1Jul/100
Pivot in your swing
In the back swing, think of your back. It connects your hips, torso, and shoulders. It allows you to make a one-piece motion when you shift your weight, and tilt your shoulders to get to the top of your back swing. Your back has the large muscles that allow you to raise the club with minimal force from your arms, which have smaller muscles.
Pivot and weight shift happen and work together. In one motion, you need to:
- Shift your weight with your hips and back directly over your right hip and foot, not beyond them. This is a slight lateral motion from left to right. If your hips or head go anywhere outside your right foot, it’s considered a sway, and it wasn’t a slight motion, you went too far.
- Tilt your back (which is still flat), so that the right shoulder points up and the left shoulder points down. Your flat back will actually now be behind the ball.
- Don’t come out of your posture by raising your head when you move into your back swing. Your head moves horizontally as your shoulders are tilting.
- Your hips and back move together. Rotate your left hip down, forward, and to the right, so that it moves with your back.
- Don’t over rotate your hips, or twist them too much. If you don’t force it, it’s likely to come naturally. If you keep your back flat, when you tilt your shoulders, your hips and shoulders will move together.
All these things need to happen at the same time. They really can’t be separated because they work together. I’ve listed them here separately for sake of clarity. That’s the back swing, now on to the forward swing.