My Swing (Rugger)

[JackLee]

You both might be helped by the golf swing master key instruction. It makes your lower body movements lead your down and through swing perfectly.

[Robato]

I would say try to think about the left hip moving out and to the rear. Also check your backswing positions. I feel like a properly loaded position in the backswing really helps the hips turn better.

[Rugger]

anyone else?

[bullseye]

Why not try the step through drill, it's really weird at first but it helped me get through the ball. Go ahead, take a step like gary Player.There is a great little instructional vid by ringer daman at gateway to better golf,might help cheers

[tshapiro]

Don't waist your time trying to force your hips to do something they are not naturally trying to do. Even if you get them to do it, they will not be contributing to your swing unless you get very lucky with your timing on an occational swing. And, then, that gives you false hope and you go waisting the next few months persuing something that doesn't work anyway.

If you are an arm swinger than your swing resembles a 'chopping' motion tied to a body turn. So, throw a lot of common advice out the window such as 'hit down on the ball'. Why would you want to do that when you already come in too steep? Do you want to hit down on the ball? Yes, but if you already come in too steep than why in the world would you want to make that your objective?

You need to use your hips because 'that's just what your body did' without you thinking about it. I want you to do this:

Using just your left side muscles (hand, arm, hip, foot, shoulder) hit the ball up and to the right.

- Do not power the swing at all with anything on your right side: right hand, arm, leg, hip, etc.

The only thing you're allowed to do with your right hip/leg is allow them to lead - without contributing to the swing - to accomidate the path of your left arm.

Your 1 swing thought: "Hit to the upper right with my left side, allow my lower right side to get out of the way."

It will be hard to keep your right side out of it. But, before long, you will realize the only way to power the swing with your left side is too:

- Pull, not chop because you can't chop very well with your left
- Use your body because your left arm can't power the club very well

And when you swing with your body guess what starts to happen without you thinking about it - you lead with your left hip!

Hitting to the upper right will force you to swing in to out, will force you to use your hips, will force you to keep the proper spine angle tilted away from the target, will force you to release at impact... so many things. It doesn't matter what they all are.

Note: if you use your right side at all (until you have grooved the concept of a golf swing) you totally take your left side, body, and hips out of it - you're stuck with a right arm chopping swing. This is because the energy from your hips/body must pull through the left arm. If you push with the right, your left arm bends, you put slack in the body-left arm-left hand-club chain... the classic chicken wing look at impact.

[keiko]

Try these things:

pause a little at the top to give your hips time to turn, you may be rushing just a tad make sure you are completing your backswing, this gives more impetus to the downswing and hip turn.

anyone else?

[Rugger]

I guess this thread should have been titled more along the lines of upper body and hip rotation through the swing. After watching the videos it seems like that is the biggest issue. My upperbody is about 45 degrees behind where it should be at impact. I'm working on it, and I have it in my head, but can't seem to translate it to action.

[JackLee]

Yep, you are just swinging with your arms and hands. Your lower body will not respond to that. You are also moving your upper body toward your target in your downswing. These two faults prevent you from swinging through correctly. Your left elbow bends and your hands flip the club through impact.

You need to learn to lead and power the swing with your body. You might want to do a search on Google for "body powered professional golf swing". The master key instruction that I mentioned earlier will come up along with several others.

[Chas]

Try these things:

Good advice. Often people start the arms down too soon. Pausing at the top and making the hip bump & turn first should help get the sequence right. Works for me.

[RC]

Get one of those fan type golf clubs (a normal handle and shaft but a four bladed plastic fan in place of the club head.) Swing it and observe how you absolutely must use your body to make a higher pitched "swoosh" sound through the impact area. A hands and arm swing just cannot power the fan type club quickly through the impact zone. It requires you to shift weight and turn through the shot to generate the most powerful swing.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I think you've got too much turn in the backswing. Your shoulders turn well past 90-degrees (not such a bad thing, in some cases), and your hips turn well past 45 (I think this part is the problem). I don't think you can start the swing with the forward press of the hips, from the position your hips get to at the top of your backswing.

I would try to feel like your right leg is more solid. The right knee does straighten to some degree in almost all good players' backswings, but try to have it hold its flex a little more. This should keep your hips from getting so turned around. This may also mean you can't turn your shoulders past 90 degrees anymore. That's perfectly okay, and will help you stop taking the club past parallel (which makes it a lot more difficult to make an accurate downswing).

Then once you have a backswing where your body stays in a good position all the way to the top, practice the transition some. Take backswings, and start a slow-motion downswing. Practice starting this motion with your hips, feeling like the transition starts with pushing off the inside of your right foot. Push the hips out in front of you, and let the shoulders follow the hips, and the arms follow the shoulders, and the club follow the arms. The hips will turn way more naturally if you can start by sliding them forward. And if you get this sequence happening from the ground up the way I described, that flip you're doing may just naturally go away.

-Andrew

[jl923]

Your hips dont slide enough. There's a very long thread about hip slide vs. hip turn. Its really good stuff. You want to extend your left knee forward and bank your right foot in through impact. I would concentrate on your hips and footwork. That should get rid of your flipping.