Getting Those Hips Moving Right
Okay, so I’ve been plugging away at this golf thing for a while now, and one piece that always gave me trouble was the hips. For the longest time, my swing felt really arm-heavy, like I was just chopping wood. No power, inconsistency all over the place. I knew, just knew, the hips were supposed to be doing something important, but figuring out what was a real head-scratcher.
First, I just tried thinking “turn hips”. Sounds simple, right? Well, not so much. I’d get to the top of my backswing and then consciously try to spin my hips as hard as I could. Most of the time, this just threw everything out of whack. My upper body would come over the top, shots went way left, or I’d hit these weak fades. Sometimes my lower back would even feel a little twinge. Clearly, just thinking “turn hard” wasn’t the answer for me.
So, I stepped back. I spent some time just watching guys at the range who had decent swings. Not the pros on TV doing impossible stuff, just regular golfers who hit it pretty well. I noticed their downswing didn’t look like a violent hip twist right away. It looked more like their lower body started the movement down, kind of smoothly, and the hips just… unwound as part of that. It looked less forced, more natural.
Practice and Feel
That got me thinking about the sequence. Maybe I was putting the cart before the horse, trying to force the hip turn instead of letting it happen in the right order. I started doing some drills I’d seen around.
- The Step Drill: I’d take my backswing, and as I started down, I’d actually step my lead foot towards the target. It felt super weird at first, almost like I was going to fall over. But it did force my lower body to lead the way and my hips to open up just to make room for the swing. I did this slowly, without even hitting a ball sometimes, just to get the feeling.
- Alignment Stick Trick: I threaded an alignment stick through the belt loops on my trousers. This gave me a really clear visual. On the backswing, the stick would point behind the ball. On the downswing, I focused on getting the stick pointing towards the target (or even left of it for me as a righty) by impact. This helped me see how much, or how little, my hips were actually rotating through the shot. It showed me I wasn’t rotating nearly enough before.
- Focusing on the Lead Hip: Instead of thinking “turn both hips”, I started thinking more about my left hip (I’m right-handed) getting out of the way. Like it needed to clear backwards and open up space for my arms and the club to come through. This felt less like an aggressive spin and more like making space.
Putting it all together on the range was… messy at first. Lots of topped shots, chunks, you name it. My timing felt completely off because my body was moving differently. It took a lot of slow-motion swings and just focusing on that feeling of the lower body initiating and the left hip clearing.
The breakthrough, if you can call it that, came when I stopped trying so damn hard to make my hips do something. I focused on a smooth takeaway, a good shoulder turn, and then just starting the downswing by shifting my weight slightly onto my lead foot and letting the hips respond to that. Not forcing them, just letting them unwind as the club came down.
It’s still not perfect, not by a long shot. Some days the timing feels great, others it feels like I’m back to square one. But I understand it better now. It’s less about a huge, forced rotation and more about the hips being part of a sequence, starting the downswing and clearing out of the way. The power feels easier to come by when it clicks, less like I’m manufacturing it all with my arms. It’s a process, and I’m still practicing that feel every time I go out.