Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro

What should be my golf down swing trigger? Now, bear in mind we do need to make sure we complete a nice full and a nice consistent back swing; but there are many different ways you can actually trigger the down swing into the ball. Some are more popular than others and some will rely on your particular swing faults or what you are working on at that particular time. But the most common, the most used, and often the most successful, is a slight bump of the hips towards the target before a rotation of the hips towards the target as well.

So this all assuming that we’ve got a nice full back swing all the way to the top with a nice wide position. Now after you’ve achieved this position with a nice full shoulder turn, the initiation of the down swing should begin with a slight lateral movement towards the target and a slide bump of the hips. Now what this does it sets the ignition going for an actual down swing. It gets those hips moving and then it gets them turning; and as they turn just notice how the rest of the body is dragged along for the ride. So if you are struggling with initiating the down swing that could be the cue.

There are other ways you could do it if you lift up the left heel during the down swing, you could press that down; it does exactly the same thing. If you are struggling with coming over the top in the down swing, you could bring the right elbow down towards the side. There are lots of different tributes you can use; but by far, the most successful and the most commonly used is that slide movement with the hips towards the target and then the rotation, it gets everything moving and everything working in the correct order. So if you were wanting to know how to initiate that down swing, give that hip a bump, give those hips a turn; and hopefully, you should get some more consistent shots.