Fixing this hip sway in the downswing?

[Sam Skibitsky]

So I’ve always struggled with just sliding forward in the downswing, I’ll put an alignment stick like a fist forward and try and get to it then turn but I always feel like I’m spinning out of it

 

just curious if anyone has had something similar and how they dealt with it and fixed it

 

thank you

[Valtiel]

A certain amount of sliding/shifting towards the target is normal, but the bigger issue i'm seeing here is what appears to be a lack of ever getting fully into your trail side and staying very "stacked" on your lead leg combined with a very early shift, the opposite of what most folks struggle with.



Generally speaking the pros are getting their pressure anywhere from 60-80% on their trail side in these early stages of the back swing. We see Adam here making an initial "shift" towards that from P1 to P2. We don't really see this shift on your side, you're staying pretty 50/50. Not a big deal, some folks shift slightly later...



...but the problem is that you don't. If anything you're actually starting to move MORE into your front side at this stage, meaning that you likely never really got beyond 50/50 and are already moving towards the target, whereas with Adam we see him fully loaded into his trail side at this stage, likely around 80/20.



Here is where things start to compound. Frame by frame, we see Adam start at maximum trail leg load (80/20ish), a *slight* shift away from that 80/20 as he reaches the top of his swing (75/25ish) and then the crucial shift to start the transition closer to 60/40 at this stage. We also see that at this moment he is still centered BEHIND the ball. On your side, since you never really got beyond 50/50 and started shifting towards your lead leg early, your first moves sees a big slide towards the target putting you what looks like 30/70 and the further loading/pivoting into that lead leg to the point that you are completely stacked and almost in front of the ball in transition now. This is more what your body should look like if you're trying to punch a 7i under a tree or flight a wedge really low, not rip a driver.

So yes, you are sliding a bit much, but this wouldn't be so much of an issue if the slide was starting from a loaded position in your trail leg from BEHIND the ball. The positive takeaway here is that you aren't struggling with what many folks do struggle with which is getting shifted towards your front side properly in transition. You are however getting into it early and excessively combined with having never properly loaded into that trail side. As a a side note too, this is a big grip no-no:



That complete disconnect/separation of your thumb and forefinger with the thumb going straight down the shaft is a problem that lots of people seem to fall into. I've written a few times about the biology behind this, basically the thumb and forefinger when joined/opposed are very strong and stable allowing more grip pressure with less effort/tension. When split like you're doing here they are weaker and forearm tension increases to compensate which hurts your ability to release the club smoothly. For as many different types of grip as there are on tour, you'll always see this connection like Adam's above.

In summary, get loaded into your trail leg more in your takeaway while keeping your feel of getting towards your front leg in transition and fix that right hand grip connection. Give those a shot and post update vids if you can!

Edited June 6, 2022 by Valtiel

[Sam Skibitsky]

Thank you! Appreciate the thorough response!!

[djmohab2]

On 5/22/2022 at 12:22 PM, Valtiel said:

That complete disconnect/separation of your thumb and forefinger with the thumb going straight down the shaft is a problem that lots of people seem to fall into. I've written a few times about the biology behind this, basically the thumb and forefinger when joined/opposed are very strong and stable allowing more grip pressure with less effort/tension. When split like you're doing here they are weaker and forearm tension increases to compensate which hurts your ability to release the club smoothly. For as many different types of grip as there are on tour, you'll always see this connection like Adam's above.

In summary, get loaded into your trail leg more in your takeaway while keeping your feel of getting towards your front leg in transition and fix that right hand grip connection. Give those a shot and post update vids if you can!

 

Which hand are you talking about with the thumb/forefinger connection?

[Valtiel]

21 minutes ago, djmohab2 said:

 

Which hand are you talking about with the thumb/forefinger connection?

 
The bottom hand, in this case the right. You can't really achieve that same connection with the top hand, nor does a conventional grip really call for it, especially if you interlock which moves the top forefinger pretty far away. 

The YouTube channel "GolfswingHD" has a great selection of close up videos of pro's hands, PGA and LPGA. Here is a selection:

[Sam Skibitsky]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

 
The bottom hand, in this case the right. You can't really achieve that same connection with the top hand, nor does a conventional grip really call for it, especially if you interlock which moves the top forefinger pretty far away. 

The YouTube channel "GolfswingHD" has a great selection of close up videos of pro's hands, PGA and LPGA. Here is a selection:

Hey valtiel! Hit a bunch of balls today getting more on my trail leg and tried to feel really patient getting onto my lead side and was really hitting the ball well, so thanks for the comment yesterday! The only problem was I was hitting it sky high, do you see any way I could stop hitting it off my trail thigh and instead lean the shaft forward and hit it more on my front side?

[Valtiel]

43 minutes ago, Sam Skibitsky said:

Hey valtiel! Hit a bunch of balls today getting more on my trail leg and tried to feel really patient getting onto my lead side and was really hitting the ball well, so thanks for the comment yesterday! The only problem was I was hitting it sky high, do you see any way I could stop hitting it off my trail thigh and instead lean the shaft forward and hit it more on my front side?

No problem, glad that helped! I would need to see video if what you're doing to say anything for sure, but my best guesses are:

1) You're might be overdoing it and hanging back for too long which is adding a lot of loft at impact.
2) If your driver was setup for how you were swinging before to produce a decent trajectory then you probably just need less loft now. You were delofting pretty aggressively before. 

Likely a combination of both, but need video to be sure. A note I should have added to the first post is that your stance was a bit narrow as well, so widening it by simply dropping your trail foot back will allow you to get back into that trail side without swaying more easily. 

[Sam Skibitsky]

On 5/23/2022 at 10:26 PM, Valtiel said:

No problem, glad that helped! I would need to see video if what you're doing to say anything for sure, but my best guesses are:

1) You're might be overdoing it and hanging back for too long which is adding a lot of loft at impact.
2) If your driver was setup for how you were swinging before to produce a decent trajectory then you probably just need less loft now. You were delofting pretty aggressively before. 

Likely a combination of both, but need video to be sure. A note I should have added to the first post is that your stance was a bit narrow as well, so widening it by simply dropping your trail foot back will allow you to get back into that trail side without swaying more easily. 

Would It be cool if I sent you a video tomorrow?

[putterboy75]

Hi - i had a very similar issue and struggled with this specifically for many many years. I would hit for hours and days trying to somehow eliminate it and learn to stop the move forward which caused the club to be way under the plane and I would flip to try to deal with the huge in to out club path. I probably went to 10 different instructors and none of them, until recently, was able to correctly discern the real issue - which is not golf related... its a mobility issue. I did the TPI and it confirmed what I suspected that my glutes were weak and one of the major causes I couldn't get into that right side. I've been doing all kinds of weird exercises with resistance bands and it is far better now. Not sure if anyone pointed this out earlier, I didn't read all of the responses, but if you haven't done the TPI, do it and go from there.

 

Good luck, I know how hard this is to fix but once you gain some more mobility it's very attainable.

[putterboy75]

On 5/23/2022 at 10:26 PM, Valtiel said:

No problem, glad that helped! I would need to see video if what you're doing to say anything for sure, but my best guesses are:

1) You're might be overdoing it and hanging back for too long which is adding a lot of loft at impact.
2) If your driver was setup for how you were swinging before to produce a decent trajectory then you probably just need less loft now. You were delofting pretty aggressively before. 

Likely a combination of both, but need video to be sure. A note I should have added to the first post is that your stance was a bit narrow as well, so widening it by simply dropping your trail foot back will allow you to get back into that trail side without swaying more easily. 

 

My guess based on my experience making a very similar move is that the shoulder tilt is far too extreme because he's used to being forced to tilt that much to actually make contact rather than bottom out before the ball (meaning the actual low point of the swing is far behind the ball)

 

When you look at your swing face on now after making these adjustments, look at your setup shoulder tilt and then at impact. If you've got a lot of tilt (the lead shoulder is much higher than the trail shoulder) it could be a cause of the higher ball flight.

[Valtiel]

3 hours ago, Sam Skibitsky said:

Would It be cool if I sent you a video tomorrow?

Yeah absolutely.