HIP, HIP, HORRENDOUS

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Oh My Goodness… the full swing hip movements I see when you practice are killing your chances of consistent ball striking! They have dire consequences. It’s time for a “hip check” (pun intended) to take certain movements and beliefs out of play.
Oh, the places they (the hips) go! Let’s examine your backswing cues. You may still believe you need to shift your weight to your back foot to ‘load up’ on the backswing. That move can cause you to move 3,4 even 5 inches off the ball! This hip sliding motion has huge consequences for you. Maybe viewing this move from a new angle will shock you into eliminating it!
Viewed from behind, starting with picture 1 at address, observe where the magnetic pointer’s shadow is on the tabletop surface(for a right handed player).

Shifting your weight to your right side produces picture 2, where the pointer’s shadow has moved laterally to the right, to the edge of the tabletop. Your right hip has moved laterally to the right many inches!
When you shift the center of your swing massively to your right, the BOTTOM of your swing arc also shifts to your right. You’ve moved off the ball and miss hits are in your future. The CONSEQUENCE of that hip sway is that your club will tend to hit the ground before it gets to the ball unless you redirect it and get no ground contact at all. Those dreaded fat and thin shots are your consequence . Notice also that the shoulders can’t fully turn to 90 degrees, so your rotation engine is less powerful.

The fact is the club needs to hit the ball FIRST and then the ground! When we look at the best players in the world, their turns are more centered on the ball as seen in picture 4 showing Zach Johnson at the top of his backswing (Honda 2022). No longer do you see the back hip and his weight move laterally to the right. Instead, as I stood behind him, it’s clear his back right hip TURNED!

Notice in picture 3 that the pointer has pivoted toward the target in the same fashion with the additional benefit of a greater shoulder turn for free! Rotation is power!

How can this move be yours? First, change your belief and stop laterally sliding your hips and weight to the right on your backswing. Instead, stay centered and feel your right cheek back pocket pivot towards the target. You can cause this to happen by initiating your backswing a new way…with a downward turning of the lead left shoulder. Your trail hip will react to that by pivoting. Do you carry a phone in your back right pocket? Create that same picture by feeling the phone turn and point back towards the target! If you make that your new backswing feel, I promise your ball contact will become significantly more consistent and powerful.

This is your new truth in hip movement…gained from a new view from derriere, so to speak. Hips don’t lie!