Hips to Open at Impact?

[jcr]

Mike,

Enjoyed my lesson with you Saturday. I’ll be practicing what we went over and just want to be sure I’m thinking about this correctly.

I know my hips and shoulders were too open at impact….I was turning them both together and not getting any separation. Rehearsing my swing indoors right now and I’m having a little trouble with where my hips are supposed to be at impact. Divorcing my hips from my shoulders and trying to turn them independently……at the point my hips are square the club handle is still at hip height….nowhere near impact.

At this point I suppose I could halt my hip rotation and try and let my shoulders/club catch up. Or is it all right to keep rotating my hips so long as they don’t force me to open my shoulders too much and I arrive at impact with the shoulders barely open (can’t remember the degrees open off those cool stats you had)?

I was watching this video of Luke Donald and noticed how open this guy has hips but his shoulder line looks square/barely open at impact.



Hope this question makes sense? Can you suggest a pro I should watch or try to emulate while working on this?

Thanks a lot for your time. I really look forward to working on this and getting it down!

john

[Michael Jacobs]

Great questions John... enjoyed our lesson as I really feel like it was a break through for your understanding of what should take place during a sound swing. I paused Luke Donald here perfectly at the impact:

What are your thoughts - would like to hear from some other people before I give some full descriptions and statistics:

[Phana24JG]

Great questions John... enjoyed our lesson as I really feel like it was a break through for your understanding of what should take place during a sound swing. I paused Luke Donald here perfectly at the impact:

What are your thoughts - would like to hear from some other people before I give some full descriptions and statistics:

Hard to say from F/O, but based upon what his shoulders look like at address, I would guesstimate Donald's shoulders are about 10* open at impact. However, I am guessing this will vary somewhat based upon what club he(and we) are hitting. Just MHO, but if we want to get any FSL we almost have to open the shoulders at impact. It may be my lack of flexibility, but playing with the Casio in the yard, the only way I could "square the shoulders" was coming in wayyy under plane.

[Matt Bryda]

He is working hard with his belly and lower back area by using the ground to push against so he can keep the club accelerating or maybe just maintaing speed to impact?

[NCLefty]

I'm no expert, but this looks like a very good impact position to me. Minimal forward lean, club freewheeling. Pretty close to that tabletop image that Mike talks about. Hips are probably in the upper 1/3 of the tour statistics as far as openness goes. If there's a problem here I'd certainly be interested in learning more...

[Michael Jacobs]

I'm no expert, but this looks like a very good impact position to me. Minimal forward lean, club freewheeling. Pretty close to that tabletop image that Mike talks about. Hips are probably in the upper 1/3 of the tour statistics as far as openness goes. If there's a problem here I'd certainly be interested in learning more...

Tracy,

Your post brought a tear to my eye... right on the money!!! You are on your way

[Michael Jacobs]

Hard to say from F/O, but based upon what his shoulders look like at address, I would guesstimate Donald's shoulders are about 10* open at impact. However, I am guessing this will vary somewhat based upon what club he(and we) are hitting. Just MHO, but if we want to get any FSL we almost have to open the shoulders at impact. It may be my lack of flexibility, but playing with the Casio in the yard, the only way I could "square the shoulders" was coming in wayyy under plane.

Dan,

If I got your body into that position at impact I would be charged with attempted manslaughter

[jcr]

Well I know Donald has a solid swing obviously....so I'm just trying to understand how i can interpret his motion in relation to Michael's instruction where my hips are too open.

I notice he has a nice lateral bump with the hips that I don't do that may be allowing him to rotate those hips and still have his shoulders in a nice position at impact.

The other thing that seems to stand out is his rotation of the forearms/clubhead immediately after impact. It sure looks pretty and must work well for him but seems like it might be a difficult thing to time for us guys who don't get to play/practice everyday.

John

[lefty]

Impact looks perfect to me !
I am amazed how open he gets those hips while keeping shoulders almost a little closed. For myself I have to feel like my shoulders are closed at impact. When I feel this, the weight of the club passes me and brings me all the way up to the finish.(posing) I do feel a little separation between the shoulders and hips. I used to and still do spin out a little with the shoulders(especially with the driver) which leads to an array of bad shots.

[jcr]

bump...