Getting lead hip low and back & homemade hip drive exercise

[OlleEriksson]

Lookling to get any kind of feedback on my swing, or the exercise itself.

I've been working on getting into a better general impact position, and I think I'm starting to develop a better sense of sequencing. The pieces are starting to fall into place. One of those moments was last week when when I was trying to lead with my right elbow only to get kind of stuck because the hip wouldn't rotate. I experimented with all kinds of hip motions trying to get the hip to rotate, and then I suddenly realized that if I push the left hip down in early transition it frees the hip up to rotate. I suspect this is what a lot of instructors are talking about, trying to keep the left hip lower in transition. Super obvious in Rorys swing. I've heard it so many times but never really felt why it was necessary. Now I discovered that I *have* to do that to be able to rotate.

So, I was back in the practice room again today, and as always there is not one fix to solve everything but at least when doing a slow motion swing everything feels free and smooth. 

So I figured I'd try another exercise that I've used for sport climbing. I've never seen anyone else do this, but the idea is that when you do an exercise to exhaustion, the big muscles are sort of forced to come into play. You get too tired to trying to control the little muscles, wrist angles etc, and the big movement drivers take over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGApYnAji8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGApYnAji8 (fast forward 30s into the video)

What I'm trying here is swinging hard using my hip. All my focus is on the hips. I can honestly say all my forearms are doing are trying to hold on to the club for dear life. When the club slips in my hands, that's when I stop to restart. But I think it shows a few swings into each burst of swings that the hip works harder and harder. The *feel* on the successively more tired and harder swings is that I lower more towards the ground more in transition and work the left shoulder up at impact. The should angle *feels* very open to me, almost feels like I'm trying to throw the club straight up. Not sure about the hip, though I can feel it driving the swing. The left hip working down and back does not "look" as obvious as I would like it to though.

Any thoughts? 

Below is another slower video with two more deliberate swings and me trying to work on the hip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5V4CA25OEwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5V4CA25OEw

The transitional move, sitting into the left hip, getting it low and back feels a hell of a lot more than it shows. On the first swing I hit the ball fat, and in the second swing I focus on keeping my head back, which seems to always give me crisper hits. So that's my focus right now, more pressure shift, not swaying but moving the hip more forward, to better clear the hips, while keeping head and torso back. My question right now is, more right side bend, or more secondary tilt to accomplish that?

I would love any kind of feedback you might have! Please tell me if I'm doing it wrong.

 

[Scottbox]

Your second video is listed as private, so you might wanna change it to public. Anyways, the first vid looks really great. I'm working on the same thing. One addition that will make things easier is allowing your right hip to turn a touch more, to the point where your right butt cheek turns "behind" you and towards the target and your right leg almost straightens. This addition will do two things: it will free up your hip turn a touch, and it will get your right hip higher at the top, which makes it easier to do the transition move you want to make.

The other feel that I work on is keeping my lead shoulder down as long as possible. in transition. Let your lead shoulder move forward and down with your left knee. It'll feel like you're lurching your upper body, but you won't be.

Lastly, rather than doing these moves at full speed, I really think you'd get more out of slowing it down considerably. Grab a 9-iron and start with half shots, then do very slow swings where you get to the top and work on your transition. I do 3 of these, then 3 full-speeders. It's so hard to make your body feel a change at full speed. Oh, and here's a cool vid that may prove helpful:

 

 

 

[OlleEriksson]

Thanks. I've made the second video public now.

This was a bit of an experiment. My feeling in that all-out-to-exhaustion drill was the hip powering the move, and then my left shoulder exploding upwards, and no particular feeling in my right side. But then again, feels seem to vary so much between people and depending on where you're coming from. I'm a little afraid there is some early extension here, that I am triggering the ride side bend and left side up too early, before I've had a chance to let the left shoulder and hip sink down low left.

I'm trying trying trying to practice slow, and I really want to be able to, but it's soo hard. :) It feels like it takes away the dynamics. I'm going to try again today.

I just came away from watching a bunch a videos focusing on left shoulder down (again) so your tip fits right in. About the feeling of lurching the upper body, can you explain how in reality that's not what's happening? Is it because a split second later the left shoulder explodes up and away from the ball, or because the club in reality comes behind and by the time it reaches the ball you've already started to extend your body? I guess at some point the focus on left side bend has to change into right side bend or alternatively left side extension?

[cardoustie]

OLLE

great action .. that first drill would exhaust me

where are you located?

your swing looks pretty solid technically. What is your handicap? Would love to see DTL vid as well

 

Be well

[Scottbox]

Olle, with your (very minor) issue, a touch of exaggeration goes a long way. Again, I work on this exact issue with Monte Scheinblum. There are lots of ways to feel the change, depending on what you personally respond to. Here are some cool feels:

Stop when the arms are at shoulder height, then push down with your lead leg (while keeping lead shoulder down) as you move to the top. Most good players shift pressure before the end of the backswing (look at Rory for an example). This achieves what you want and it'll buy you a lot of extra time in the transition. Feel like your right shoulder stays high or even rises up as you transition.Feel like the left shoulder stays down as long as possible.Squat down in transition (even before you get to the top of your backswing).Feel like your lead shoulder stays down and goes behind you to start the downswing (esp. good for early extension).One or any of these achieve the same thing. Also, are you early extending in the backswing? If so, please get your right hip deeper. Then, in transition, as you go down (like you're doing), push more pressure into your lead HEEL while keeping your lead hip back. It's a weird combo of lateral and rotation that will keep you more "stacked" over the ball.

It'd help to get a down the line (behind you). But basically, you're super on the right track. Slow swings are tough, but they'll force your body to get used to what must be a weird new feel.

 

[OlleEriksson]

Sorry guys for not answering sooner. But I did read both of your responses and took your feedback to the range the day after and have been thinking about it since.

I live in Sweden and the handicap is around 12, though I've just taken up golf seriously again after playing regularly when I was 14-18 years old. My plan is basically just to understand the golf swing and be able to do it correctly. I don't care so much about the handicap right now, as I do about solving the mystery of the golf swing. Going into this I thought "It can't be that hard to do it right if I just learn what needs to be done". Well well.. :) On the other hand, all the more fun. :)

I just compiled a more extensive video of a few of "my swings", for maybe sending to some online instructors. There's a few DTL videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0otzw6om3gII just re-read your advice Scottbox, and all the points you bring up make perfect sense to me now. Swining the club in my apartment I particularly like the one about the right should staying high. I'm going to try them all again, but more slowly, and try to maintain the feel as I make longer swings.

I came across this video BTW that clicked a bit with me regarding the hip. It's in Japanese I think and even with automatic translated captions on I can't make much sense of the words they say, but the movements sort of speak for themselves. I like the part starting around the 10.40 mark.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59ZRua2h00I

[OlleEriksson]

Also, very interesting about your pointer on early extension in the backswing. I have intentionally restricted the backswing as the only way I found to get the club on plane, and I still struggled with it. But now recently I discovered Jim Waldron's Arm Swing Illusion and how he thinks about taking the club out and back at a 45 degree angle, and how that combined with a much deeper hip turn gets the club on plane much much better. I want to think that I've incorporated that in swing no 4 in my last video above. So I definitely try to finally make a deeper hip turn now. It feels like the pieces are falling into place, although there's a long way still to go.