Lower Body Hip Acceleration

Two of the most common faults are when either the clubhead moves first, or the upper body moves first to start the downswing.  These faults can create all sorts of problems, such as Over the Top, Chicken Wing, Hanging Back, Early Extension, a steep downswing, loss of club head speed, pull shots, poor contact (fat shots, thin shots), high weak ball flight and possibly Shanking.  The cure is to learn to accelerate your hips to start the downswing with rotation and weight transfer, improving your downswing sequence.  Take a moment to watch this video, where I explain a drill “waist high swings” to get your lower body leading the downswing.

Key Points

– Swing back to where the club is at waist high and stop.

– Learn to sequence your swing from this position.  Keeping your shoulders, arms and club stationary, rotate your hips and transfer your weight.  In doing this, you should feel separation between your upper body and lower body.

– Perhaps, pump your hips a few times, and then, when striking the ball, let your shoulder, then arm and lastly the club follow the lead of your hips.

– If you have done it correctly, you should be able to compress the ball and still create some speed.

– It might take you time to do it correctly, but keep trying until you can, because when you can, there is no doubt you will have learnt how to start your downswing.

Transcript

Hi, Robin Symes here. I’m going to show you a simple drill to help you improve the sequence of your transition. A common fault in golf is where to start the downswing, either the club head will move first or the upper body will move first. It can create all sorts of problems: over the top, steep, loss of club head speed, early releasing. So, pro-transition can create many problems. I’m going to teach you the correct sequence of the downswing. I want to do the drill called waist-high swings. You’re going to bring the club to about parallel to the ground.

Simply from here, you’re going to learn to sequence your downswing. You’re going to learn to start the downswing with a rotation and a weight shift to your left foot. As you’re doing this, the shoulder shouldn’t be moving. The arms and the club should remain stationary also. This will be gaining some separation between lower body and upper body. Then, your shoulders will follow that hip rotation, and your arms, and then lastly, the club. When you’re doing it correctly, even from a short swing stationary position, you should be able to compress the ball and create some club head speed.

If you’ve got the fault of starting the swing with your club head, you might find it very difficult to start with. You might still start the downswing from this position with the club head, but you won’t be able to create a solid contact, and it will be a very weak ball flight. Keep working on it. Keep learning from here to start the downswing with your lower body rather than the club head and the upper body. From here, simply swing through, let the components (the shoulders, arms, and club head) follow that initial movement from the lower body. You have to create a few pumps of the hips, one, two, three, before you go. Practice it until you can create some good speed from this static position. You’ve got to feel for the correct sequence and add that same feeling to your full swing.