The Biggest Secret? Slide Your Hips

[Bob Grissett]

As is standard with David's threads everything David stated is 100% spot on!! File under.....exactly right

[mvmac]

Welcome Bob, great to have you on the site!

Also it was Erik that started the thread

[Ernest Jones]

I was perusing another (less reputable ) golf forum and I came across an article that suggested that too much hip slide would cause blocked shots. The dreaded block or push is my usual miss so I'm a little wary of just contributing to the problem. Should I just ignore this other info as misinformed tom-foolery? I have noticed that paying extra attention to banking my right (trail) foot has changed my ball flight to a push draw (albeit inconsistent).

Bottom line is I definitely have the PUSH part down real solid, now I gotta get that DRAW part going

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

I was perusing another (less reputable ) golf forum and I came across an article that suggested that too much hip slide would cause blocked shots. The dreaded block or push is my usual miss so I'm a little wary of just contributing to the problem. Should I just ignore this other info as misinformed tom-foolery? I have noticed that paying extra attention to banking my right (trail) foot has changed my ball flight to a push draw (albeit inconsistent).

Bottom line is I definitely have the PUSH part down real solid, now I gotta get that DRAW part going

Theoretically, sure, but you'd have to have a limited hip TURN in coordination with an exaggerated hip slide.

You might want to look at when your left knee begins to straighten. Straighten it too late and it'll slow the rate at which the hips open. The straightening left leg helps the hips to keep turning.

You may need a little "twisting the shaft about itself" (revving the motorcycle, even though the "rev" motion is the opposite - palmar flexion is what I'm saying). If you're truly pushing the ball, the path is slightly right. You just need to close the clubface to that path a little (not so much it stops pointing right of the target at impact).

[Ernest Jones]

Originally Posted by iacas

Theoretically, sure, but you'd have to have a limited hip TURN in coordination with an exaggerated hip slide.

You might want to look at when your left knee begins to straighten. Straighten it too late and it'll slow the rate at which the hips open.

You may need a little "twisting the shaft about itself" (revving the motorcycle, even though the "rev" motion is the opposite - palmar flexion is what I'm saying). If you're truly pushing the ball, the path is slightly right. You just need to close the clubface to that path a little (not so much it stops pointing right of the target at impact).

Yeah, I think that's it too. Path is good but face needs to be a touch more closed to creat the differential and the side spin.

Back to the range! No rest for the wicked.

[bplewis24]

I've started playing again over the past few weeks and starting to focus on this more (along with 3 other swing thoughts).  I know that sounds like a lot, but it's been helping the past couple weeks.

[Goodfella]

A lot of great information! I've been trying to focus on getting rid of my hip slide in the backswing but I can't seem to do it. Even when i concetrate on keeping my right knee still I still sway in the backswing. (frustrated)

[iacas]

Here's an image showing how hip slide is important. This student can still do a little bit more, but it was not bad work for an afternoon:

[badfish74]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

A lot of great information! I've been trying to focus on getting rid of my hip slide in the backswing but I can't seem to do it. Even when i concetrate on keeping my right knee still I still sway in the backswing. (frustrated)

What I do to eliminate that is to make sure on my back swing my head stays directly over the ball.  If it does then I know my hips haven't moved back.  Also your back swing may be too fast which is pulling your body back.  Remember that back swing speed has nothing to do with how far the ball flies.  Try practicing with back swings that feel painfully slow concentrating on finding a rhythm that keeps your body under control.

[Goodfella]

Originally Posted by badfish74

What I do to eliminate that is to make sure on my back swing my head stays directly over the ball.  If it does then I know my hips haven't moved back.  Also your back swing may be too fast which is pulling your body back.  Remember that back swing speed has nothing to do with how far the ball flies.  Try practicing with back swings that feel painfully slow concentrating on finding a rhythm that keeps your body under control.

Great tips, thanks for the help. Ill give both of those a try. I also am going to try focusing on pointing my right knee in towards the ball while in the backswing and see if that helps.

[badfish74]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

Great tips, thanks for the help. Ill give both of those a try. I also am going to try focusing on pointing my right knee in towards the ball while in the backswing and see if that helps.

I like this video that reinforced the slow takeaway for me.  It was so much easier for myself at least to get in a good position and be able to repeat it.  Once I did that I added the hip slide that is talked about here.

[bplewis24]

True or False: the longer the shaft of the club, the more hip slide is necessary to get the club into optimal strike position (i.e., for a gap wedge, too much hip slide can be a bad thing?).

Feedback is greatly appreciated, and nitpick at the semantics of it as much as you like.

Brandon

[iacas]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

True or False: the longer the shaft of the club, the more hip slide is necessary to get the club into optimal strike position (i.e., for a gap wedge, too much hip slide can be a bad thing?).

True, mostly. Could easily be false if someone pre-sets their hips forward more with the longer clubs, thus shortening the "slide" required. :)

[bplewis24]

Okay, thanks.  I just notice that this week at the range, I've been hitting the longer shafted clubs great, but when I have a wedge in my hand there is a 25% chance of leaving the face wide open at impact.  I started to theorize last night that I'm sometimes focusing too much on my lower body and sliding my hips forward, and possibly unnecessarily so (because the wedge is a shorter shafted club, there is less time to rotate the club face back to square if the hips are too far out in front?).  I also notice that on the other extreme end (driver), I'm getting very good hip slide and it almost feels like I'm jumping up in the air after impact to release the club.  I'm probably not articulating all of this well, but I digress...

I knew I should have kept the recording because I'm going to forget the guy's name now.  But last night while watching my DVR recording of the WM tournament, they had a golfer in the booth whose round was completed already.  He was talking about how he and his instructor studied a lot of film of himself over the off season and they noticed that he had "30% less hip rotation" than the tour average last year, and they attributed that as to why he struggled last season.  They said they've been working on that all off-season, and he's increased his distance "significantly."

Did anybody else catch that?

Brandon

[bunkerputt]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Did anybody else catch that?

No, but it seems like the pattern is for good players to be not rotated enough, bad players to be too rotated, and tour players to be just right.  I would certainly expect that if a tour player were to regress somewhat, it would be towards less rotation, not more.

[bplewis24]

Guess what guys?  I'm finally starting to show progress in an actual round of golf after working on this diligently at the range all week!  The difference appears to be that I'm practicing the correct way now.

Brandon

[Tomboys]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

I knew I should have kept the recording because I'm going to forget the guy's name now.  But last night while watching my DVR recording of the WM tournament, they had a golfer in the booth whose round was completed already.  He was talking about how he and his instructor studied a lot of film of himself over the off season and they noticed that he had "30% less hip rotation" than the tour average last year, and they attributed that as to why he struggled last season.  They said they've been working on that all off-season, and he's increased his distance "significantly."

Did anybody else catch that?

Brandon

I believe it was Webb Simpson.

[bunkerputt]

Originally Posted by Tomboys

I believe it was Webb Simpson.

That makes sense.  Webb uses his arms a lot to pull the club down.  That's cool, but you don't want too much of that and not enough body.  You need both in the right sequence and quantity.