Swing Transition - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
Swing Transition - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

In this video PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the best way of using your hips, arms and shoulders in combination to provide a better and smoother transition from the top of your backswing into a solid impact position. If the golf swing starts down using a rotational shift of the hips followed by a pulling down of the arms and less rotation of the shoulders, the golfer should see an improvement to their technique and ability.

So one of the common things we see in lessons and the question I would imagine you get asked quite a lot as well. Is “how am I starting my downswing ?” Now if we think of the golf swing we've got the back swing where the club is moving away from target then we have something where it's going to transition and move back down towards the ball and towards our target, and a couple of common misconception I think happened during this phase of the swing. Yeah I think there's a there's a feeling for golfers that they want to try and make the whole thing be very fluid which is probably the right idea, but we have to understand there's a change of direction so the club goes one way then the club changes and comes back down as you quite rightly put it. we term that the transition part of the golf swing and I think the concern that I would see in a lot of golfers is they probably rush that element. Yes they're trying to generate power as we all are in the golf swing and there's almost a feeling that the faster I go back the faster I can come down so we see a golf swing that looks like this one and you think I blinked I missed that bit Matt.

So what you would actually like to see is a golfer taking the club to the top in the right position creating a big turn of the shoulders creating some width and some height and if we presume that part of the swing is now correct we talk about the transition of how we start to move that down, and I don't like to see that rush to like to see a bit more time taken over that phase. Almost like much of the arm a bit of a pause at the top and would it be once we've had this pause and you say that you're waiting for it slightly is it the hands or the arms where do you feel now amongst your body where does that actually start? The best process for me that I like to see my clients as well as we start lower rather than higher. Ground upwards and a good focal point I think a lot of people can attach to is the left hip. Right so turning to the top here the shoulders really coiled one way we've created that feeling of tension and now the left hip starts to move out of the way the lead hip should I say starts to move towards target driving almost laterally across this way it's a lateral rotational action turning towards target. OK So if like a good thought process for the guys at home if we had sort of a a wall or an imaginary wall coming here would it be now that you're thinking of getting that hip towards the wall to start. Absolutely so pushing in towards that wall there moving moving up my right side and towards that wall from here now opening rotating and I think a simple swing thought like belt buckle to target if I imagine that from here I'm going to try and turn towards target belt buckle towards that camera belt buckle towards target will help me generate that lateral rotation that I so much want.

Excellent and the the poor one we tend to see where does that start from? I think a lot of golfers will come to the top here the hips will be quite static and there's a hit a classic sort of hammer in the right hand I want to try and work something hit so it's very much upper body right hand particularly will hit the ball the lower body is locked out of it. Generally speaking that's really going to throw the club across the line get the club a little bit steep the position the golfer can come from that is outside the line the only option is across that's going to generally cause pulls slices the odd shank. All from the top of hit it over the top the sort of hand and you think that comes from almost that word there that hit we're going to hit the golf ball instead of actually make a golf swing. Yeah there's a perception that the more I try the further it goes, and I think that's a flawed perception because we see in not just golf but a lot of sports that actually the synchronization of the motion and the fluidity of the motion generates the power, and when you watch the best players in the world they never really look like they're trying to hit too hard. It comes from good synchronization of lower body upper body hands arms release and I think that follow through position is quite crucial as well. So if I think about how I get from my top position to my balance follow through reposition that hip shift in that hip lead that starts my downswing so well. That's a very crucial part of that follow through position. Excellent so if you were to demo now that one thought that's going to be running through your mind from the top. Is that you're going to be leading with this lead hip now towards the imaginary wall we've got? Yeah something to take a little bit more time at the top of my back swing and really accentuate the hip motion. Fantastic I am going to swing at that speed all the time that I was a good one probably the best one I've seen you hit. Excellent so to summarize all we're going to do from the top to start our downswing it's not with the hands and the arms were going to start with our lead hip we're going to get a little ball toward target and then turn to finish towards the target.

2018-11-12

In this video PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the best way of using your hips, arms and shoulders in combination to provide a better and smoother transition from the top of your backswing into a solid impact position. If the golf swing starts down using a rotational shift of the hips followed by a pulling down of the arms and less rotation of the shoulders, the golfer should see an improvement to their technique and ability.

So one of the common things we see in lessons and the question I would imagine you get asked quite a lot as well. Is “how am I starting my downswing ?” Now if we think of the golf swing we've got the back swing where the club is moving away from target then we have something where it's going to transition and move back down towards the ball and towards our target, and a couple of common misconception I think happened during this phase of the swing. Yeah I think there's a there's a feeling for golfers that they want to try and make the whole thing be very fluid which is probably the right idea, but we have to understand there's a change of direction so the club goes one way then the club changes and comes back down as you quite rightly put it. we term that the transition part of the golf swing and I think the concern that I would see in a lot of golfers is they probably rush that element. Yes they're trying to generate power as we all are in the golf swing and there's almost a feeling that the faster I go back the faster I can come down so we see a golf swing that looks like this one and you think I blinked I missed that bit Matt.

So what you would actually like to see is a golfer taking the club to the top in the right position creating a big turn of the shoulders creating some width and some height and if we presume that part of the swing is now correct we talk about the transition of how we start to move that down, and I don't like to see that rush to like to see a bit more time taken over that phase. Almost like much of the arm a bit of a pause at the top and would it be once we've had this pause and you say that you're waiting for it slightly is it the hands or the arms where do you feel now amongst your body where does that actually start? The best process for me that I like to see my clients as well as we start lower rather than higher. Ground upwards and a good focal point I think a lot of people can attach to is the left hip. Right so turning to the top here the shoulders really coiled one way we've created that feeling of tension and now the left hip starts to move out of the way the lead hip should I say starts to move towards target driving almost laterally across this way it's a lateral rotational action turning towards target. OK So if like a good thought process for the guys at home if we had sort of a a wall or an imaginary wall coming here would it be now that you're thinking of getting that hip towards the wall to start. Absolutely so pushing in towards that wall there moving moving up my right side and towards that wall from here now opening rotating and I think a simple swing thought like belt buckle to target if I imagine that from here I'm going to try and turn towards target belt buckle towards that camera belt buckle towards target will help me generate that lateral rotation that I so much want.

Excellent and the the poor one we tend to see where does that start from? I think a lot of golfers will come to the top here the hips will be quite static and there's a hit a classic sort of hammer in the right hand I want to try and work something hit so it's very much upper body right hand particularly will hit the ball the lower body is locked out of it. Generally speaking that's really going to throw the club across the line get the club a little bit steep the position the golfer can come from that is outside the line the only option is across that's going to generally cause pulls slices the odd shank. All from the top of hit it over the top the sort of hand and you think that comes from almost that word there that hit we're going to hit the golf ball instead of actually make a golf swing. Yeah there's a perception that the more I try the further it goes, and I think that's a flawed perception because we see in not just golf but a lot of sports that actually the synchronization of the motion and the fluidity of the motion generates the power, and when you watch the best players in the world they never really look like they're trying to hit too hard. It comes from good synchronization of lower body upper body hands arms release and I think that follow through position is quite crucial as well. So if I think about how I get from my top position to my balance follow through reposition that hip shift in that hip lead that starts my downswing so well. That's a very crucial part of that follow through position. Excellent so if you were to demo now that one thought that's going to be running through your mind from the top. Is that you're going to be leading with this lead hip now towards the imaginary wall we've got? Yeah something to take a little bit more time at the top of my back swing and really accentuate the hip motion. Fantastic I am going to swing at that speed all the time that I was a good one probably the best one I've seen you hit. Excellent so to summarize all we're going to do from the top to start our downswing it's not with the hands and the arms were going to start with our lead hip we're going to get a little ball toward target and then turn to finish towards the target.