An earlier post discusses this fundamental aspect of the golf setup. Without this bend, it is impossible to TURN correctly away from the ball. In this post, I discuss some of the things that can go wrong while attempting to setup with the correct hip bend.
POSITIONING THE CLUBHEAD FIRST (MAY INTERFERE WITH THE HIP BEND)
While positioning the club behind the ball is an important part of the setup, it is not THE FIRST thing that you ought to do. The first thing, should be the hip bend. In fact, if you start with the clubhead positioning, chances are you will move your shoulders in a way that will then interfere with your subsequent hip bend. So, just take care of this all important , hip bend first.
Once this is correctly done, you should FEEL enough SPACE to turn your upper body in front of you. Without sufficient hip bend, you will NOT feel this spaciousness in front of you.Now that you have enough AREA (space) in front of your body – to execute your upper body turn, you can PLACE the clubhead behind the ball.
Your hand should be close to your left thigh – for all clubs – including the driver. Too many beginners do not pay attention to their HAND position relative to their body. In fact, this position DOES NOT CHANGE – no matter what club you are using.
Yes – your hand will move slightly further away from your left thigh – as the club gets longer – but this will occur naturally. The thing you have to keep in mind is whether the CLUBHEAD is resting SQUARELY behind the ball. If it is doing that, your hand should be close to your left thigh – that is just how the golf club is designed. If your hand were anywhere else (more towards the center of your legs, for example) – the clubhead would not rest SQUARELY behind the ball.
LACK OF LOWER BODY STABILITY
Even if you do always remember to correctly bend first – before positioning the clubhead, there is still a reason your hip bend may not be correct. And this is simply, due to a lack of hip joint strength (and/or supporting leg strength). Total lower body strength – especially, hips and thighs (hamstrings, quads) – is critical to staying balanced AND LEVEL throughout the full swing.
The SQUAT is an excellent exercise for all round lower body strength. One of the things that starts happening – in a long round of golf – is that the legs start getting tired. This leads to a loss of stability – and ‘swaying’ among other things – that effectively ruin the swing plane. If you find your scores climbing as you play the last few holes, chances are you may be suffering from this lower body fatigue. There is only one way to conquer this demon – do the dreaded squats.