally and therefore my club does not drop properly but is cast outward. Something must stop the hips from moving laterally and allow them to turn. I cannot find this something. There must be some action or some stop mechanism where I don't have to think about turning the hips, they just turn. When I watch the pros there is the very subtle bump and you see the left knee kick forward and then start turning I suppose mirroring what the hips are doing. My front hip, leg is not reacting that way.

I keep going back to my other athletic endeavors. I was always good at throwing a ball. The weight shift and steps are just natural to me. Batting a ball also pretty easy. The big difference with those activities is that you can pick your front let up and set it down. Their is also much more lateral movement before executing the swing or throwing the ball. Weight shift is much easier to do.

Hips will function just fine if you let them. Do some mock coils, and keep both knees well flexed and kicked in toward each other, ensuring your weight is on the inside of your feet (no club in hands). Coil back a ways and hold it. From that position, pinch your knees together even further and squat a bit. You should feel quite a bit of tension in the insides of the legs. That tension is directional and will release right back to the target if you let it, or you can accelerate it by snapping it in the opposite direction of the tension driving both knees toward the target. Either way, provided the head does not change level, this action of the legs will cause the hips to "bump" slightly laterally as you call it, and uncoil naturally with no thought of the hips.

Another way to control hip motion is to attempt to keep the right heel on the ground a little later in the downswing. This will prevent excessive slide and help with sequencing.

Believe me, I want to let them. My hips have my full permission to react in a way that makes my swing better. Look at the bolded part. Exactly in what way could I not let it? As soon as you say something like that it means that there is a way to screw it up. In any case, what you suggest is something new for me to try. Thanks.

Any lateral shifting is evil and totally unnecessary. You can shift your weight from leg to leg via some tricks employed by Hogan.

Rotate your right foot clockwise in setup and the backswing. You will discover that you swing into your right leg, not over it. The right hip rotates behind you to the target. Your left hip stays where it was at address. Look at video taken from behind Hogan it is clear to see.

To post your left hip on top of your left leg by impact, rotate your left foot clockwise in the downswing until just before impact. It will appear that you are perfoming a lateral shift but this is an optical illusion created by your perspective. What is happening is that the left hip is rotating backwards to the same tush line as the right hip. See the Shaun Clement youtube video.

Back yourself up to a wall while you swing and you will feel these hip movements occur as the right and left hips contact the wall.

There is a widespread myth that lateral shift is required in the transition from backswing to downswing in order to get the club onto a lower plane, and to create lag. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When you say rotate your left foot, do you mean actually pick up your heel or toe and turn the foot or just try to rotate it while keeping the foot planted? Doesn't one of these rotations, right or left foot, have to be counter clockwise? Are we basically rotating against the shoulder turn? In other words shoulder turns forward front leg turns back.

At the top of your "coil", are your shoulders turned much further than your hips? I strive for shoulders turned 90* from target line, and hips turned 45*.

Then, the key is, hold this relationship all the way to near impact; i.e. as your downswing starts, your hips and shoulders turn together, holding the upper body coil. When your swing gets to the point where you're starting to release your wrist cock (the club about parallel with the ground), your shoulders should still be slightly closed, but your hips should be open. That's where you start releasing your shoulders, and they square up through impact, and catch up with your hips on the follow-through.

If you're doing that rotation right, staying balanced throughout, you pretty much can't help but shift your weight. Let your hands finish high on the follow-through, and you'll be standing up on that left leg. The momentum of your body turn, combined with the physical requirement of keeping your weight balanced, almost guarantees it.

You know, whenever somebody tells me to execute a certain meneuver, or swing with a new thought, it always seems to work for me even if I don't do it exactly right. Trouble is getting it to stick in a meaningful way in my swing. I went to the range at lunch and here is what I did: As I began my backswing I screwed my back foot into the ground towards the inside of that leg and felt the weight on the inside of the back leg as I turned back and right before I reached the top I started to screw my front foot into the ground towards the inside of that leg and then executed the downswing. This may be totally stupid but it worked for me. I could finally feel weight on my left side as I started my downswing. Now, I started off hitting a couple of really fat ones because I was concentrating so much on what my legs were doing I wasn't full turning up top. Once I got sychronized things started to click. At least I wasn't shanking. I hit some really good shots when I put it all together. I found out: Trying to turn the front foot in actually made the front hip bump or feel like it was bumping laterally forward a little bit. And, my head stayed behind the ball better than trying to execute a bump first. I think: If you cannot get your wieght to the front leg to pivot forward you will forever be fighting an over the top move.

I used to fight the ol' lateral movement on the downswing. When my timing was right, I was fine. Problem is that it's way to difficult to rely on perfect timing all the time.

I fixed mine by working on taking slow swings with something outside my left hip/foot (like a club shaft stuck in the ground). Something so that when I swing down and I start the weight transfer, it will not allow me to slide or else I'll hit the shaft. Once you can swing without allowing yourself to hit the shaft, I think you'll see some much better shots.

The wider your stance, the more lateral hip movement you need.

The feet together drill may be of some help to you.

But maybe you don't need to think about those lower body movements at all. Why not try to make them automatic and perfect every time. Have you tried the instruction in "The Golf Swing and Its Master Key Explained" by Noel Thomas?

The master key is left shoulder control. It is supposed to make all of your other body movements automatic and perfect every time. This happens because of subconscious anticipation. Of course there are other things that must be right like setup, extension, timing, etc.

This works great for me and my friends, and there is a long thread about it in another forum that is mostly positive, so it might be worth a try.

OK, I bit on the Master Key thing. Only a six dollar PDF file. It is always the etc. that gets me.

I hope it works well for you. I had instant success with it, but I didn't have to change much.

If you have any questions about it, post them and I will try to help. Also, the author says he will answer questions about it, but I never had a question.

I read it through once. I have one problem with the left shoulder key and that is, as I have talked about a bit on another thread, the left shoulder folding in on my backswing. This master key might have a tendency to accentuate the problem for me.

What is the left shoulder secret?

Also, to reply to the original post, try this swing thought: "Rotate L knee in front of L hip on downswing. Keep it in front of the hip"

What do you mean by "What is the left shoulder secret?"

Anywho, I have still been working on it. The results have been mixed but promising. There has not been much about my swing that I have had to change so I am just working with the left shoulder. Other fundamentals I have had to improve to make it work is maintaining spine angle and keeping the head from moving laterally forward on the downswing. The latter has been a big help and a key element to my swing.

The arms and club weigh upwards of 40 lbs.

Performing a full turn will transfer a lot of weight and momentum behind you and to the left side.

Well I have been using the Master Key left shoulder thingy for about three or four rounds. I have two positive results: Elimination of shanks and consistent driving. I am hitting on or near the fairway a lot with my driver.

Negative results: Pulling a lot of iron shots and inconsistent contact on the irons. I have to fight the tendency to lunge the body down a bit so I hit some fat shots and pull shots. A tendency with this method I think is to pull the the clubhead inside and off plane rather than continuing the shaft on the established plane. I noticed a few times I had this feeling or thought of shanking the ball while I was over it but did not. So the method is proving that it stands up under a little pressure.

Consensus: Keep using it and figure a way to hit those irons more consistent. Need to find a key to stop the lunge.

Why is it when one is working on something like this and achieving some positive results that the rest of their game goes to hell? Usually it is bad drive off the tee and scramble. Ever since I started this my putting has been horrible. I am blasting so many putts way past the hole. I am usually a really good lagger on my long putts but I cannot get the ball within 5 feet. Same with my short pitches and chips. Going past the hole every time. I probably had 10 three putts yesterday.