Improve Your Lateral Pelvis Movement for Better Transition

The Jackson 5 drill trains one of the most important moves in the downswing: the lateral shift of your pelvis in transition. If you tend to start down by spinning your hips open immediately, you likely make the club steeper than necessary and make solid contact harder to repeat. This drill teaches you to move your pelvis toward the target first, while keeping your upper body from drifting with it. That small shift helps set up a shallower delivery, better pressure into your lead side, and a more efficient sequence from the top.

How the Drill Works

To do the drill, place a club across the front of your pelvis so it lines up with your hip joints. The goal is to move that pelvis laterally toward the target without adding early rotation. In other words, you are not trying to “open” your hips first. You are trying to slide the pelvis so your lead hip joint moves more over your lead foot.

This is a short move, not a dramatic sway. In most golfers, it is only about four to five inches. It also happens very early in the downswing. From the top, this shift should occur before your lead arm gets back down to about parallel with the ground. That means the move is quick and early, not something you save for later in the downswing.

The key is that your pelvis shifts while your upper body stays relatively centered. If your whole body lunges toward the target, you are no longer creating the movement pattern you want. The lower body leads, while the head and upper torso resist moving forward too much.

This is why the drill is so useful for players who get too rotational too soon. Many golfers reach the top and immediately spin their pelvis open. That often steepens the shaft, pushes the club out, and makes it harder to approach the ball from the inside. The lateral bump gives you a better transition pattern before rotation takes over.

Step-by-Step

1. Set the club across your pelvis. Hold a club across the front of your hips so you can clearly see how your pelvis is moving.

2. Get into your posture. Stand in your golf posture with your weight balanced and your chest centered.

3. Practice the lateral move without rotating. Shift your pelvis toward the target so your lead hip joint moves more over your lead foot. Keep the club across your pelvis as level and square as possible. Do not let the trail side fire around behind you yet.

4. Keep your upper body from sliding. As your pelvis shifts, your head should stay relatively centered. For feedback, you can stand with your head near the corner of a wall and rehearse the move without letting your head move into the wall. You can also have a training partner hold a club vertically near your head as a reference point.

5. Repeat the bump until it feels natural. Make several small rehearsals of this move by itself. You are training the first move down, not the whole swing yet.

6. Add a backswing position. Once the standalone motion feels better, go to the top of your swing and pause.

7. Do the Jackson 5 move first. From the top, make the same small lateral pelvis shift toward the target before any big rotational move.

8. Then rotate through. After the shift, let your body turn through the shot. If you have worked on a rotational drill such as a “merry-go-round” feel, this is where that rotation comes in—after the lateral bump.

What You Should Feel

When you do this correctly, the motion should feel subtle but decisive. It is not a slide of your whole body. It is a target-side bump of the pelvis that happens right away from the top.

• Pressure moving into your lead foot early
• Your lead hip moving over your lead ankle
• Your head staying relatively centered instead of lunging toward the target
• Your pelvis shifting first, rotating second
• A smoother, shallower start to the downswing rather than a violent spin from the top

A good checkpoint is this: by the time your lead arm is roughly parallel to the ground in the downswing, the lateral shift should already be in place. If you wait until later, you have probably missed the transition window where this move matters most.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Spinning the hips immediately from the top instead of shifting first
• Sliding the entire body so the chest and head move forward with the pelvis
• Overdoing the move and turning a small bump into a big sway
• Letting the pelvis rotate while rehearsing the shift when the drill is meant to isolate the lateral motion first
• Doing the shift too late after the downswing is already underway
• Thinking of it as a weight shift only rather than a precise movement of the pelvis over the lead side

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill addresses a major transition issue in many swings: starting down with too much rotation and not enough lateral movement. When that happens, the club often gets too steep, the path can become more out-to-in, and it becomes harder to produce the kind of shallow strike pattern associated with strong contact and a controlled draw.

The Jackson 5 drill helps you organize the sequence correctly. In a good transition, the pelvis shifts toward the target first, then the body rotates through. That order matters. The shift helps position your body so the club can approach on a better angle. Rotation without the shift often works against that.

It also connects directly to how your body controls the club. If your pelvis moves well in transition, the club has a much better chance to shallow naturally instead of needing a last-second hand compensation. That means this is not just a body drill for the sake of body motion. It is a way to improve the delivery of the club.

As you blend this into your full swing, think of the sequence in simple terms: top, bump, turn. The bump is quick, small, and early. Once you own that piece, your downswing can become much more efficient, and the club will have a better opportunity to work from a shallower, more powerful position.