Biomechanics of the Golf Swing

See a PERFECT swing Multiple camera angles Super Slow Motion Worth >1000 words

How are we going to get our bearings? When the word ‘back’ is used, it means the opposite of the direction the ball is going to go (forward). When ‘behind’ is used, it means the opposite of the direction the golfer is facing. Notice that Tour pros coil the right sides of their torsos around into our behind zone. Free up, indeed unclutter, your mind from common theory and terminology. Look with an open mind. Does Tiger ever look as if he’s “taken the club back” or as if he’s whirled it around and got it behind himself? Look how the right sides of Tom Watson’s and Peter Kostis’ torsos have rotated around such that their right shoulders and right hips are behind their necks.  The forward lean of the right leg is maintained during this around-to-get-behind coil. If body parts were moving ‘back’, wouldn’t each pro have less forward lean? 

As you begin to coil, you should feel the right side of your torso move straight behind. Toward the end of this move, you’ll feel the 2-inch rotation of your right buttock around and forward. Each pro crosses his shoe at address and then moves behind his shoe at the top of the coil, the right hip/buttock apparently moves in the behind direction about 4 to 6 inches. Thus, during the coil, our pros are moving their right buttocks well behind and a bit forward, wholly consistent with a rotational motion. 

Biomechanics of Golf Swing

Use biomechanics of golf swing the next time you are at a practice field or driving range. Stand in back of any of the golfers, watching their shots soar away from you. Imagine a line from your eye across their belt buckles as they address the ball, and hold that line in that position as they execute their ‘backswings’. You will see (for over 90% of them) their left hips come across that line in toward the ball by 3 to 5 inches. Their concept may be that their torsos are rotating around some imaginary stake driven through the centers of their torsos. 

Swail recommends thinking of your left hip joint as the point of rotation, thereby enabling a much larger move of the right hip/buttock in the behind direction compared to the minor move of the left hip in toward the ball. At the top of your ‘backswing’, do you have the feeling that your right hip/buttock has moved not at all in the back direction, but rather well behind and forward, and that your left hip has moved only slightly around in toward the ball? Probably not. You may feel that your right hip slid mostly in the back direction, moved somewhat in the behind direction, and that your left hip moved around well in toward the ball--a motion encouraged by the ‘back’ action you’ve ‘seen’ in that face-on view, underscored by the predominant use of the directional term ’back’ in golf instruction.

 At the finish of your coil with driver in hand, if you look across your left shoulder at the ground, your eyes should alight on a spot about 7 to 12 inches in back of the ball.  You want to feel as if you’re rotating your left shoulder around and back so that it finishes under your chin. You must not feel as if your head tilts or moves forward --at all--in order to meet your shoulder halfway.