Why You Need This:

Today’s topic is the link between the upper and lower body the hub of the golf swing the pelvis. The pelvis aids in spine rotation and is connected to many large muscles that help in the golf swing. What we may not realize is that the pelvis can move in 3 motions aiding or hurting the swing. 2 of the motions are the most crucial in power generation and angle for hitting the ball. Let’s get started!

What's Covered: How the pelvis works in the golf swing.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:53

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, welcome back. Hope your instruction is going great. In today’s video we’re going to talk about the link between your lower body and your upper body, your pelvis. It plays a really big role in the golf swing.

There’s three different motions that we’re talking about. So if you can imagine here’s my pelvis and my midsection, if we’re looking at it from this way, if it is straight up and down or kind of in a natural anatomical straight up and down, we can either tilt that forward or down toward the ground, or we can have it tilted kind of straight up like this.

If I were to get down into posture, and I bend my hips back, well now I’m tilting my pelvis down toward the ground slightly. There is that motion where it tilts down, and then it’s back up, that happens in the golf swing.

We also have rotation of the pelvis, and then we have a little bit of tilting of the pelvis when we’re talking about kind of moving it this way and that way. We won’t get as much into that.

First let’s talk about just rotation, where we’re taking the pelvis and rotating it back and through throughout the swing.

So as I make my backswing, as I get to the top of my swing, I’m going to have about 45° to 55° of rotation of the pelvis here. That’s just to rotate, I feel like I’m pushing my right foot into the ground, this is moving this hip back.

Then as I come through, we’re going to be roughly about 45° rotated open as we’re coming into contact with my pelvis. Then as we come all the way on around, I’m going to be 90° open.

So if I started here at address, I’m going to be 90° open. As I’m coming on around there, so basically my belt buckle will be facing toward the target.

A lot of times people are struggling with this, they’re not rotating their pelvis enough, they’re not using their legs, and you’ll see something like this.

We talk about the swing where the arms swing back, and then arms swing through. You’ll see my pelvis hasn’t rotated on around.

I need to feel like I’m pushing with my right leg into the ground to get this to rotate going back. I need to feel like, and the opposite would be having my left leg.

As I come through, I’m going to feel like I’m rotating, I’m pushing my left leg back, pushing my right leg this way to get that rotation and to get it to come all the way on through.

So that’s the rotation part of it. Very, very key, we’re not going to be able to get that good, full power turn going back or coming through if we’re not rotating the pelvis properly.

That’s the first piece of it, the second piece we’re going to focus in on is how it’s tilted down and then comes tilted up.

I mentioned this in a couple other videos, but as I’m making my backswing, and coming into my downswing, you can see how here my pelvis is tilted down toward the ground slightly.

As I go to the top of the backswing, it’s still tilted down. As I start my downswing, it’s also tilted down. What’ll happen from here, as I would go into the straight line release, my pelvis goes to where it’s tilted more flat.

If you’re looking at we mentioned before, I’ll go to a 45° angle here. As I start down, there’s an angle between my upper leg and my pelvis or my torso. Then as I release that, I’m letting that angle go.

As I come all the way on through, I’m going this way, now you’ll see how I’m angled slightly back like that. I don’t want to go crazy, I don’t want to be like this big reverse-C position, that could really do some damage to your back.

But I will be extended with my pelvis, and have it feel like it’s going out to the target. What that does is it allows me to rotate on through the shot and get a good, full finish, deliver all that energy through the ball as I’m coming through there.

It also plays a role in coming over the top like we talked about in an earlier video, and releasing the club properly, as we talked about in an earlier video.

That’s the up and down tilting of the pelvis throughout the swing. We talked about rotation, now we’re going to talk about the moving up and down vertically.

This is the piece that a lot of people are confused on, and if you get all these working together, this is a real power hub and delivering that energy. So you have to do these correctly.

As I’m going to the top, what’s going to happen is I’m going to rotate staying pretty normal as far as up and down. Then as I start down, it’s going to drop a little bit. That’s what I’m going to be lagging this club, getting a good angle built up in this club. The butt end of the club is pointed down toward the ground.

Now from here, I’m going to be extended my legs and my pelvis is going to be moving up as it’s rotating open. That gets the butt end of this club to rotate and whip on through contact to deliver the speed through the shot.

I do want to have, basically if you can imagine this is my right hip, or my left hip socket. My right hip socket as I go to the backswing, as I come down and into the release it does this.

We’re having a twisting and an up and down motion at the same time. If I do these correctly, I’ve got all this energy built up and then bam, I’m going to release that energy, let that club whip on through contact and get a lot of speed.

So really pay attention to this, go ahead and take a look. I would study some of the top pro’s swings. Take a look a Rory McIlroy, take a look at Tiger Woods from 2000 to 2007.

Take a look at Adam Scott, take a look at all these players that are at the top of the game, and key in on the pelvis and it really is going to allow you to get the power in the swing, and to get that club to really whip on through.

Good luck to you guys. You’ll see tons of students that struggle with this, they’ll struggle with all three of those pieces. Most players that don’t hit it very far, they don’t have any of that up and down motion at all. They’re just kind of rotating a little bit back and through.

The players that are hitting it shorter aren’t getting the good rotation coming through. The players that are hitting it shorter are kind of keeping their pelvis tilted down the entire time instead of letting it tilt back up and extend as they’re coming on through there.

If you find a player that has very low club head speed, struggling with distance, I will guarantee you that they’re not moving the pelvis correctly, in probably all three of those ways, but at least in one or two of them.

If you can focus in on this, you’re going to become an expert in power. So good luck to you guys, good luck with your lessons, and I’ll see you all soon.