By Shawn McConnon

October 28, 2020


Your Hips and Pelvis Point Down During The Transition/Downswing

It's something rarely talked about, but during the transition or start of the downswing the pelvis/hips point down.

This will help us avoid early extension, a common fault in amateur swings since forever, and getting flippy at impact. 

I've been trying this at the range and can see an improvement. Plus it's an easy swing thought "Belt Buckle Down Towards Ankle."

Full Transcript of Hip Downswing

00:00

okay transitions start the downswing

00:02

I'll give you the most important part

00:03

the golf swing which we're going to

00:05

rediscover this is prompted by videos

00:07

that have come into the channel right

00:09

it's free for you guys to send them in

00:10

as well you just get some free advice i

00:12

annotate over the videos on a weekly

00:13

basis and it's just to make sure that

00:15

you're working on the right sort of

00:17

things if you want to do that the social

00:18

media links are in the description below

00:20

now what I'm starting to see is golfers

00:22

that are struggling at the start the

00:24

dancer which is the most important part

00:25

in my opinion the reason why it's the

00:27

most important part is because a lot of

00:28

things in the golf swing coming into pre

00:31

impacts are going to have to happen very

00:32

naturally mainly due to the fact that

00:35

it's happening so fast that we couldn't

00:36

consciously really do much anyway but

00:38

second to that there's going to be a lot

00:40

of laws of physics that are going to be

00:41

happening naturally as well same as when

00:43

you do things like throw a stone or

00:45

anything like that you wouldn't really

00:46

be able to overly complicate it you

00:48

would have to just let it happen the

00:50

transition is the start of the downswing

00:52

and it's hard to be a part of the swing

00:53

that you can obviously change right now

00:56

what needs to happen at the start of the

00:57

downswing is just a couple of things

00:59

right the first thing that needs to

01:01

happen is that as we initiate the

01:02

downswing you need to make sure that you

01:04

are basically not creating an early

01:05

extension which basically means the hips

01:07

can't move in this manner the way you

01:09

counteract that is basically when you

01:11

swing up to the top for those of you

01:12

that video your swing what you're trying

01:14

to do is you're trying to get your left

01:15

hip back onto your hip line so both the

01:18

left and the right hip are on the same

01:19

sort of in theory plane as you start to

01:21

transition into this downswing position

01:23

that is an important thing because

01:25

basically what this is doing now is it's

01:27

creating space it's helping me put

01:29

weight pressure in towards the left hand

01:31

side right and it's helping me create an

01:34

element of separation and an element of

01:36

separation basically means it stops us

01:37

from swinging completely over the top

01:39

now the way you do this in a good

01:41

feeling that I've mentioned before in

01:43

the channel is that you want to try and

01:44

get the sense that the belt buckle is

01:45

working more down towards your left

01:46

ankle because basically the hips are

01:48

going to actually go what's known into a

01:50

more anterior tilt which means they're

01:51

going to go more downward facing as we

01:53

start the downswing now again this helps

01:55

us shift pressure

01:56

it helps us trigger a rotation from the

01:59

face on perspective it allows the left

02:00

thigh and the left knee to move more

02:02

towards the target so these are things

02:04

that you know if you've seen video

02:05

content on the channel before

02:07

somebody who watches a lot of other

02:09

content you know that that needs to

02:10

exist now what I would just kind of

02:13

suggest as well is some golfers have

02:15

been coming for lessons and they've been

02:16

really working hard on the lower body

02:17

but they are kind of fighting again a

02:20

little bit with the upper body right now

02:23

I'm going to talk about you know the

02:24

transition of the upper body a little

02:26

bit more detail in a moment and in

02:27

definitely more detail in the upcoming

02:29

videos but one of the things I would

02:31

suggest is that the left shoulder still

02:32

naturally needs to work its way around

02:34

as well so my point is from this face on

02:36

perspective what you've got to be

02:37

careful of is that you don't just try

02:39

and leave the upper body behind in this

02:40

sort of manner because from here you're

02:42

gonna get stuck behind the ball you have

02:44

to allow the left shoulder to naturally

02:47

work over as well with you so the left

02:49

shoulder is working over because that's

02:51

going to allow the club to drop down

02:52

right that is something that you need to

02:54

do you don't want to try and fight it in

02:57

this sort of manner so the question

02:59

would be why are those golfers doing

03:00

this and why did you end up getting

03:01

stuck behind the ball well one of the

03:03

things that I've started to see with

03:04

some of the guys they've been coming for

03:05

lessons is that they're consciously

03:07

really trying to drive the right elbow

03:09

to start the downswing and that's fine

03:11

right and I'll lead onto that a little

03:13

bit more detail in a moment but the

03:15

problem is is if you try and drive the

03:16

right elbow to start the downswing and

03:18

you don't start to trigger a lower body

03:20

rotation at the same sort of time then

03:22

what will happen is that you're just

03:24

going to get kind of too tilted behind

03:26

the ball so if I try and drive my right

03:28

elbow ends up kind of creating an

03:29

element's of hip extension and it means

03:31

you end up looking more this sort of

03:33

position which is somewhere where you

03:34

definitely don't want to be so although

03:36

from a side-on perspective you might be

03:38

quite pleased that the shaft angle looks

03:40

more shallow which is probably what

03:41

you're trying to achieve the problem is

03:43

is you're never going to hit it any

03:44

better because you're just going to get

03:45

stuck behind the ball and like I'm

03:47

saying to you the transition is

03:48

important because you know wherever you

03:50

are at this sort of position the hit

03:52

itself is going to be relatively natural

03:54

and it's not something that you want to

03:56

overthink about too much detail

04:05

you

04:27

okay the point is then that has to exist

04:30

right the idea of driving the hips down

04:32

and the idea of getting the left

04:34

shoulder to naturally work around right

04:36

you want to create a subtle amount of

04:38

separation like I said before which

04:40

basically means you watch my right

04:41

shoulder I'm able to move my lower body

04:43

without the right shoulder moving too

04:45

much now I'll create content for golfers

04:48

who don't have a great range of motion

04:50

around the spine and say the hips in

04:52

content in the upcoming future but I'm

04:55

making the general assumption that

04:57

anyone who's watching this and they're

04:58

going to be trying to introduce it to

04:59

their game they have a decent range of

05:01

motion which means you have the ability

05:03

to be able to start to move the hips in

05:05

the start of the downswing that's

05:07

important because it gives you the

05:09

separation like I said just be careful

05:11

that you don't fall back and you allow

05:13

naturally the left arm to work around

05:14

now what I'm going to talk about very

05:18

briefly today but in more detail in the

05:19

upcoming weeks and what I'm trying to

05:20

educate people on the channel at this

05:22

moment in time is that it's your choice

05:24

as to how you start the downswing right

05:26

if you're somebody who likes the concept

05:29

of trying to go more shallow therefore

05:31

you're going to try and drive the elbow

05:32

more in front of the right hip than

05:33

that's fine if you're somebody who is

05:35

just going to naturally pull down the

05:36

club more and therefore the chef would

05:38

come down you know more vertical than

05:39

our shallowing but still theoretically

05:41

on plane then that's fine as well

05:43

there'll be differences in the hit for

05:45

both of these golfers and that's my

05:47

point I'll talk about those in more

05:49

detail but what I am trying to say is

05:51

that fundamentally you have to be able

05:53

to move the hips as I've mentioned in

05:55

this video and you have to be able to do

05:57

that without leaving the upper body too

06:00

far behind so even if you're somebody

06:02

who's trying to drive the elbow you

06:03

still have to allow the left shoulder to

06:05

work across and if you're somebody who's

06:07

going to pull the club exactly the same

06:08

as well the rest of it will be your

06:11

choice and that's something that I'll be

06:12

talking about in the upcoming videos but

06:14

if you're going to go away and work on

06:15

anything if you're going to go and video

06:17

your swing by the time you get to left

06:19

arm horizontal as you're coming down

06:20

this is your transition and this is

06:22

about as much I think as you can still

06:24

be thinking about and feeling you want

06:26

to make sure that you'll pit your hips

06:28

are parallel towards target if you draw

06:30

a line on the back of the right hip the

06:31

left hip is back on it and if you video

06:34

it from face on you just want to make

06:36

sure the left knee and the left thigh

06:37

are moving more towards a target and the

06:40

shoulder should be coming around there

06:41

naturally as well towards that left

06:42

ankle position you just don't want to

06:44

get caught back in this manner if you

06:46

can get yourself into that sort of

06:48

position then generally the rest of it

06:50

will become your choice and that's

06:51

something I'll talk about in more detail

06:53

as I mentioned earlier it's absolutely

06:55

free to send the swings in links are in

06:57

the description below it's also free to

06:59

press subscribe press the little badd

07:00

icon as well you'll receive

07:01

notifications every time a new video

07:03

comes out and they'll catch up with you

07:04

again soon

English (auto-generated)

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Happy Golfing,

Shawn

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About the author

Shawn is the founder of UpGlove. He started UpGlove to solve his own problem of getting an affordable player's glove. Shawn is a single-digit Handicap and loves to play different courses throughout Tampa Bay. He also enjoys taking his two doggies Brutus & Champi for long walks.

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