The Biggest Secret? Slide Your Hips

[Lihu]

This is a major derailment for this thread....

Sorry, I just felt I had to state what I did.

[Crazycanuck44]

It wasn't directed at you.

[scopek]

I have a question about the relationship between the shoulders (specially the right shoulder) and the hip slide on the downswing....When I'm sliding or moving laterally toward the left and therefore causing a tilt in my spine, should the right shoulder be moving down toward more toward my right foot rather then out? I've been working on my hip slide and noticed that if I start pushing my right shoulder down, it pushes my hip to start sliding laterally and lets me swing more from the inside. Does this sound correct? 

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, scopek said:

I have a question about the relationship between the shoulders (specially the right shoulder) and the hip slide on the downswing....When I'm sliding or moving laterally toward the left and therefore causing a tilt in my spine, should the right shoulder be moving down toward more toward my right foot rather then out? I've been working on my hip slide and noticed that if I start pushing my right shoulder down, it pushes my hip to start sliding laterally and lets me swing more from the inside. Does this sound correct? 

I can't address feels. If a feel produces the proper mechanics, cool.

You don't want your URC to be tipping down/back, though, so if your right shoulder actually goes down more than it should, that would be the (bad) result: your head would be tipping back, your URC tipping back…

The hip slide is only a few inches.

[Ernest Jones]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

The hip slide is only a few inches.

But may feel like miles...

[scopek]

3 minutes ago, iacas said:

I can't address feels. If a feel produces the proper mechanics, cool.

You don't want your URC to be tipping down/back, though, so if your right shoulder actually goes down more than it should, that would be the (bad) result: your head would be tipping back, your URC tipping back…

The hip slide is only a few inches.

Ok, thank you. Maybe I should ask, what *should* the path of the right shoulder be as the hips slide? I did a search, but didn't find much. Do you have a link for a YouTube clip from the 5SK's or something else you could recommend? 

[iacas]

52 minutes ago, scopek said:

Ok, thank you. Maybe I should ask, what *should* the path of the right shoulder be as the hips slide? I did a search, but didn't find much. Do you have a link for a YouTube clip from the 5SK's or something else you could recommend? 

It traces an arc. I can't tell you specifically the exact path… it's gonna be different for different players, clubs, etc.

It almost always goes down. It almost always goes out. And it goes away from the target from the top of the backswing until it's traveling only down and out, at which point it begins traveling down, out, and toward the target.

[Frank62]

A while back I made some changes to my swing. I placed more emphasis on keeping my head still and my left side more "post" like. I also started setting my wrist hinge very early. Over the next 6 months my handicap dropped by about 12 strokes.

Needless to say I was very happy with the results. During this journey I also began to hit the ball longer. Not just 5 or 10 yards but closer to about 20 and even more with my driver. I had become a gorilla . Not just longer, but straighter as well. The trouble was I had no idea how this extra length and accuracy had come about. I couldn't use the swing changes I had consciously made as the reason for this improvement because these changes evolved over time. I did notice a lateral move had appeared in my swing but I just couldn't quite nail what I was doing. Over time I lost this feeling in my swing and I have been going through a frustrating time ever since. I have managed to hold my handicap but the improvement stopped. That is, until I read the first few pages of this thread about 10 days ago.

It didn't take long for me to realise that what had previously crept into my game naturally was in fact, the hip slide, coupled with being slightly open at impact. The beauty of this thread was that I could now quantify what I had been doing and re-apply it to my swing. I hit about 80 balls at a local sports-ground with a pitching wedge. The improvement was immediate. Two days later I played in the Monthly Medal at my club and won it for the first time!

This thread, along with the "Golf Pitch Shot Technique" thread have really improved my game over the last few weeks. In fact The Sand Trap website has been the best thing to happen to my game in a long time. Thank you all.

Now I just need to read the next 40 pages of this thread!

Edited January 13, 2016 by Frank62

[Frank62]

Well I just finished reading the entire thread and I have to say it's disappointing the way it got hijacked over the last 4 or 5 pages. In spite of that it was well worth a read.

[Mike Boatright]

Very good from I can see a bit it's the transition into the left foot that initiates or causes the small amount of hip sliding though action like mickleson.

[Marty2019]

Back to the original post..   Very interesting.    I agree.    

I've read a lot about the need to disconnect the hips on the downswing, and rotate them, but to me, this is impossible.  If I'm already rotated all the way I can go in my backswing, there's no way I can rotate my hips on the downswing without rotating my shoulders and therefore coming over the top.   If I rotate my hips before I hit the ball, everything has to disconnect itself for me to stay on plane.  I have to drop the club behind me on the downswing because my hip rotation has caused my shoulders to rotate. 

This afflicts me every time I get on the range and try to get better weight shift.   I wind up turning my hips and coming over the top.  

So especially for me, the senior golfer who has lost some flexibility, the idea of sliding the hips instead of turning them, and having almost square hips and almost square shoulders at impact is absolutely on point.  

 

 

 

[billchao]

42 minutes ago, Marty2019 said:

So especially for me, the senior golfer who has lost some flexibility, the idea of sliding the hips instead of turning them, and having almost square hips and almost square shoulders at impact is absolutely on point.

It's been a while since I read the OP, but I'm pretty sure this was not the point of the thread. PGA Tour players average 40° open for the hips and 20° open for the shoulders or something like that.

The thread was to counter the "rotate in a barrel" idea, or the people who believe the golf swing is purely rotational, IIRC. The hips should both slide and rotate in the golf swing.

[iacas]

34 minutes ago, billchao said:

It's been a while since I read the OP, but I'm pretty sure this was not the point of the thread. PGA Tour players average 40° open for the hips and 20° open for the shoulders or something like that.

The thread was to counter the "rotate in a barrel" idea, or the people who believe the golf swing is purely rotational, IIRC. The hips should both slide and rotate in the golf swing.

Right. Square hips and shoulders at impact not a great thing.

Awhile ago I think the OP had some confusing info about that, but it's been corrected for awhile. In the photos of me with the tripod you can see even before impact I'm open to the target line.

[Marty2019]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

It's been a while since I read the OP, but I'm pretty sure this was not the point of the thread. PGA Tour players average 40° open for the hips and 20° open for the shoulders or something like that.

The thread was to counter the "rotate in a barrel" idea, or the people who believe the golf swing is purely rotational, IIRC. The hips should both slide and rotate in the golf swing.

Oh, then I did misunderstand.  

My problem has been that in shifting my weight, I tend to rotate my hips prematurely and it causes me to come over the top.   I'm working on fixing that. 

 

Edited March 14, 2016 by Marty2019

[Ernest Jones]

1 minute ago, Marty2019 said:

Oh, then I did misunderstand.  

My problem has been that in shifting my weight, I tend to rotate my hips prematurely and it causes me to come over the top.   I'm working on fixing that. 

 

For some people, the feel of driving the hips towards first base can help drive the hips forward while delaying the turn so you don't spin out and come OTT.

[billchao]

2 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

Oh, then I did misunderstand.  

My problem has been that in shifting my weight, I tend to rotate my hips prematurely and it causes me to come over the top.   I'm working on fixing that. 

 

Yea, different feels affect everybody differently. Perhaps feeling like you're keeping your hips square reduces (or delays) the hip rotation so that your upper body is more in sync; I don't know since I've never seen your swing. I feel like my swing is all arms yet there is a lot of hip action in my swing.

If a certain feel works for you, that's great. But the point of this thread is about what is actually happening in a good swing, not what it feels like to those players.

[bm85]

9 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

Oh, then I did misunderstand.  

My problem has been that in shifting my weight, I tend to rotate my hips prematurely and it causes me to come over the top.   I'm working on fixing that. 

 

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting you, but in my experience getting my hips to open sooner had very positive effects on my path. No pun intended.

Just to the add to the thread, my woes on the hip slide have been numerous.

The roadblocks were my right leg extending and getting "locked" on the back swing which was puzzling because every attempt of hip turning felt like bones jostling back and forth, initially suggesting that I just shouldn't even be doing it. Then later it was fixing a tendency to thrust toward the target line rather than the target. Finally, overcoming my head dropping significantly then rising back up.

If what you are working on helps, don't worry about my reply. There are few things worse to me than swinging left (rabid animals, cherry coke), and if you're avoiding it: good.

[concordeer]

Is this what Harvey Penick was doing with the "right elbow/left heel" move he discussed in his little red book? Doesn't this move force your hips to slide forward before rotating?