Why don't we hear more about "engaging the glutes"?

[RoyalMustang]

I often hear things like "get your right hip back" or "get your hips through" or "swing with the hips" or feel like you are trying to start a chainsaw both to the right (backswing) and left (downswing) to get your hips moving.

 

While this may work for some, those of us who don't have great body awareness can get into bad habits. For example, you can get your hip back by pushing with your quad. You can also move it back by pulling with your gluteus maximus. I have yet to hear anyone really talk about this; the muscle balance required to do so. It's out there surely. 

 

The reason I figured it out is that my wife is a doctor of physical therapy and going through TPI training. She was watching me recently and said "hey, are you engaging your glutes? I looks like your swing is still all upper body". Sure, I can hit the ball a pretty long way with an upper body swing, but it's inconsistent. She got a couple of TPI exercises for me to work on engaging them, in addition to me just focusing on keeping them "engaged" and turning only with the glutes. I didn't even think about anything else over the past round. 

 

Point of story is, all of this elusive "turn your hips" stuff I have been trying to do was all misguided. 75 swings later, I am now getting that lower body separation and "turn" which keeps me in balance and with a TON of power.  It's easy power and very repeatable. 

 

I just wanted to share in case anyone else hasn't heard about this from their coach.  

[BigBlue7]

Feels vs real is at play here.  For some, the thought of "engaging the glutes" doesn't really mean anything, but telling someone to get their him into a certain position is something they can understand and they'll be automatically engaging their glutes when they move their hips.  

 

That is why it is so important for a student to ask a teacher to clarify and help when the student doesn't understand what the instructor is asking him or her to do

[RoyalTroon]

Is this like My Cousin Vinny....engaging the what?

[me05501]

Seems like consciously engaging the glutes could cause early extension/goat humping. 

[Lobby]

I’m too busy checking whether I inhale or exhale during my swing

 

🙂

[phizzy30]

7 minutes ago, me05501 said:

Seems like consciously engaging the glutes could cause early extension/goat humping. 

Yep.  When swinging correctly, "engaging" the glutes should be an after thought.  It automatically happens on the down swing whether the golfer is thinking about it subconsciously or not.  Golfers should focus on hip mobility and do exercises like hip thrusts and mule kicks to strengthen the glutes.   

Edited June 26, 2023 by phizzy30

[Pepperturbo]

Why? 

 

Because tight glutes are nothing more than an after effect of a tight core, strong lower back and quads, and upper body moving though the ball.

[Sean124]

1 hour ago, Lobby said:

I’m too busy checking whether I inhale or exhale during my swing

 

🙂

I really hope I’ve forgotten about this post before I hit balls again. 

[dfeldss]

When Tiger couldn't get his activated, we all followed suit

[tthomasgolfer605]

That term actually originated from California State Prison. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by tthomasgolfer605

[getitdaily]

When I activate my glutes it looks like this

 

Xhfndjcnsbejfitnrdnsjxhdnrj

[Zitlow]

1 hour ago, tthomasgolfer605 said:

That term actually originated from California State Prison. 

I was hoping no one was going to post that. 

[tthomasgolfer605]

2 minutes ago, Zitlow said:

I was hoping no one was going to post that. 

Why? Did you do time there? 

[tthomasgolfer605]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:28 PM, dfeldss said:

When Tiger couldn't get his activated, we all followed suit

That's because he was over-activating them with Perkin's waitresses. 

[Zitlow]

38 minutes ago, tthomasgolfer605 said:

Why? Did you do time there? 

I was placed in the witness protection program. 

[Chunkitgood]

This might interest you.  Most everything he talks about in “turning the hips” is actually done with the glutes (except I think flexion).

 

http://kelvinmiyahiragolf-articles.com/index.php/articles/articles-2/2011-articles/64-2011-07-how-to-turn-your-hips-part-3-the-backswing

 

“Perhaps this can make things easier to understand. The legends use mirrored movements during the first ¾ of the backswing and they are comprised of:

RH ADD/LH AB + RL ER/LL IR + RL Ext/LL Flexion + RH IR/LH ER 

[ RH= right hip, ADD is adduction, IR internal rotation, etc.]

These four mirrored movements create “hip turn” and legendary backswing. If one or more of these movements is missing, it creates dysfunction or a bad pattern that will be difficult to overcome in the downswing.

 

Not sure why a description of the entire swing in similar terms has not been standardized and/or given currency.  I won’t speculate,

 

 

[aenemated]

On 6/26/2023 at 8:42 AM, BALLYBUNION said:

Is this like My Cousin Vinny....engaging the what?

 

Yeah, two yutes. 

[coops]

Malaska walk back drill..

 

 

[jordan2240]

I'd love to see what a bunch of golfers attending a clinic would do if the instructor, after watching a few swings, told them to engage the glutes.  I'm guessing it would be hilarious.

[phizzy30]

2 hours ago, jordan2240 said:

I'd love to see what a bunch of golfers attending a clinic would do if the instructor, after watching a few swings, told them to engage the glutes.  I'm guessing it would be hilarious.

Lots of twerking. 

[tm3]

In another thread here someone quoted research from Stanford (?) indicating that the dominant side glute is the main power source in the swing.  So maybe that needs to be added to the instruction checklist.

[Nard_S]

2nd the Malaska video. Hip turn is more hip levering. Big thing is holding depth by proper hinge and allowing the space to be there to swing thru. Had the issue of lead hip falling into ball too much, it's taken a lot of effort to fix that but in general, seeing hip movement as a levering action has helped a lot.

[LKNgolf]

So in response to the question posed in your thread title…I think you don’t hear more about glute activation because the majority of amateur golfers are just trying to find the center of the club face.