Cornu Tension in Golf
Greetings,
Mattie watches a lot of golf swings on YouTube. She writes to me about those who have a "hip grip" and those who don’t. She suggests I write something about what she calls the "hip grip” and on Cornu Tension and share it with the golf community.
The hip grip
The hip grip is the core. Everyone talks about the core. In this view, the view that Mattie wants me to share with you—the core is a grip at the hips. Just like the muscles in your hands make a grip, so do the muscles in your hips.
To get a hip grip your biology has to accomplish the physics of making a grip at the hip. Practically speaking, that is the ability to rotate around the axis that runs through your hips. You’re creating an axis of rotation out of thin air by establishing control of it. The muscles act in symphony to establish a grip, because a grip gives you the control you need to move. Or to stabilize.
The hip grip stabilizes your pelvis. Hold your palm up; make a grip. That same engagement of muscles making a grip happens at your hips. Your ability to make a grip in your hand is the same ability to make a grip at your hips. One is just a lot more subtle than the other!
So I would say Mattie wants me to tell you that the core everyone talks about is a grip at the hips.
Cornu Tension
Cornu tension comes from oppositional rotation between axes. Cornu tension gives you a sensation of alignment and more uniform usage of your muscles. The body has the ability to rotate around at least six different axes, “endpoints” if you will. The primary one is at the hips.
Everybody uses Cornu Tension to move, whether they know it or not. Cornu tension goes to the heart of our biology accomplishing the physics we need to move through space.
Students can usually find the feeling of Cornu tension from their ears to their shoulders first. Then, find it from their shoulders to their hips. Cornu Tension comes from the way you engage the muscles of your body, from oppositional rotation between axes in your body. In Cornu Tension, the rotation at the ears connects to the rotation at the shoulders and the rotation at the shoulders connects to the rotation at the hips. Cornu tension allows you to stretch your spine and hold it stable.
There you go, Mattie! The Core is a grip at the hips. Cornu tension makes alignment sensational and distributes the load of the body. Thanks for sharing your feedback from watching all those golf swings on YouTube; I hope this post is what you were looking for!
