Too much lower body

[sandmac]

I used to cast the club quite a bit, so I tried to trigger the downswing with my lower body. Now the problem is there seems to be too much lower body movement forward and my swing falls out of sync. I had a lesson yesterday and my coach said I actually need to think arms again because the active hips are drawing me out to the target. He teed up a ball like 8-10 inches out to the target beyond my forward foot and I crushed the drive. Part of me was loving the contact, but I got the impression he was not thrilled and he was making a point that I travel forward way too much.

Does anyone else have this problem or can you suggest a thought for me to "hit the wall" correctly on my downswing?

Thanks for any help!

[shootin4par]

Re: Too much lower body

I got a chainsaw, if we cut you off at the kneecaps that should lesson it up a bit. We can go up further if necesary

[oldwease]

Re: Too much lower body

One thing you can try is to set up with a spine tilt away from the ball. What this does is to alter the normal alignment between the shoulders and the hips (the shoulders are further back behind the ball). Part of what is happening when you slide the hips to the left is the creation of this tilt at impact, and it's not a bad thing to get the hips 'ahead' of the shoulders (through the tilt).

Try hitting some balls with a slightly exaggerated tilt on the practice ground. To do this, slide the hips to the left at set up so that more of your natural weight is on the left side, tilt the spine to get your shoulders back. When you do this, you should feel the left side acting as more of a brace - after all, there's a limit to how far the hips can go left if the rest of the body doesn't follow. Now, hit some balls from this starting position. You will now not be able to slide any more to the left on the downswing.; see what happens......

[BrianW]

Re: Too much lower body

Try this drill to get a better feeling of weight transfer.

Address the ball with a mid iron. place both feet together with the ball just forward of your left foot. Take a backswing and just slightly before you get to the top take a step to the left with your lead foot then come into the downswing.

You should pickup on a smooth transfer of weight from back to front. Don't worry about how you hit the ball just build the right feeling so you can then use it with a normal ball position.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: Too much lower body

I have a great drill for the correct feeling for the downswing.

Go and stand in a field, and throw a dozen golf balls with your dominant hand, or just mimic the throwing action note all the body movements required for this.

There is the body movement for the golf swing, WARNING don't try the same movement with a club in your hands.


I find this good when I loose timing.


Hope this helps

Ian.

[golf-instructionz]

Re: Too much lower body

The body needs to work as a whole not concentrate on one part (hip) too much and later have compensate for it (arms). The hips should only turn 45 degree to the right and may shift slightly to right as you rotate your arm & shoulder on the upswing with your firm posture (backbone) as the rotating axis. The hip should not sway or slide at all, to left, right, forward or backwards. You able to hit that forward ball, that shows you are sliding your hip way left instead of unwinding them.

Hope that of some help.

[shootin4par]

Re: Too much lower body

easy things first, how wide is your stance?
on a scale of 1-10? if your stance is too wide you may have to move a lot to get on your left side, narrow it up
look at snead, bobby jones, payne stewart, mike austin
they swing the club very smooth and nice, graceful and effortless power, their stances are on the medium to narrow side
then look at someone like carmillo villegas, it looks like he is trying to kill the ball, not really a free flowing swing, very wide stance
the wider your base of support the more you have to move left to right to shift weight, and while some may not shift it on the back swing, everyone needs to shift it on the downswing.
maybe try hitting balls with your feet 6 inches apart and see what that does