GOLFDIGEST.CO.ZA / JANUARY 2018 / 55◀ ◀ HIP SWAY AT IMPACT
D
oes this sound familiar? On the downswing, you try to quiet
your body to get more ball-striking consistency – and to avoid
sliding through it, which you’ve heard is bad. Unfortunately,
the byproduct of that is an insufficient pressure shift to your front leg
on the way down. As a result, you aren’t getting the most you can out
of your swing. The best players at impact have shifted their hips ahead
of where they were at address (far left, top), but less-experienced players
move further behind the ball (far left, bottom). SwingTRU data says the
pros shift the hips on average 4cm towards the target compared to the
setup, and high-handicaps shift them 1cmaway from the target. For
many students, thinking about what the hips do is too abstract. Instead,
feel your front knee move towards the target on the downswing so that
it’s over the outside of your front foot. If you’re used to hanging back,
this will feel like a dramatic change. Get ready for some speed.
◀ ◀ SHOULDER TILT AT IMPACT
W
e’ve said the shoulders need to tilt downward at the top of
the swing, and that concept should carry through to impact- except now the tilt is upward. Making an arms-dominated
swing, which so many amateurs do, tends to produce relatively level
shoulders at impact (near left, bottom). Better players have the back
shoulder significantly lower than the front shoulder at impact
(near left, top). The biggest jump in our SwingTRU measurements came
between the best amateurs (0 to 5 handicaps) and the pros. That tells
us that shoulder tilt is one of the hallmarks of the elite player. The
pros in the study averaged 39 degrees of upward tilt at impact;
high-handicaps 27.5 degrees. To achieve it, your belt buckle
should be over your front foot at impact, with your head still
over the middle of your stance. Imagine a friend was holding an
alignment stick against your ear closest to the target – your head
would be moving away from that stick at impact.
◀ ◀ SHOULDER BEND IN FOLLOW THROUGH
T
he difference between shoulder tilt and shoulder bend is
direction: Tilt is the movement of each shoulder up or down
in relation to the ground, and bend is the amount your upper
body is stretched back, away from the target. The easiest way to think
about it is how proud you look in your finish position. Good players
get very tall through the chest in the follow-through (right, top), with
the spine extended and the neck bending a few degrees away from the
target. The typical issue amateurs have is staying bent over through im-
pact (right, bottom). When you do that, you aren’t getting the full benefit
of the levers in your body or between your body and the club. Longer,
taller levers produce more speed. In SwingTRU, the pros average 32
degrees of back bend, and the high-handicaps average 3.2 degrees. How
can you get better? As you swing to your finish, try to feel like Super-
man or Wonder Woman, with an expanded, bulletproof torso and your
front leg fully extended as if you just pushed off the ground to jump.
nick clearwater, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher, is vice
president of instruction for GolfTEC, based in Englewood, Colorado.
SHOULDER BEND:
PROS FINISH WITH
THE TORSO
S T R E T C H E D B A C K ;
HIGH-HANDICAPS
STAY BENT OVER.»BIG »D ATA»