Is your slide versus turn into your lead hip the result of a postural issue?

[Golfbeat]

Over the years, I have worked relentlessly to try to get rid of my slide. The slide is probably one of the most destructive motions in a golf swing leading to all kind of bad shots. Gankas, AMG, Malaska and most recently Dr Kwon have come up with many drills to improve the pivot. These drills all promote a pressure shift and a turn into the lead leg in the thru swing and a trail hip which goes back without the left hip going forward in the back swing.

 

When I do the drills I have great difficulty keeping the left hip back in the back swing and turning that hip further back into the left hip socket. I have come to believe that a postural fault is the reason why I cannot make a proper pivot into the left hip rather then my athletic ability or not working hard enough on the right drills.

 

I found out that my pelvis is naturally tilted forward and to the right. This seems to be the case for many, many people. One theory is that this is the result of too strong of a right side which can be exacerbated by right sided sports like tennis, baseball and golf (if you are a righty). 

 

A weak left hamstring and some other muscular issues in the left leg  and core caused by the faulty use of the pelvis when standing, walking and playing sports could therefore make it very difficult to properly load into the left leg.

 

I attach a YT video from Neal Hallinan who has a channel full of information and exercises about this issue. I think that spending some time on researching this issue further and doing some of the exercises may help your golf game and your general posture and health as well.

 

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Very interesting and it makes sense physiologically. 

 

Without wading through a bunch more videos, what would be some symptoms of this? Not in a golf sense, but a physical sense? How would someone suspect they have this issue without professional diagnosis? 

 

I doubt this is the root cause of my own slide issue. I'm left-handed and my left foot is my dominant foot, with my left leg generally being stronger than my right. From walking, strenuous hiking, etc I've never really felt soreness in the areas around the left hip/upper leg muscles, so I don't have any reason to believe this affects me. 

 

But this seems like something that could be common, particularly in right-side dominant people, and I'm sure Neal also has a lot of exercises that can be used to correct it. It could be of help to a lot of golfers, if they knew they were actually suffering from this. 

[Zitlow]

When the left heel goes down the right heels comes up. This clears the left hip extending the left knee causing the left shoulder to go up which brings the left arm down.

 

This sets up the post/axis for the right side gate to swing around. The gate won't swing if your right heel is locked to the ground.

 

At impact the left hip is several inches ahead of where it was at address. 

 

 

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

Setup still too far from the ball?

[Golfbeat]

1 hour ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Setup still too far from the ball?

 

I don't think so, but will check! Now recovering from inguinal hernia procedure. Have a lot of time to work on set up :).

 

You have mentioned a few times that you had to learn to walk properly after knee surgery. What was the issue you had to correct?

Edited May 6, 2022 by Golfbeat

[Mono]

GB- so - my hips suck too - 100% - i've worked with a PT who was PRI certified - and i did PRI exercises for months on end, i have two torn labrums, FAI and generally very tight hips, while i think PRI is a great therapy, a great tool for those that want to pursuit it, there are a ton of therapies that can be very helpful (my personal list is long but i went way past the PT, massage, stretching/ strengthening, chriro that seem like they are the main therapies that are socially acceptable amongst most normal people - maybe not with us goofers though)

 

having symmetrical hips or closer to symmetrical (which is part of PRI) if you have real issues should help function, pain and possibly even your golf swing - that said and i think it's an important point - if you looked at the top 100 golfers in the world - i would bet a lot of money that their body's are all sorts of fck'd up hips included - there is no way you can swing like they do for as long as they have and not have issues

 

i have this issue the PRI term is ACI, (plus a whole bunch of others) and my golf swing problem has been a 'fall back' on the downswing - which is the reverse of what you are talking about - i have drills that i work on - getting my hips more forward in the downswing and my weight there - though that isn't the question at hand! - and golfbeat - i've read a lot of your posts here over the years - super helpful - so you probably know this, hips slide target wise in every good swing tour ave is 3" from set up to impact and 5" in the finish, tour ave hip turn at impact is a lot more than most can do

 

 

[golfarb1]

3 hours ago, Golfbeat said:

Over the years, I have worked relentlessly to try to get rid of my slide. The slide is probably one of the most destructive motions in a golf swing leading to all kind of bad shots. Gankas, AMG, Malaska and most recently Dr Kwon have come up with many drills to improve the pivot. These drills all promote a pressure shift and a turn into the lead leg in the thru swing and a trail hip which goes back without the left hip going forward in the back swing.

 

When I do the drills I have great difficulty keeping the left hip back in the back swing and turning that hip further back into the left hip socket. I have come to believe that a postural fault is the reason why I cannot make a proper pivot into the left hip rather then my athletic ability or not working hard enough on the right drills.

 

I found out that my pelvis is naturally tilted forward and to the right. This seems to be the case for many, many people. One theory is that this is the result of too strong of a right side which can be exacerbated by right sided sports like tennis, baseball and golf (if you are a righty). 

 

A weak left hamstring and some other muscular issues in the left leg  and core caused by the faulty use of the pelvis when standing, walking and playing sports could therefore make it very difficult to properly load into the left leg.

 

I attach a YT video from Neal Hallinan who has a channel full of information and exercises about this issue. I think that spending some time on researching this issue further and doing some of the exercises may help your golf game and your general posture and health as well.

 

 

The number one reason for golfers failing to improve is lack of mobility and core strength . All golfers who  are serious about improving should first go through a screen by a a registered physical therapist, NOT a GOLF PRO, who understands the golf swing and can design a program to correct these deficits . Maybe such a program will not correct all of your physical problems , but it should improve your overall health and help your golf game 
No matter how much you practice and no matter how good the golf instruction , golfers are severely limiting their potential to improve if they do not correct underlying physical issues. 
And I would be very careful in diagnosing any physical deficits via YouTube videos. Remember it is your overall health that you are dealing with , not just your golf swing . 

[golfarb1]

One golf suggestion 

Setup in a reverse K. Then there is no need to slide because your weight is already towards your lead foot at setup. 

[scooterhd2]

@Golfbeat

 

Have you experiment with an extremely open stance? Its nearly impossible to slide from there and basically presets most of the hip turn. If you have trouble getting the hip back, why not just put it there in the first place.

 

The middle alignment stick is the target line and the ball is sent on it. Left stick is the foot line. Thats very open. 

 

[glk]

possible that the slide is due to a physical limitation.   more typical is the slide is a compensation for a release pattern that without the slide the ball would be fatted.     The slide moves low point forward to avoid the fat/chunk.

[MonteScheinblum]

1 hour ago, Golfbeat said:

 

I don't think so, but will check! Now recovering from inguinal hernia procedure. Have a lot of time to work on set up :).

 

You have mentioned a few times that you had to learn to walk properly after knee surgery. What was the issue you had to correct?

I walked like I setup to a golf ball.  Feet turned out, forward bend, shoulders in, head tilted to look at the ground.

[Trippels]

10 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

I walked like I setup to a golf ball.  Feet turned out, forward bend, shoulders in, head tilted to look at the ground.

Quack quack

[MonteScheinblum]

Spoiler

 

Yes

[MK7Golf21]

8 hours ago, Golfbeat said:

Over the years, I have worked relentlessly to try to get rid of my slide. The slide is probably one of the most destructive motions in a golf swing leading to all kind of bad shots. Gankas, AMG, Malaska and most recently Dr Kwon have come up with many drills to improve the pivot. These drills all promote a pressure shift and a turn into the lead leg in the thru swing and a trail hip which goes back without the left hip going forward in the back swing.

 

When I do the drills I have great difficulty keeping the left hip back in the back swing and turning that hip further back into the left hip socket. I have come to believe that a postural fault is the reason why I cannot make a proper pivot into the left hip rather then my athletic ability or not working hard enough on the right drills.

 

I found out that my pelvis is naturally tilted forward and to the right. This seems to be the case for many, many people. One theory is that this is the result of too strong of a right side which can be exacerbated by right sided sports like tennis, baseball and golf (if you are a righty). 

 

A weak left hamstring and some other muscular issues in the left leg  and core caused by the faulty use of the pelvis when standing, walking and playing sports could therefore make it very difficult to properly load into the left leg.

 

I attach a YT video from Neal Hallinan who has a channel full of information and exercises about this issue. I think that spending some time on researching this issue further and doing some of the exercises may help your golf game and your general posture and health as well.

 

 

 

This same belief has been mentioned quite a few times on the forum and I think possibly that is how it's been spread around. The left hip does go forward in the backswing, what you don't want to go forward is the center of your hips.

 

If you kept your left hip from going forward at all on the backswing then your center of pelvis would move backwards and your right hip would move extremely deep on the backswing. If would be such an awkward position that there is no physical way to clear your lead hip on the downswing unless you were made of spaghetti to prevent the injury it would cause and extreme hip strength to actually pull it off.

[Golfbeat]

47 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

 

This same belief has been mentioned quite a few times on the forum and I think possibly that is how it's been spread around. The left hip does go forward in the backswing, what you don't want to go forward is the center of your hips.

 

If you kept your left hip from going forward at all on the backswing then your center of pelvis would move backwards and your right hip would move extremely deep on the backswing. If would be such an awkward position that there is no physical way to clear your lead hip on the downswing unless you were made of spaghetti to prevent the injury it would cause and extreme hip strength to actually pull it off.

 

You are correct the lead hip should move forward but to a much lesser extend than most am's. The AM video from AMG shows exactly what I am doing in the back swing: left hip and pelvis going way too much forward. I do not seem to be able to correct this despite trying very hard. This lead me to the postural/muscle imbalance issue.

 

 

 

[Chunkitgood]

Instead of moving the hips you might think in terms of flexing and internally rotating the right hip joint and extending and externally rotating the left hip joint in the backswing (all while extending the right knee and flexing the left knee)

 

It would be niece to think physical factors prevent good golf, but there are too many fit, mobile, flexible people who struggle.

[Golfbeat]

This video from might illustrate this issue better.

 

 

7 hours ago, Chunkitgood said:

Instead of moving the hips you might think in terms of flexing and internally rotating the right hip joint and extending and externally rotating the left hip joint in the backswing (all while extending the right knee and flexing the left knee)

 

It would be niece to think physical factors prevent good golf, but there are too many fit, mobile, flexible people who struggle.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by Golfbeat

[A.Princey]

The pro slides the hips at the target mostly before completing the backswing. Like once the hip turn ends, the lower spine falls to the target line and the thru swing is almost all rotation.