The Advantage Of Having Your Hips Open In Your Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Advantage Of Having Your Hips Open In Your Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here is a question then. If we know the hips are going to be square at setup, why aren’t the hips square at impact? Surely, it would be easy, as a golfer, just to stand still and hit the ball and then follow through with the hips after the event. Why are we so keen on opening the hips ready for impact? Well, the reality is opening the hips ready for impact is crucial to generate three key factors in your impact position.

One of the first things we need to do is we need to delay the hit. Now, this is a posh way of saying hit the ball harder. The idea here is if we stayed square with our hips, turn back and hit the ball, that club head is not moving very fast. But if we can acutally turn our body beyond impact and then hit it, the club head is traveling faster. We’ve allowed more time for that club head to accelerate and accelerate and accelerate and then we hit the ball. So, we get more club head speed if we can delay the hit by opening the hips. The next thing it allows us to also do is create a downward strike. We know if the ball is sitting on the floor, it’s very difficult to hit that ball well if we are hitting up on the ball. We need to hit down on the ball. We need to hit the ball and then we need to hit the turf. So, by having the ball in the normal position of our stance, but then having our hips open we encourage the downwards angle of attack, meaning that we get the ball and then we get the turf. And the last thing that we can help ourselves with by opening the hips is the ability to keep the club on play and we can stay on playing better if we are opening our hips. And again if we look at this from down the line and I take a good setup swing to the top and I don’t use my hips, my hands and arms are going to come out this way over the top, I’m going to hit across the back of the ball. That’s going to cause me problems. If I’m up to the top and then I use my hips correctly, the club drops back and behind me, stays on playing better, comes through the ball on a more neutral path, maybe even a slightly in-to-out path for a draw shot, because I’ve used my hips. So, golfers that don’t use yet their hips effectively in the down swing suffer for those three factors aren’t working for them. Using your hips is incredibly important. 2016-10-04

Here is a question then. If we know the hips are going to be square at setup, why aren’t the hips square at impact? Surely, it would be easy, as a golfer, just to stand still and hit the ball and then follow through with the hips after the event. Why are we so keen on opening the hips ready for impact? Well, the reality is opening the hips ready for impact is crucial to generate three key factors in your impact position.

One of the first things we need to do is we need to delay the hit. Now, this is a posh way of saying hit the ball harder. The idea here is if we stayed square with our hips, turn back and hit the ball, that club head is not moving very fast. But if we can acutally turn our body beyond impact and then hit it, the club head is traveling faster. We’ve allowed more time for that club head to accelerate and accelerate and accelerate and then we hit the ball. So, we get more club head speed if we can delay the hit by opening the hips.

The next thing it allows us to also do is create a downward strike. We know if the ball is sitting on the floor, it’s very difficult to hit that ball well if we are hitting up on the ball. We need to hit down on the ball. We need to hit the ball and then we need to hit the turf. So, by having the ball in the normal position of our stance, but then having our hips open we encourage the downwards angle of attack, meaning that we get the ball and then we get the turf.

And the last thing that we can help ourselves with by opening the hips is the ability to keep the club on play and we can stay on playing better if we are opening our hips. And again if we look at this from down the line and I take a good setup swing to the top and I don’t use my hips, my hands and arms are going to come out this way over the top, I’m going to hit across the back of the ball. That’s going to cause me problems.

If I’m up to the top and then I use my hips correctly, the club drops back and behind me, stays on playing better, comes through the ball on a more neutral path, maybe even a slightly in-to-out path for a draw shot, because I’ve used my hips. So, golfers that don’t use yet their hips effectively in the down swing suffer for those three factors aren’t working for them. Using your hips is incredibly important.