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The Biggest Secret? Slide Your Hips


iacas

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Now why'd you have to go and let the big secret out? Now everyone's going to start hitting good golf shots and teachers like me will have to actually help students to improve rather than keep 'em hooked like we have been doing with a steady diet of quick tips and confusing lingo.

Seriously - this is a big key to the golf swing and it's nearly impossible to play good golf without pushing your hips forward or when you have dramatically open hips or shoulders at impact. Unless you're Jim Furyk, but that guy's a freak.

"The expert golfer has maximum time to make minimal compensations. The poorer player has minimal time to make maximum compensations." - And no, I'm not Mac. Please do not PM me about it. I just think he is a crazy MFer and we could all use a little more crazy sometimes.

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Thanks for posting that -- very helpful bit of info, and jibes with what I do when I hit it well.

In my C-130 Cart Bag:

Driver: Titleist D2 10.5° Aldila R.I.P. 60
Woods Exotics CB4 15° Aldila R.I.P. 70
Hybrids Exotics CB4 17°, 22° Aldila R.I.P. 80 

Irons 4-PW MP-57 Project X 6.0, MP-29 PW

Wedges  Eidolon 52°, 60° Rifle Spinner 6.5

Putter Bettinardi BB12

Ball One Black

Rangefinder Nikon Laser 500"Golf...

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Iacas, very good. It's absolutely right.

I have a fundamental disagreement with 95% of instruction on hip turn, and here you've nailed one of the reasons I came to my conclusions.

The front hip must establish itself over the heel of your front foot. Then your back hip must establish itself over the toe of your front foot. This is the ONLY way a person can BALANCE themselves on their finish.

So, pushing the right knee toward the toe of your front foot is key to this hip action as you have pointed out.

I describe the hip action as more of a dual door hinge.

Imagine your back hip is a door hinge on the backswing. Your front hip rotates around that door hinge when you make your turn. Then to make your forward swing, you need to switch the rolls of your hips. Now the front hip needs to become the hinge while the back hip rotates around it. Before your front hip can do that, it must establish a new position. The best place for your front hip to go is over the heel of your front foot. This is the furthest toward the target it can go without you loosing balance and affecting your ability to move the rest of your body.

Once this DIRECTION is done correctly, the speed can be however fast you want. In fact, the faster it is done, the better.

This is why I cringe everytime someone says the solution to their slice is to "slow their hips down".

The solution is actually to learn the direction you want them to go. Then get there as fast as you want.
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Equipment, Setup, Finish, Balance, and Relax. All equal in importance and all dependent on each other. They are the cornerstones of a good golf swing.

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Why do you think gary player kicks his right knee in right before he starts his swing? It's so that at the top he can feel like he is pushing off of the inside of his right foot. I copied this move, and it have helped my accuracy and consistancy alot, not to mention increased my distance.
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What a coincidence.

I hadn't played golf nor been on the site for a few weeks. After today's round I took a partner back to the range for us both to work on a few things.

This just happened to be what I worked on. The results were dramatic in terms of a more accurate ball flight with the driver. For me it was a missing link.

I was going to start a thread about this after a such a great finish to the day with the driver, but I guess it's already here. I'm still reliving those ballflights at 330 am in my sleep!
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I agree with everything you say but i have an opinion on hip slide:

hip slide is bad on the backswing . If you slide back, not only can you not rotate back, when you slide forward you will have just returned to your starting position.

I think a lot of people get this wrong because they hear "hip slide is good" and think backswing and downswing.

In my bag:

Driver: Titleist TSi3 | 15º 3-Wood: Ping G410 | 17º 2-Hybrid: Ping G410 | 19º 3-Iron: TaylorMade GAPR Lo |4-PW Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo | 54º SW, 60º LW: Titleist Vokey SM8 | Putter: Odyssey Toulon Las Vegas H7

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hip slide is bad on the

That may be true. And yeah, I'm talking about from top of the backswing down to the ball, of course. If your hips slide back on the takeaway or backswing, then you've likely got problems, indeed.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
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I once read that you should feel as if your belt buckle is sliding out and your leading shoulder is falling back.. Does this make sense ?

Considering new Woods what you think ?

Driver launcher 10.5
Irons Cg gold 5-10
Hybrids R7 cgb max Wedges CG12Putter Newport 2 mid slantBalls Nxt extremeConsidering new Woods what you think ?

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I once read that you should feel as if your belt buckle is sliding out and your leading shoulder is falling back.. Does this make sense ?

It doesn't to me. Too much instruction focuses on increasing hip turn through impact, when really most hip turn in pros occurs after impact. "Belt buckle facing the target" is true in the follow-through, not at impact. Belt "out" makes no sense... where's "out"? The buckle faces the ball at impact (roughly), so "out" would mean towards the ball, it seems like.

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

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Iacas: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthr...268#post360268

A post from "What are you working on?" where I quoted your thoughts on hip slide...

As I noted at the time, It was what I was working and it was paying great dividends.

Likewise I am stunned when I see instructors of one type or another seem to want to eliminate hip slide.

For me, ensuring I initiate the downswing with a good hip slide, especially on the downswing, is key to the longer clubs especially.

........................................
McGolf-Doggie's stand bag & new and used club emporium:
Putter :ping: 1/2Craz-e | Irons :TaylorMade: RAC MB, 4i-PW (DG S300) |Wedges :Cleveland: SW&LW 56*DSG+RTG; 60*/4* DSG+RTG |Woods :Cobra: S1 5W; Adams TIght Lies 3W |Driver :TaylorMade: Burner 9.5 Fujikura Reax S | Maxfli Practice

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iacas noted in his summary: 2) The left hip of the pros is much higher than the right (because it's pushing towards the target). Amateurs tend to have very flat, level hips at this point.

Point 2 is something I picked up on at my last lesson. I often came through with level hips, and ended up with a low pull of some sorts when I thought I was "staying with the shot." Right knee kick helps clear hips through the ball, increasing acceleration.

And, excellent analysis overall.

Focus, connect and follow through!

  • Completed KBS Education Seminar (online, 2015)
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If you look at the pictures carefully, you will notice the angle between the left shoulder and the left hip barely changed from top of back swing to impact....

The left hip goes from roughly 45 degrees right of target line to roughly 45 degrees left of target line. The left shoulder from 80-90 degrees right of target line to parallel to target line.

It looks like the right hip slide towards the target and the left hip rotate left 90 degrees and up.
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I like this video of Tiger’s swing. The rock wall in the background gives the viewer a static reference point to note the lateral move (slo-mo starts at 12-13 sec.).

"Every man is his own hell" - H.L. Mencken

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BTW, if you compare this picture to the earlier one of me showing two different positions (roughly "P6" or "shaft parallel to ground on downswing), you'll see some things in Phil Mickelson's swing that probably aren't the best.

I've heard more than a few instructors say that Phil should be glad he's talented, because his swing is a mess. And we all know he's not the most consistent fella out there.



Note a few things. I'll let you figure out which is good and bad.

A) Hips are only slightly open relative to target line (roughly 25 or 30°)
B) Shoulders are closed relative to hips (not as much as some might like, but not bad)
C) Heel lifting
D) Back knee kicked in towards ball

Erik J. Barzeski —  I knock a ball. It goes in a gopher hole. 🏌🏼‍♂️
Director of Instruction Golf Evolution • Owner, The Sand Trap .com • AuthorLowest Score Wins
Golf Digest "Best Young Teachers in America" 2016-17 & "Best in State" 2017-20 • WNY Section PGA Teacher of the Year 2019 :edel: :true_linkswear:

Check Out: New Topics | TST Blog | Golf Terms | Instructional Content | Analyzr | LSW | Instructional Droplets

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I agree with everything you say but i have an opinion on hip slide:

The discussion hinges on something we higher handicaps struggle with, our hips do not post, our left side is not firm enough, also when we slide our head slides even more. We lack the ability to separate the lower body and upper body movements, plus our ability to maintain proper sequence and timing is limited.

1W Cleveland LauncherComp 10.5, 3W Touredge Exotics 15 deg.,FY Wilson 19.5 degree
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