The Risks of a Big Shoulder Turn (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Risks of a Big Shoulder Turn (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now there are some risks associated with making a really big shoulder turn and particularly if your shoulder turn gets too long and too out of position. So as we set up to the golf ball, we want to get that left shoulder coming right away around underneath the chin. But if we start to rotate too far back, there are a couple of things that could happen. For some golfers, as they turn around here, if they lack a little bit of flexibility and they’re not very stable, we can sometimes see them start to lean into their left side.

Their spine angle starts to tilt the wrong way, and any golfer that tilts the wrong way at the top and leans too far left is going to be a bit of trouble for the downswing because basically the only way you can get out of this is the reverse pivot of rocking back. So they lean left too much this way, their reverse pivot going back, the body weight is going the wrong way. So be careful when you’re making a big shoulder turn about reverse pivoting. There’s another issue that can affect a lot of golfers which is standing up in the backswing. So from here, we have good spine angle. If you turn back too far, be careful you don’t stand up and lose your spine angle from here. We’re going to be over swinging a little bit too much and also topping the golf ball quite often. So you’ll be inconsistent with the height of your swing. Sometimes topping the ball, sometimes from the stood up you’ll drop and dead and maybe even catch the ball quite heavy because of that. So you want that nice strong posture to start with, good shoulder rotation but losing any up or down motion. One other area that some golfers can struggle with with big shoulder rotations, it can cause some overdraws or even some hooks. Now this is when the upper body winds up so much and then releases so much that the bottom half gets a little bit static and the legs and knees don’t quite work as they should, therefore causing the over rotation of the upper body. The hands work too quickly, the club face closes down and the ball hooks down the left-hand side. So yes we’d like to get a full shoulder rotation windup for good power. We’ve got to be careful, we don’t have a leftward side bend, standing up or an over hooking of the golf ball. Keep an eye on those when you’re working on big shoulder rotation. 2015-08-11




Now there are some risks associated with making a really big shoulder turn and particularly if your shoulder turn gets too long and too out of position. So as we set up to the golf ball, we want to get that left shoulder coming right away around underneath the chin. But if we start to rotate too far back, there are a couple of things that could happen. For some golfers, as they turn around here, if they lack a little bit of flexibility and they’re not very stable, we can sometimes see them start to lean into their left side.

Their spine angle starts to tilt the wrong way, and any golfer that tilts the wrong way at the top and leans too far left is going to be a bit of trouble for the downswing because basically the only way you can get out of this is the reverse pivot of rocking back. So they lean left too much this way, their reverse pivot going back, the body weight is going the wrong way. So be careful when you’re making a big shoulder turn about reverse pivoting. There’s another issue that can affect a lot of golfers which is standing up in the backswing.

So from here, we have good spine angle. If you turn back too far, be careful you don’t stand up and lose your spine angle from here. We’re going to be over swinging a little bit too much and also topping the golf ball quite often. So you’ll be inconsistent with the height of your swing. Sometimes topping the ball, sometimes from the stood up you’ll drop and dead and maybe even catch the ball quite heavy because of that. So you want that nice strong posture to start with, good shoulder rotation but losing any up or down motion.

One other area that some golfers can struggle with with big shoulder rotations, it can cause some overdraws or even some hooks. Now this is when the upper body winds up so much and then releases so much that the bottom half gets a little bit static and the legs and knees don’t quite work as they should, therefore causing the over rotation of the upper body. The hands work too quickly, the club face closes down and the ball hooks down the left-hand side.

So yes we’d like to get a full shoulder rotation windup for good power. We’ve got to be careful, we don’t have a leftward side bend, standing up or an over hooking of the golf ball. Keep an eye on those when you’re working on big shoulder rotation.