Proper Golf Swing

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Proper golf swing help reminds us that emphasis on ‘swinging rhythmically’ causes a golfer to think about moving his lower torso, upper torso and arms in unison. What you want to do is snappily contract your psoas muscles thereby pulling your torso down and stretching further all those large thigh and hip muscles responsible for hip rotation. 

Interestingly, the arms and whipshaft--whose swinging motion dominates the overall appearance of what’s going on, therefore giving rise to the movement being labeled ‘swing’--are secondary, reactive elements, not causative. Again, Jack Nicklaus, in Golf My Way, while acknowledging some players appear ‘handsy’, says that during his ‘swing’: “….the legs and body are the engine of the golf swing….The arms are simply connecting rods to the club….I regard the hands as linkage….” Later: “Trailing along behind the hips come my shoulders….” Here's Tiger Woods in How I Play Golf: : "For more yards, I 'snap' my left leg." His 'Secret No. 5': "I've found that by snapping my left leg straight, my hips clear faster and speed up the movement of my shoulders, arms and legs.”

Golf Swing Help

Golf swing help pros like Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods all point out that the hips do not move in unison with the rhythmically swinging arms and whipshaft. Rather, the hips spurt ahead in a distinctly non-rhythmical burst. Thigh and hip muscles stretch and snap, just as a slingshot does. 

If rhythm is a fundamental in your concept of the golf ‘swing’, you will have to try to fit any movement instruction you receive into that concept. That instruction, no matter how right on, will not take hold. You’ll stay perplexed. You want to find that overall pace that allows you consistently to have things happening in the proper sequence, i.e. your lower torso zippily initiating your flail while your arms/wrists are still coiling. Paradoxically, the pendulum-like rhythm apparent in Tour pros’ arms and whipshafts is achieved by a snappy firing of thigh and hip muscles (combined with suppleness above the waist).

The next chance you get to see Tiger Woods or Sergio Garcia put a full flail onto the ball, watch their hips--if you can. You may see little more than a blur. (Try to find an opportunity to see this in person, standing behind them, facing the direction they’re facing--tv doesn’t seem to catch the speed of their hips.) Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones On Golf: “I was able to trace many errors to slowing down or stopping the hip turn too quickly.” Settings that can induce diagonal-pull timidity are home-stretch pressure, and easing up on a shot, e.g. a 3/4 ‘swing’. In both cases, you may get better results by reminding yourself the pull must always quickly initiate the flail to keep the right side from taking over.