As the title suggests, this is how I start my forward swing. It is not the only way to do it, but it is my way and I’m presenting it to give you an option in addition to all the other stuff you see on the internet.
The move is this: my left butt cheek moves straight back. No turn, no slide, cheek straight back.
Of course it can’t do that really, it turns, but it feels straight back.
I move my hip back at a tempo that is in harmony with the rest of my swing. I make it fit in. Not too slow, and definitely not too fast.
What I get out of it is a turn of my torso that lines up everything so the arm/hand assembly flows into the hitting area with the clubhead traveling at the target through impact.
The hands lead the clubhead effortlessly through the ball and I get nice ball-then-ground contact off the center of the clubface.
All that is what you want in your swing, and this is how I get it.
There’s a Mike Malaska video in which he says the left leg pushes the left hip socket back on the forward swing. I think I am getting the same result in a different way.
Remember, this is just how my transition starts. You have do some other stuff after that, but that’s a different post.
Not seeing the video.
This is great advice. I like the way you explain it. I believe the point about the tempo of the “push back” is critical.
Question……do you do anything to ensure the hands are ahead of the club face…….or should it happen naturally…..provided everything else is in place?
I’m glad you asked that question. The first move is the hip going straight back, but it does not do that isolation. Everything else gets carried along with it–torso, shoulders, arms, hands, and club. All of that moves together, so there are not six starting points, only one. Though they start together, since they all start from different places and have different distances to swing through, they will get to the ball in that listed sequence, on their own, if you start the forward swing and then stay out of its way, that is, just let it go and don’t try to add anything to the movement that has been generated. It will take some searching to turn this description into reality and make it your own, but that’s part of the fun of our sport.