Should You Bend from the Waist, or the Hips? Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Should You Bend from the Waist, or the Hips? Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often hear golfers talk about how when they get a set up for the golf ball they like to line themselves up nicely, get forward into their good posture and bend from the waist. This is a real issue because there’s a big difference between the waist and your hips. Although they're not far apart, bending from the hips and bending from the waist makes a massive difference to the way you set up to the golf ball. So if you're unsure, we really well need to work on bending at the hips and not at the waist. The waist should be nice and straight as we tilt forward in the hips. So think about tilting from below your belt down here in the hips but not above your belt up here in the waist so a really good checkpoint for you here would be to use your golf club as a ruler. Place your nose, your chin and your belly button against the shaft and then tilt forward. As I tilt forward there to keep my nose and my chin and my belly button all in a straight line, I have to tilt my hips. If I was to stand here and try and tilt my waist, something would come away from the golf club and end up with a very rounded arched posture position, kind of what we class as the classical old man position. So from a good posture position, tilt forward at the hips, allowing yourself nicely. I mean you should have this slight knee flex, big bum pushed out and the base of the spine really straight for good posture. Then when you rotate, you're rotating your spine as one flat area rather than have it to be curved in the middle which we give you a very restricted back swing. So if you're considering bending from the waist or the hips, make sure that it's the hip. Bend from below your belt buckle and hopefully that will help you improve your posture.

2012-09-17

I often hear golfers talk about how when they get a set up for the golf ball they like to line themselves up nicely, get forward into their good posture and bend from the waist. This is a real issue because there’s a big difference between the waist and your hips. Although they're not far apart, bending from the hips and bending from the waist makes a massive difference to the way you set up to the golf ball. So if you're unsure, we really well need to work on bending at the hips and not at the waist. The waist should be nice and straight as we tilt forward in the hips. So think about tilting from below your belt down here in the hips but not above your belt up here in the waist so a really good checkpoint for you here would be to use your golf club as a ruler. Place your nose, your chin and your belly button against the shaft and then tilt forward. As I tilt forward there to keep my nose and my chin and my belly button all in a straight line, I have to tilt my hips. If I was to stand here and try and tilt my waist, something would come away from the golf club and end up with a very rounded arched posture position, kind of what we class as the classical old man position. So from a good posture position, tilt forward at the hips, allowing yourself nicely. I mean you should have this slight knee flex, big bum pushed out and the base of the spine really straight for good posture. Then when you rotate, you're rotating your spine as one flat area rather than have it to be curved in the middle which we give you a very restricted back swing. So if you're considering bending from the waist or the hips, make sure that it's the hip. Bend from below your belt buckle and hopefully that will help you improve your posture.