Henrik Stenson: Hips Shift Left Before Arms Finish Backswing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Henrik Stenson: Hips Shift Left Before Arms Finish Backswing (Video) - by Pete Styles

When a guy wins $16 million in six months, it’s probably worth taking note of what he is doing in his golf swing. And that’s what Henrik Stenson has achieved over the last six months in 2013 when he’s won the FedEx Cup in the United States and he’s actually just this weekend was on filming this tip trying to win the Race to Dubai and the European Tour. And if he does win both of those he’ll be a very wealthy man and so will his coach Pete Cowen and will be the first player to win the FedEx and the Race to Dubai in the one season. And if we look at what he does in his swing, he has a nice little unique move that really generates a lot of power from his frame. As he‘s swinging the golf club back, he actually starts his down swing as the club’s still moving back. Now that might not sound like is a particularly sensible idea. Particularly for a lot of people that have been working on a back swing and the down swing has been two completely separate ideas, two completely separate motions. But actually if you can start your down swing with your hips as the club is still going up, you increase what we call the X-factor or the X-angle which generates a little bit more power.

So Stenson’s movement is bringing the golf club back with his body, arms and shoulders but then when the club gets towards shoulder height, he actually starts to move his hips in towards the target this way, already working his hips into that down swing motions as the club keeps going back. Now if we look at turning shoulders against hips, shoulders coming back, hips moving down that increases the stretch between those two angles. So then when he does get to the top his hips are already loaded, starts into unwind this way bringing the club down even more aggressively. So Stenson gets huge prestigious distances by creating this hip shift as you bring the club down. Now if you’re very athletic and you’re very powerful that’s a movement you can work on. If you’re not then there’s just one thing to guard against and that’s guard against the fact you don’t want to swing back and get stuck here, then swing down and then move your hips at the end. It’s a really nice way of making sure that you are activating your hips in a similar fashion to Stenson. Let’s just do this little practice drill, we start with our feet, normal width apart in a good position and then step the left foot into the right foot so it’s just one inch, one or two inches apart. Then we make a back swing as the club comes up, we step the left foot across and then we move into it. So we bring the left foot to cross to the right foot, swing the club back, start in the left foot and the hips. The club’s still going back as my hip’s moving across and then I hit through. It’s a fairly similar fashion to how if you were throwing a ball, you would bring the ball back with your hand but you would start to move your front leg in and then you would come through. And it seems a lot more natural when we look at it in terms of a throwing action of how the hand goes back the leg goes forwards and then the club comes through or the hand comes through. In a golf swing action, little practice drill, bring the left foot across, swing step and hit through. And you should feel very balanced in a full finished position all body weight on the left side. If we tried it with a golf ball now, normal set up we’ll step across, swing back step and hit. Hold the balance finish position and you’re swinging like Stenson. [playerProfile url="https://golf-info-guide.com/pga-players/henrik-stenson/"][/playerProfile] 2014-01-17

When a guy wins $16 million in six months, it’s probably worth taking note of what he is doing in his golf swing. And that’s what Henrik Stenson has achieved over the last six months in 2013 when he’s won the FedEx Cup in the United States and he’s actually just this weekend was on filming this tip trying to win the Race to Dubai and the European Tour. And if he does win both of those he’ll be a very wealthy man and so will his coach Pete Cowen and will be the first player to win the FedEx and the Race to Dubai in the one season. And if we look at what he does in his swing, he has a nice little unique move that really generates a lot of power from his frame. As he‘s swinging the golf club back, he actually starts his down swing as the club’s still moving back. Now that might not sound like is a particularly sensible idea. Particularly for a lot of people that have been working on a back swing and the down swing has been two completely separate ideas, two completely separate motions. But actually if you can start your down swing with your hips as the club is still going up, you increase what we call the X-factor or the X-angle which generates a little bit more power.

So Stenson’s movement is bringing the golf club back with his body, arms and shoulders but then when the club gets towards shoulder height, he actually starts to move his hips in towards the target this way, already working his hips into that down swing motions as the club keeps going back. Now if we look at turning shoulders against hips, shoulders coming back, hips moving down that increases the stretch between those two angles. So then when he does get to the top his hips are already loaded, starts into unwind this way bringing the club down even more aggressively. So Stenson gets huge prestigious distances by creating this hip shift as you bring the club down. Now if you’re very athletic and you’re very powerful that’s a movement you can work on. If you’re not then there’s just one thing to guard against and that’s guard against the fact you don’t want to swing back and get stuck here, then swing down and then move your hips at the end. It’s a really nice way of making sure that you are activating your hips in a similar fashion to Stenson.

Let’s just do this little practice drill, we start with our feet, normal width apart in a good position and then step the left foot into the right foot so it’s just one inch, one or two inches apart. Then we make a back swing as the club comes up, we step the left foot across and then we move into it. So we bring the left foot to cross to the right foot, swing the club back, start in the left foot and the hips. The club’s still going back as my hip’s moving across and then I hit through. It’s a fairly similar fashion to how if you were throwing a ball, you would bring the ball back with your hand but you would start to move your front leg in and then you would come through. And it seems a lot more natural when we look at it in terms of a throwing action of how the hand goes back the leg goes forwards and then the club comes through or the hand comes through. In a golf swing action, little practice drill, bring the left foot across, swing step and hit through. And you should feel very balanced in a full finished position all body weight on the left side. If we tried it with a golf ball now, normal set up we’ll step across, swing back step and hit. Hold the balance finish position and you’re swinging like Stenson.

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