I like to try different things. Something new. You never know how it\u2019s going to come out. So today I tried something new.<\/p>\n
I thought to myself, one reason the golf swing is so hard is that it\u2019s tilted. We don\u2019t have any problem swinging something horizontally, like beating a rug (I know, that\u2019s a dated concept, but its\u2019 still a good image for this purpose).<\/p>\n
So I had my 7-iron in hand, and started swing it like as if I were \u2026 beating a rug. I wanted to see how my body would move as I beat the rug in earnest. What would be moving, how, and when?<\/p>\n
This is what I noticed. My hands and arms did not go first. To wind up my rug-beating backswing, my right hip went back first. That is the first thing that moved. <\/p>\n
It took me a few swings to notice that, because I\u2019ve never started a golf swing with my right hip moving back, so I wasn\u2019t looking for it. But my unconscious mind felt that was what I had to do to get a good windup, so that\u2019s what it made my body do.<\/p>\n
Then on swinging forward to hit my imaginary rug, the left hip moved first. By a lot. And it moved backward. Straight backward–it did not turn. And it went back fast.<\/p>\n
In his book, Five Lessons<\/em>, Ben Hogan said of the hips in transition, “The faster the hips move, the better. They can’t go too fast.”<\/p>\n Actually, they can. If you throw your hips around by turning them, that puts a tremendous strain on your lower back. But if you throw your left hip straight back, you get the turn without the strain.<\/p>\n Back to beating the rug. <\/p>\n The movement of the right hip and left hip happened every time, not because I was trying to move them that way, but because that is the way my mind directed my body to move given the task it was preparing the body to perform.<\/p>\n So, I thought, that\u2019s probably how my mind wants my body to move when I hit a golf ball. Why not try it like that?<\/p>\n So, I hit a few golf balls with my hips doing this new thing.<\/p>\n Result: much greater swing speed than normal with no effort at all, and a ball that went straight, high, and far. At least as far as Wiffle balls go.<\/p>\n Now the ball was on a tee. I tee up the ball when I have swing practice because I just want to work on club path and clubface angle. Trajectory is a skill all its own which I will practice using this technique later.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying you should rush out and try this new idea because it would add 20 yards to your drives and lower your score by five strokes.<\/p>\n I\u2019m saying I tried to find out how my body wants to move when I swing a stick at something in the most natural way possible and then try applying that to my golf swing. MY golf swing.<\/p>\n Make your own experiment to find out how your body wants to move and then apply that to YOUR golf swing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I like to try different things. Something new. You never know how it\u2019s going to come out. So today I tried something new. I thought to myself, one reason the golf swing is so hard is that it\u2019s tilted. We don\u2019t have any problem swinging something horizontally, like beating a rug (I know, that\u2019s a … Continue reading The Left Hip In Transition<\/span>