Myth of Maintaining Your Address Flex in the Rear Knee

[billchao]

30 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Well you’ve got a better eye for it than I do. It looks to me that he just points his rear knee more to his right but maintains the same flex. And honestly I’m not sure he’s the one mentioned. I do remember on the broadcast they showed a swing and the player almost looked to be slightly squatting the entire backswing. 

I think there are some players who can turn while maintaining their knee flex, at least more than others.

The point isn't to straighten the knee or not straighten the knee, it's to make a good hip turn.

The problem with the myth is that telling people to maintain the knee flex inhibits most of them from turning properly and they get stuck focusing on the knee and lose sight of the hips.

[iacas]

17 minutes ago, billchao said:

I think there are some players who can turn while maintaining their knee flex, at least more than others.

The point isn't to straighten the knee or not straighten the knee, it's to make a good hip turn.

The problem with the myth is that telling people to maintain the knee flex inhibits most of them from turning properly and they get stuck focusing on the knee and lose sight of the hips.

And then swaying.

[mvmac]

 

[mvmac]

The tour has never seen anything like Cameron Champ who averaged 349 yards last year on the @WebDotComTour.
How does he he create such speed?
First: With a deep turn into his right hip, no attempt at keeping the flex in rt. leg and high hands, with his head turned to the right. pic.twitter.com/U2RXZ8JOpi

— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) October 25, 2018

[mvmac]

 

[Vinsk]

@mvmac ....It appears his lead arm is pretty parallel to his shoulder tilt in this swing from 2011. Less trail leg straightening compared to your pic of course. Is the trail hip going more up and back and thus decreasing trail leg flex the reason for his lead arm being ‘steeper’ in the new swing?

Or is it just less shoulder tilt because he’s hitting a longer club (driver) in the new swing pic?

Edited December 1, 2018 by Vinsk

[mvmac]

3 hours ago, Vinsk said:

@mvmac ....It appears his lead arm is pretty parallel to his shoulder tilt in this swing from 2011. Less trail leg straightening compared to your pic of course. Is the trail hip going more up and back and thus decreasing trail leg flex the reason for his lead arm being ‘steeper’ in the new swing?

Or is it just less shoulder tilt because he’s hitting a longer club (driver) in the new swing pic?

I should have pointed out the pic was posed, not his "play swing", mostly shared for the caption.

Molinari does things a little differently, he stands more upright at address and gets a little taller during his backswing. This leads him to not release a lot of flex in the trail knee or to add much in the lead knee (not as much you'd see from players who turn more in their "tilt").

He does turn close to 90 degrees to his address inclination (little flatter), gains good depth with the trail hip and certainly doesn't "restrict" his lower body on the backswing, allows his left heel to raise. Can see how his hips are turning freely from the clip below.

To answer your question @Vinsk, the more upright lead arm is a combo of the pivot and the longer club. He has less forward bend than most pros, gets a bit taller on the backswing so it would make sense the lead arm would need to be a bit higher than the shoulder angle.