Distance Vs Accuracy When Opening Up The Hips During The Golf Set-Up (Video) - by Peter Finch
Distance Vs Accuracy When Opening Up The Hips During The Golf Set-Up (Video) - by Peter Finch

The age old conundrum that many players face is when to decide whether to go for distance over accuracy. Obviously, the ideal situation is that those two things are brought together and you get that wonderful combination of the two. When you’re opening up the stance to try and generate a little bit more power, the only problem with it is when your path starts to follow your lower half aim.

So if you aim long way off to the left-hand side in that hope that you won’t going to be opening up that lower half much, much more, the only thing that can happen is that the club starts to follow where your lower half is aiming. If the club starts to follow where the lower half is aiming, it will go away to the left-hand side so your path will switch left and that will involve a little bit of a change in club face alignment. If you have to then alter your club face alignment because you practice change, that’s when you’re going to get a lot of curvature on the shot. And if your club face doesn’t align correctly to the target and your path moves much further to the left-hand side, you’re just going to be here to pull. Now, obviously if that’s the case and you generate more power because of the hip being in an open position, in a more rotational position as well, those bad shots are going to be amplified. You’re going to be putting more swing speed into a vertical face position at the point of impact. But, but it’s all about allowing the path to be maintained whilst changing the lower half alignment. So we’ve already spoken about how we can get the lower half open, which will give that more rotation whilst also rotating the shoulders more around so they are still parallel to the target line. Now, the key here is to turn the lower half hard but to try and get that club traveling on a square position. Now, very, very simple drill to do this and very simple drill for you to get the feeling, it’s just the pop and align mistake just on the outside of the ball. Get yourself set up, opening up that – opening up the feet for that open position, squaring of the shoulders and then just try to get the feeling that the club is moving on the inside of this alignment stick. Try to get the feeling that it doesn’t come out and over the top. If you can do that and you can still get the feeling of that rotation, then we should be able to get these two things together. The ability to open up the lower half much, much quicker but not move the club over the top and get a traveling just on inside of the alignment stick. If you can get those two things together, then we could have the more distance and the more accuracy associated with this type of certain change.
2016-08-26

The age old conundrum that many players face is when to decide whether to go for distance over accuracy. Obviously, the ideal situation is that those two things are brought together and you get that wonderful combination of the two. When you’re opening up the stance to try and generate a little bit more power, the only problem with it is when your path starts to follow your lower half aim.

So if you aim long way off to the left-hand side in that hope that you won’t going to be opening up that lower half much, much more, the only thing that can happen is that the club starts to follow where your lower half is aiming. If the club starts to follow where the lower half is aiming, it will go away to the left-hand side so your path will switch left and that will involve a little bit of a change in club face alignment.

If you have to then alter your club face alignment because you practice change, that’s when you’re going to get a lot of curvature on the shot. And if your club face doesn’t align correctly to the target and your path moves much further to the left-hand side, you’re just going to be here to pull. Now, obviously if that’s the case and you generate more power because of the hip being in an open position, in a more rotational position as well, those bad shots are going to be amplified.

You’re going to be putting more swing speed into a vertical face position at the point of impact. But, but it’s all about allowing the path to be maintained whilst changing the lower half alignment. So we’ve already spoken about how we can get the lower half open, which will give that more rotation whilst also rotating the shoulders more around so they are still parallel to the target line. Now, the key here is to turn the lower half hard but to try and get that club traveling on a square position.

Now, very, very simple drill to do this and very simple drill for you to get the feeling, it’s just the pop and align mistake just on the outside of the ball. Get yourself set up, opening up that – opening up the feet for that open position, squaring of the shoulders and then just try to get the feeling that the club is moving on the inside of this alignment stick. Try to get the feeling that it doesn’t come out and over the top.

If you can do that and you can still get the feeling of that rotation, then we should be able to get these two things together. The ability to open up the lower half much, much quicker but not move the club over the top and get a traveling just on inside of the alignment stick. If you can get those two things together, then we could have the more distance and the more accuracy associated with this type of certain change.