Proper feeling for getting the hips through

[jnug]

By now you are probably used to me asking questions now based on trying to understand how something should feel or referencing some aspect of the swing.

I have posted a few times in “Swing talk” about how much I struggle with getting my hips to move early on in a practice session. It seems to take several swings for me to get my hips to move at all. Gradually they do free up and I can make the weight transfer easier and easier as my practice session continues.

While struggling with this last night I remembered something I had seen in one of the Medicus videos. They have something they call the Medicus Ball. One of their drills calls for placing the ball between your knees. The idea, according to Medicus, is that your very first move in the transition from backswing to downswing should force the ball to drop from between your knees. Since it clearly does not make sense that your back or right knee would move further back to make this happen the idea is that your left knee should make a move toward the target thus making the ball fall from between your knees. While I do not have one of these balls I thought I would try to see if I could get the feeling of making my left knee move toward the target as the first move in the transition. I happened to have the 4 iron in hand at the time (not an easy club to hit). I started hitting the ball longer and straighter. I took out the 3 iron next and the same thing happened.
I must admit this move is not easy for me to get the hang of. However it begs the following question. Should the move with your hips feel more like you are pulling your hips through or pushing off of your right hip toward your left? Should the move feel like equal parts pulling and pushing? Clearly one should be able to pull his weight forward easier than pushing his weight forward. I am beginning to wonder if I am trying too hard to push my hips through when in fact I should be either pulling my hips through or should rely on equal parts, pulling and pushing. What should the correct feel be, pulling, pushing or equal parts pulling and pushing?

 

[amollerud]

The sensation I look for with the hips moving and clearing through impact is the left hip should bump up and drive back. I would put the focus here versus a drive with the right hip. Does that make sense. Let me know if there is more that I can do to help.

 

[jnug]

Are you talking about the feel in the hips for both the backswing and the downswing. In other words by saying that the left hip should feel like a "bump up" is that what it should feel like during the backswing? Is the "drive back" what I should be feeling during the downswing? It does sound like whether I am understanding you completely or not, your view of it is that the feeling is much more a feeling drive from the left hip as opposed to pushing off of the right hip. I think one of my problems with hip action is that I have been trying too hard to think about it as driving off of my right hip because that is where the weight is. However "pushing" weight forward is much more difficult to do than pulling weight forward.

I discovered through my first golf lesson that I was setting up with knees too bent at address. As such the butt of my club was well below my belt line. I knew that this was lower than recommended but I thought it was right for me. In fact it got me too bound up and off balance. Since adopting a more traditional position at address, with knees less bent, it has been much easier to get my hips through and easier to get my hands ahead.

 

[amollerud]

I was referring to the downswing and through impact only. My fear when a player puts focus on the right hip it leads to more of a slide of the hips through the ball versus the hips turning. By getting the left hip to bump up and move back out of the way the hips will turn through the ball.