WEBVTT

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(upbeat music)

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In this video, we're gonna discuss

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how to use your hips in the golf swing.

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That's one of the common issues that a lot of golfers

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come into my lessons complaining about.

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My hips aren't open, I'm just swinging all arms.

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Well, in this video, I'm gonna give you

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a couple different ways to approach how to use your hips.

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One's gonna be a checkpoint.

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I always think it's helpful to have checkpoints

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so that you don't have to just rely on feels,

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but feels can be helpful.

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So in addition to the checkpoint,

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I'm gonna give you a couple different ways

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to feel your hips.

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So the first checkpoint I'm gonna give you,

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we're gonna use this down the line camera angle.

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So when golfers are using their lower body

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or using their hips,

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there's a couple different directions

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I could be applying forces into the ground.

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So I could either be twisting my body like this,

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or I could be pushing vertically,

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or I could be pushing side to side.

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We're gonna focus on two major ones,

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which is focusing on rotation and vertical.

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So some golfers do use their hips,

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but they do so just vertically.

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They tend to push more up just like so.

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Now that can be powerful.

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So these golfers don't always complain about,

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oh, I don't hit it anywhere.

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But what can happen is if I'm overly vertical,

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then I really have to use just my arms and shoulders

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to get the hands ahead and get solid contact.

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The other thing is when I tend to go more vertical,

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it's hard to get my chest open

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and create more of this flat spot at the bottom of the swing.

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So then what happens is the club passes my chest down

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at the bottom and the club face tends to close quickly.

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So I might struggle with more pull shots and pull hooks

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or in fearing that kind of have more of a scoop style release

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and hit big shots off to the right.

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So we wanna get a blend of some of this vertical motion,

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but we also wanna get some of this rotational movement.

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It's usually the rotational movement

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that messes up golfers.

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So I'm gonna give you two quick little prerequisites.

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If you're gonna try to get your lower body more open,

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then your arms have to work a little bit shallower.

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So they can't work straight up and down.

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They have to work a little bit more out in front

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of your body or more shallow.

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And the club face will have to be more closed

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in order to allow for the body getting open

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and not hit it way off to the right.

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But when we talk about using this lower body,

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let's start with this checkpoint.

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So as a quick checkpoint,

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I want you to go up to the top of your swing

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and while your chest is still facing towards the back camera

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or the down the line.

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So my back is still towards the target.

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I'm going to try to get my thighs

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so that they're back to parallel to the stick on the ground.

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So while the club is up here,

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I'm going to try to get my thighs parallel

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to where the stick is on the ground.

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Now my arms are gonna come down some,

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but they're gonna be led by my body.

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Instead of what some golfers or most golfers

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who struggle with using their lower body might feel

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is that when they try to get their lower body

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to turn open, the club is already getting way down here.

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So already getting down to shaft parallel.

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I wanna try to get my thighs back to parallel

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before this left arm breaks parallel to the ground.

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That's gonna be a challenge for some of you,

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but that's gonna give you a feeling

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of using your lower body

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or it's a checkpoint of using your lower body.

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To get the feeling, you notice when I describe this,

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I often talk about using the lower body,

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not just the hips.

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I find that a lot of golfers concepts

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is that they need to turn their hips just like so,

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but I want to engage the whole lower body.

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I wanna use my legs, I wanna use my knees,

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I wanna use my ankles as well as my hips.

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And so we're gonna do a little kind of rhythmic drill

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where I'm basically going to turn my hips

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so that my pelvis points to the right,

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my right leg straightens and my left leg bends.

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Now my right leg isn't getting fully straight

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and I'm not getting onto the outside of the heel.

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My right foot is staying flat against the ground

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or even rolled in on the inside a little bit,

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but my hip is working backward and up kind of like this.

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In order for my hip to work backward and up,

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my right leg's gonna straighten some.

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And in order for the left hip to match it,

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my left leg is going to bend some.

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But my left leg isn't gonna move too far laterally.

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It's gonna work more rotationally,

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which will bring it kind of out towards the golf ball,

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but not crossing way past it.

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So I'm gonna get this little rotation here

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on the backswing and then I'm gonna do

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the opposite in the downswing.

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So if I hold my arms out and try to keep my chest square

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to this stick, now I can let my knees, my hips, my ankles

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control some of this rotation.

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Now I have a feeling of not just turning my hips

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but doing so rhythmically with a little bit

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of a pressure shift just like this.

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So now I'm gonna tie that into that checkpoint drill

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we did at the beginning of the video.

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So now I'm gonna go up to the top of the swing.

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I'm going to load the right and then load the left.

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Load the right, load the left.

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So now I'm getting this feeling of not just turning my hips

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but shifting pressure into my left side

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and straightening that left leg to bring my weight

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more towards the heel as my lower body is rotating.

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So it has much more of this rhythmic feel to it

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instead of just kind of a positional feel.

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So oftentimes that's the place where I start golfers

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in trying to get their lower body a little bit more active

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or trying to get their hips more involved in the golf swing.

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If I get to that point, if I get to that checkpoint

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and then I just continue with my body

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I'm naturally gonna get my hips into an open position.

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A rough checkpoint would be at impact

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having your pelvis or your hips pointing more

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about 45 degrees out in front of the golf ball,

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30 to 45 degrees somewhere in that zone.

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But if I get my arms pulling down

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and my hips haven't gotten open early enough

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there's no way that I'm gonna quickly get my hips open

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as fast as the club is moving down to the bottom.

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So using your hips in the downswing,

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first let's take a look from my point of view.

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Let's take a look at that first checkpoint.

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So if I go up to the top of the swing

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by the, you'll see that the arms aren't even coming into view

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but you can maybe see by my left arm my thighs

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are quickly getting back to this parallel position.

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So first one, we're gonna try and pump that a couple times.

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So we're gonna go up to the top of swing, pump that one,

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pump that two and just kind of feel that movement.

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Now you can either do a nice easy swing after that.

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So basically get up there, pump, pump,

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nice easy little swing just kind of feeling

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the exaggerated sequencing and timing.

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Or what I like to do is once I have that feeling,

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I can do a little slow motion movement afterward.

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So I go up there, I pump, good.

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I've got that feeling of starting with the lower body.

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Now I'm gonna feel like I just kind of move

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through that space and work on that timing at 20, 30%.

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So a really slow, slow shot.

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I might be hitting this club half the distance

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that I would normally do.

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Okay, so then the second one is getting more of this rhythm

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of feeling the right leg straight and left leg straight

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and right leg straight and left leg straight.

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So now when I get set up, I'm going to feel

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like the club is getting swung by my legs

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and more my knees and my hips and my knees

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are working together.

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It's not just trying to turn my hips back and forth.

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Okay, so I've got this rhythm feel.

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Now I'm gonna set up in my head.

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I'm gonna do right leg, left leg.

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And sometimes I will have golfers even start

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with doing a little step, step, step to feel that timing

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and feel for that rhythm.

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So now I'm gonna get the feel of stepping without stepping.

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So my foot's not gonna come off the ground,

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but I'm gonna feel a little pressure shift, pressure shift.

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And it's the same rhythm of that step step.

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Now I'm going to take a little bigger swing,

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closer to a full swing, trying to feel the step,

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taking a little bit longer,

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both in the backswing and transition.

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One of the keys to getting your lower body involved

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is that the lower body should go early,

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but it's not gonna go really, really explosively

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until you get lower in the swing.

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I just think of it similar to if I was throwing a ball,

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I'm not going to just explode with my leg right off the bat.

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I'm going to push and it's not until I get that weight

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transferred that then I start to really kind of

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ratchet up the lower body use.

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Okay, so bigger swing.

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Now we've got step, step, slow, but early.

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So step, step.

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So there's a little pressure shift to let my leg straighten,

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to get my lower body involved.

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If you struggle with using your hips,

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you're probably missing out on using the whole leg,

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and you're trying to do it just from the hip socket.

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(upbeat music)

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(upbeat music)