Hip Movement on Downswing?

[Captain_Black]

As a new(ish) player & after having lessons with different pro's, I was instructed on rotational movement of the shoulders & hips, but there was never any mention of any forward motion of the hips in the downswing?

I have been struggling with inconsistent ball contact, often topping the ball.

After looking on U-Tube at lots of slow motion shots of pro players, they all appear to start their downswing with a forward movement of the hips?

If I pause the video at the ball impact position, the front hip is the leading part of the body, Tiger Woods appears to really thrust his leading hip forward at the start of his downswing & it is really noticeable how far he gets his hands in front of the ball at impact, whilst his spine tilts away from the target & his head stays behind the ball.

I think one of my problems is my inability to get my hands in front of the ball at impact due to my body being in the wrong position?

 

[bobmac]

Are you topping it or thining it?

 

[Captain_Black]

Hi Bob.
not sure of the correct terminoligy, but I tend to often just skim the top of the ball or hit the middle of the ball with the bottom leading edge of the club face.
The only way I seem to be able to get a decent contact, is by using a form of Stack & Tilt by keeping all my bodyweight on my front foot & making sure my hands are in front of the ball.
By doing this I can produce a nice clean contact & take a divot in front of the ball.

 

[bobmac]

Thats a thin.
When you practice, try and get the sun behind you and watch your shadow. Make sure your head doesnt move backwards on the backswing

 

[chrisd]

When you practice, try and get the sun behind you and watch your shadow.

He's in Bristol Bob, when did the sun ever shine there?


Chris

 

[SocketRocket]

He's in Bristol Bob, when did the sun ever shine there?


Chris

Gods little acre, the Sun always shines on Bristol.

 

[JustOne]

The only way I seem to be able to get a decent contact, is by using a form of Stack & Tilt by keeping all my bodyweight on my front foot & making sure my hands are in front of the ball.
By doing this I can produce a nice clean contact & take a divot in front of the ball.

Do that then

 

[Dave3498]

If you take a look at the below website, you will see that all the top players listed start their downswing with a very pronounced leg slide forward. At impact they maintain their height and really follow through to a high finish. I wish I could do it, but I try.

http://www.pgatour.com/swingplex/00/86/35/index.html

 

[SocketRocket]

Think more of turning your left hip back rather than sliding them forward. Sliding forward will create all sorts of problems.

 

[Captain_Black]

Gods little acre, the Sun always shines on Bristol.

Err, not always it doesn't.
Actually, I don't expect to see it again until around April.

 

[Captain_Black]

Do that then

I am very tempted to carry on with the Stack & Tilt as you say.
The only thing stopping me is that I have spent a considerable amount of money & invested a lot of practice time into trying to develop a good repeatable conventional golf swing & I am only using the Stack & Tilt method at the moment out of necessity.

I would really like to try & get my conventional swing as good as possible before I decide to stick with it or revert back to the stack & Tilt.

 

[Captain_Black]

If you take a look at the below website, you will see that all the top players listed start their downswing with a very pronounced leg slide forward. At impact they maintain their height and really follow through to a high finish. I wish I could do it, but I try.

http://www.pgatour.com/swingplex/00/86/35/index.html

What a great site, thanks for that.
I can see the rotation from the videos, but I can also see a definite hip slide towards the ball / target, some players more pronounced than others