Golf Swing Tip: Clear the Hips for Power, Accuracy (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Swing Tip: Clear the Hips for Power, Accuracy (Video) - by Pete Styles

You often hear professionals and the commentators on the TV talking about how good somebody is at clearing the hips through the ball and how he clears his left side really well. And I thought it doesn’t really make any sense to you and you are not sure whether you are clearing your left side. Let’s try and make a bit of sense out of that comment.

So if -- address position here and we setup the golf ball we are probably going to have a hips, chest and shoulders quite at square with our feet pointing at target, that’s an assertive position, but at impact, it should look very different. At impact everything should have turned into an open position your feet will stay still but your heel will left, your left hip for the right handed golfer would be in a very option position pointing along way left and likewise the shoulders would be pointing down the left hand side as well. So it would be this position through the point of impact. Now your down swing is actually driven by the opening of that left hip, so if my good setter position we turn to the top now the hips are going to unwind first and the faster your hips can clear and unwind the faster they can pull the upper body round and leave the hands and arms into a good position. So a lot of people would generate more power if they were able to spin their hips quicker.

So a couple of little exercises for you here, if you just think about getting your belt buckle and turning it from your backswing into your finish position as fast as possible, think about taking your belt buckle to the flag as quickly as you can in your downswing. So nicely up to the top and spin and the faster you can spin the hips into an impact position the faster the shoulders and the hands and the arms will come down and ultimately the faster your club head will be traveling.

If you are not sure how that should feel try and just pick a golf ball up in your right hand and then just skim the stone or skim the golf ball as if you were skimming a stone on the lake and you will often feel like well I do open my hips and that feels quite natural to do that. So from here and just skim the stone there and your hips would be open rather than being square at impact. You never really throw and then follow through at the end, it’s quite a transitional movement that you open your hips then you bring the hand and the arm around and that’s the same feel that we have in the golf swing that we spin and we open the hips as we come through impact so clearing your hips, opening up and clearing your left side is a great way of developing power and accuracy in your golf swing.

 2012-07-16

You often hear professionals and the commentators on the TV talking about how good somebody is at clearing the hips through the ball and how he clears his left side really well. And I thought it doesn’t really make any sense to you and you are not sure whether you are clearing your left side. Let’s try and make a bit of sense out of that comment.

So if — address position here and we setup the golf ball we are probably going to have a hips, chest and shoulders quite at square with our feet pointing at target, that’s an assertive position, but at impact, it should look very different. At impact everything should have turned into an open position your feet will stay still but your heel will left, your left hip for the right handed golfer would be in a very option position pointing along way left and likewise the shoulders would be pointing down the left hand side as well. So it would be this position through the point of impact. Now your down swing is actually driven by the opening of that left hip, so if my good setter position we turn to the top now the hips are going to unwind first and the faster your hips can clear and unwind the faster they can pull the upper body round and leave the hands and arms into a good position. So a lot of people would generate more power if they were able to spin their hips quicker.

So a couple of little exercises for you here, if you just think about getting your belt buckle and turning it from your backswing into your finish position as fast as possible, think about taking your belt buckle to the flag as quickly as you can in your downswing. So nicely up to the top and spin and the faster you can spin the hips into an impact position the faster the shoulders and the hands and the arms will come down and ultimately the faster your club head will be traveling.

If you are not sure how that should feel try and just pick a golf ball up in your right hand and then just skim the stone or skim the golf ball as if you were skimming a stone on the lake and you will often feel like well I do open my hips and that feels quite natural to do that. So from here and just skim the stone there and your hips would be open rather than being square at impact. You never really throw and then follow through at the end, it’s quite a transitional movement that you open your hips then you bring the hand and the arm around and that’s the same feel that we have in the golf swing that we spin and we open the hips as we come through impact so clearing your hips, opening up and clearing your left side is a great way of developing power and accuracy in your golf swing.