The goal of your golf swing should be to move the club back and through on the same relative path; however, this is not to suggest you should attempt to move your body the same way in both directions to achieve this.
Far too often players will hear information about how the arms, shoulders, hips and feet should move in the swing, and then wrongly assume it applies all across the movement pattern. The backswing and downswing have dramatically different requirements.
When you see and hear information, understanding it is one thing, knowing when and where to apply it is another. Please allow me to highlight a couple of the basic misunderstandings I address on a daily basis.
Misunderstanding No. 1 – The feet should remain firmly planted during the swing.
Yes, your feet should remain as calm and steady as possible on the backswing. The downswing and follow though side of the picture, however, should see a dramatic shifting of your trail foot to the tip-toe, to enable a full weight shift and allow for completion of the body rotation through the ball.
Misunderstanding No. 2 – The hips shift the weight in the golf swing.
Yes, your hips will be responsible for shifting the weight on the downswing as they drive through the shot. However, your hips are not responsible for shifting your weight on the backswing side of the puzzle. It is your shoulder turn which moves your breastbone (your centre of mass) back to your trailside to load up, not your hips.
Misunderstanding No. 3 – The hips should turn in place beneath the shoulders; lateral hip movement is never a good thing.
You should avoid shifting your hips laterally away from the target as you turn them back. Lateral movement of the hips as you swing back is called swaying and leads to all kinds of problems in the swing sequence. Unfortunately, the same does not hold true for the downswing which needs a healthy blend of turn and lateral shift to initiate the attack on the ball and promote a full weight shift through the shot.
Misunderstanding No. 4 – The head must stay down in order to make good contact with the ball.
Yes, you do want the head to stay down in theory; however, the head can neither lift nor stay down on its own because it is attached to the spine. Any head movement up or down in the swing is a result of your spine and/or poster changes. We don’t keep the head down through the shot, we keep the spine down through the shot.
Working on things right is important; however, working on the right things is even more important. Keep some of these misunderstandings in mind the next time you apply changes to your movement pattern.
Clubhouse chatter
The Medicine Hat College Rattlers begin their 2019 season on the road in Edmonton this weekend. I get asked often if I will miss being there and the answer is quite honestly, yes. With that said, they are in good hands and I wish them all the best on the opening weekend of play.
Trevor Moore is a PGA of Canada professional and a TPI Certified Golf Fitness Instructor with the Titleist Performance Institute. Based in Medicine Hat, he runs his Advantage Golf Academy Services out of Cottonwood Coulee Golf Course and privately consults, coaches and mentors many athletes and sports organizations. For comments or questions, you can reach him via his website trevormoore.ca or follow him on social media @trevormooreinc.
