Role of genetics in clearing left side

[thejazzmarauder]

I'm working on clearing my left side and have started to question the point at which physical limitations interfere with progress.

I used to scout HS football players and one of the key things I looked for, across positions, was the ability to separate the lower and upper body. Finding guys who can work their lower body independently is important. It's also rare. I wonder: is it the same for golfers?

Instructors would know better than me, of course, so I'm curious: how many people are actually able to achieve the most desired impact position? 60+% of people out there can't perform a proper deep squat; asking them to try and look like Jim Furyk at impact seems counterproductive. Most elite golfers are probably elite for the same reason elite basketball and football players are elite: their bodies can do unique things. It doesn't make sense for your average HS DT to try and replicate Aaron Donald because, beyond his size, Aaron was born with movement skills that 99% of us don't have and can never acquire.

[Red4282]

No. I mean you have to be reasonably flexible to obtain the clear left side thing, but most people are capable physically. You can work on and increase flexibility. What IS genetic is the fast twitch speed that some have. Some peoples ceiling is just higher than others.

[MonteScheinblum]

100% are capable of getting to a good impact position.

You're starting with a false premise that the more open the better. It’s individual how much open and left side clearance you will get....as you surmise.

Jack barely cleared the left side.

[coops]

Agree with Monte - also this may help - how to get the left hip 'cleared'... or how the "hip turn" is achieved - and not by getting the hips thrusting towards the ball/target line.

Or this one may be even better, on the left hip clearing - "it's not about flexibility"

 

[bluedot]

I was a college tennis player, and taught tennis for many years, and was a HS basketball coach for 39 years as well, so I think you and I probably come at this from very similar perspectives. But really, I think there are two very separate questions here.

One is what separates elite athletes from the rest of us, and that is simply that they are touched by genetic gifts that are just...different. I remember when my son was playing travel baseball in Georgia while Gary Sheffield was playing for the Braves, and there were kids waggling their bat toward the pitcher like Sheffield did. The hitting instructor for my son's team told them one day, "Gary Sheffield has been touched by God; he does that to slow his bat down. You don't need to slow your bat down." So with golf, are we going to able to move as fast and precisely thru the range of motion of the golf swing as Tiger and the boys? Of course not.

But the second question is the extent to which a "normal" mortal can make movements that allow them to make an efficient golf swing, and I think the answer is yes, including clearing the left side. For most golfers that don't clear properly (and I'm one of them!) the issue is either technical or one of hip mobility, or both. I think more and more research is showing that a lack of mobility, especially in the hips and especially among older golfers, is a critical and often overlooked element of the golf swing; your body can't do what you want it to because your capacity is limited.

The trick in all of this, I think, is to get other eyes on what's going on. It might be a teaching pro, it might be a golf fitness expert, it might be both. But I don't think there is any physical reason, barring injury or disability, that would prevent the average person from being able to clear the left side.

[thejazzmarauder]

Fair enough. My real assumption here is that people can only clear the left side so much (due to mostly genetic physical limitations) and that should be taken into account when chasing the dragon.

[Krt22]

I'd say mental limitations are far more problematic than physical limitations. Plenty of people can get to tour level impact positions...when done statically. Dynamically is a totally different story. Same goes for top of the backswing. Lot's of people think physical limitations prevent them from making a full turn (I used to be one of them), when in reality they are just moving incorrectly.

[MonteScheinblum]

Excatky right

[Lobby]

Y'all could be talking about me and how poorly I use my lower body.

[jonsnow]

I can vouch for your first sentence from personal experience. In fact, I can probably prove it mathematically.

[Man_O_War]

normally people try to use muscles and the pelvis to do that hence why it seems impossible. If you use your joints correctly, ankle, knee, hip socket joint separating from pelvis..so using much lower down joints from the torso...voila... it's easy.. and natural to even normal. It's the rotation, rotation rotation swing thoughts that stops normal human movements... look at the human anatomy and you need coordination from all the joints sequentially to work. You can hardly move the knee, without the ankles... you can hardly move the hip socket without the knee and upper thighs..the torso..pelvis on up (pelvis is NOT THE HIPS) would reaction ...a lot of teachers of swing concepts haven't necessarily been well studied and adopt conventional thoughts in teaching rather than biomechanically approaching golf. some have.

[bd59]

It’s definitely a move not for everyone. I’ve tried for the last few years to get more open. The more I tried, the more I went into EE, have way too much RSB and arms are stuck way behind me. Now it’s been a mess trying to find my way out.