I stood in front of a floor length mirror and did Universal Ball my impressionof Elvis Presley (uh, the late rock and roll guy who couldreally sway his hips.) This would result in poor contactof the golf ball or a complete miss.
The answer came from observing my movements in the floor-lengthmirror while keeping my hip muscles firm.
In 2 clips on my website I use exaggerated hip and leg movementsto show how much bending of the ankles there can be. Your body will also be moving or it will betwisting and hunching out of good posture.
We did not have a golf pro to turn to for help on this.
If I moved my hips in any direction my back would arch out ofits natural upright position.
I used to teach physical education from Grades 1 to 9.)
OK! At least I wiggled my hips around while watching what washappening in the mirror.
Copyright © by Glen Osborne July 2005.
Oh yes! This better control of your hips will help to protectyour lower back from injury.Do you have problems with topping the golf ball? Do you hit the ground behind the ball? Do you sometimes hit the golf ball with weak and high results? Do you feel a loss of power with some of your swings with any club? Do you have problems hitting the ball near the sweet spot of the clubface?
All of these problems (and more) could be happening because yourhips move in various directions during all parts of your swingmovements. Thiswill help you to have a more precise golf swing for powerhitting and for delicate chips around the green. My body was swayinglike a tree but my feet were not moving. And, the solutionis unusual and will demand some attention in your early effortsto control your hips.
A good thought is to picture yourself running through roughterrain or uneven ground. There is no wandering or swaying of my hips or legs. There isNO bending at my ankles.)
If I tightened my hip muscles and made my hips move then my wholebody swayed back and forth like a tree.
Somewhere, an area of my body was collapsing to permit thisunwanted hip movement. This hip sway causes an unstable and weakfoundation. No wandering hipsand a much stronger connection to the ground while I swungthe golf club was the result.
On my website I have a video clip which shows too much hipmovement in my swing.
THE MOVEMENT WHICH ALLOWS HIP SWAY
Years ago a friend told me that my hips wandered erraticallyduring my golf swing.He was able to golf with his grandson and his former golfbuddies. Instinctively, messages go to your arms and hands todo something to make up for a weakening swing. You do not want thischange of positioning of your upper body during your swingmovements.My lower legs stay in proper alignment with my feet.
My turning movements are balanced. This is not good to have golf swingmovements with your back out of position.
Firming your lower leg muscles locks your ankles in place.
Hopefully, in the near future, I will show you how to protecta tender or injured back while you continue golfing.
Practice at home in front of a mirror to train your anklesto remain at a desired level of firmness to better controlyour leg and hip movements. Almost alwaysthe hands or arms make a wrong move or a movement which is outof time with the leg and body movements.
The only part of me which could allow this ‘tree-like’ sway wasmy ankle joints. It becomes very difficult to re-align yourselfto the ball as the club is hitting the golf ball.
You will have much better control in your lower body by firmingyour lower leg muscles.
Sure enough there was a lot of movement in my ankle joints. They are controlled and havepower from a solid connection to the ground. The way to do this without twistingor breaking an ankle is to tighten your ankle joints.
Two clips on my website show that my hips rotate around mytailbone. Eventightening my hip muscles did not solve the problem.I recalled the various age groups of young people tryingto learn athletic movements for some of the sports. All Rights Reserved
. Sloppy movementsat my ankles which would rob some of the power of my turnare prevented.
Can you imagine how hard it would be to push a car out of a snowbank or mud puddle if your hips were wandering or swaying?
CORRECTING THE FAULTY MOVEMENT
Prior to producing any swing movements I would firm my lower legmuscles to prevent joint movement in my ankles.Your mind quickly senses the loss of power and the loss ofbalance. It is difficult to generate power because thisswaying places you in unnatural positions. You will seehow far away my legs and hips move from their start position. Swaying hips will cause loss ofbalance or a feeling that you are about to lose your balance.
This instructional article will show you what to do to stop”wandering hips” from ruining your golf swing. If your hips are moving about then you know that yourlegs are moving. Golf’s ‘bad backcemetery’ is too full of former golfers who succumbed to injuredbacks. I yanked up my pant legs (what a ghastlysight!) I swayed some more.
The golf swing demands balance. He also said that there was no patternin the hip movements from swing to swing. (By the way, the techniques which I teach for basic swingmovements and control did bring one man out of this back injury.
Why were my hips moving? I could stop them from doing this butI had to give too much attention to them during my swing. I hadto solve the problem on my own.
In this clip you can also see that my forward sway causes my clubto reach the bottom of its swing arc past the ball towards myright foot (I’m a leftie