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Hip thrust fixes

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johnnymo

johnnymo

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So I have been working a lot lately with trying to get a more on plane rotational swing but I am struggling with the way my hips are moving in my downswing. I thought the problem was just a lateral shift towards the target which causes them to not properly clear but after taking some quick videos in the yard I see that my problems are greater than i thought. It seems my hip thrust causes me to stand up and lose spine angle while not allowing my right arm to track on the correct path because the hips are not clearing.

Thanks in advance :)

john


 
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Not bad. Try this out in the back yard. Take one of the lawn chairs and set it behind you so the back of the chair hits against your back side. Swing to the top of your back swing and place the right side against the back of the chair. Now on the down swing fire the left side back to the chair. You will notice that your left leg locks out and your left hip drives back. This is the feel you need to get to feel the post and clear that you are looking for. Try it out and let me know how things go for you.
 
Thank you very much Andy. I will work on this in the yard and head over to my local range once I get a better feel for it. My swing is the result of trial and error and too much time watching Jeff Ritter on youtube so being able to get some feedback from a professional in a venue like this has me pretty impressed.

Thank you THP and thanks again Andy. I will post my results a little later.

john
 
So back from the range and figured I would update while all the information is still fresh in my head. All in all it was a good session but because it is raining here I figured it would be best to leave the laptop at home so no video.

Something I immeadiately noticed was that my contact and follow through had a much different height and balance to it. By firing the left hip back it felt like I could hold my spine angle much longer than I have in the past and the resulting ball flights were much higher but still had a desirable trajectory. My misses became more consistant in that I would either block it high to the right with little side spin or hook it low and left. On those misses I could feel the loss of spine angle which I assume causes me to try and save the shot by hanging on too long resulting in the block or speeding the hands up too much resulting in the hook. I was not able to feel those misses with my lower body yet but I think if I work more with the drill you suggested it will help. Those misses were few and far between with the irons once I focused on maintaining my spine angle as a method of feedback for my lower body. I did struggle a little bit with my driver but I am not too worried about it because my driver should be replaced next week with one better suited for my swing.

All in all to say I am pleased would be the understatement of the year. Not only was my ball flight a little higher and tons more consitant with the irons I also saw an increase in distance. I had been stuck on a plateau for quite a while and hitting 6 irons 170 in windy, rainy conditions has me chomping at the bit to get out on the course.

Thank you again for everything and when their is a break in the weather I will get a couple more videos up to show my progress.

john
 
That is awesome. Keep at it and let me know how things progress!
 
I was able to get out and play today and the feedback from the drill is proving to be just what I needed. It is going to be a while before I can get it ingrained and can just pull the trigger without much in the way of swing thoughts but I feel like I am on the right path now. The next sunny day I have off I will shoot some video of how the swing is changing.

Thanks again Andy!

john
 
The sun was finally out and I tried shooting a little more video as my swing fell completely apart over the weekend. The video quality for some reason is terrible so I won't be posting them here as you can barely make out anything in them anyways. I did notice that my hip thrust had turned into a full on hip slide and that brought up all new kinds of problems. I was extremely frustrated after hitting balls at the range yesterday and I was happy to see the sun out enough today that I could film a little. I reread this post while I was watching my swing and headed back out to the range again tonight.

I think I got so caught up in trying to keep my body still that my hips and timing were thrown out of the window in an attempt to keep my spine angle the same. So when I was at the range tonight I really focused on firing my left hip back and my swing got right back on track. I was able to get the desired results with every club in my bag except for my driver. Every other club in my bags would move with a very slight draw with my normal swing but my driver was all over the place. Now the majority of them were allright in the direction but I had a couple of snap hooks and quite a few "power fades" the likes of which I haven't seen in quite some time. Even the drives that were straight did were very low trajectory wise. All of this leads me to believe that I may still be sliding and probably covering the ball too much.

In fact when I was hitting my four wood my girlfriend actually said "Why would you hit the driver if that goes straighter and further." I don't think it is the arrow but this Indian is wondering why every other arrow in his quiver was spot on tonight and the big dog could not perform.

Thanks in advance

john
 
The tendency with the driver is to try and get just a little more out of it. Next time you are out try hitting the driver (with a full swing) 50 yards, then 100 and gradually add the speed for distance. You will find a point when you loose it, and that is what we are looking for at this stage. How hard can you go after it and still get the fundamental parts of the swing to hold up.
 
Thank you Andy, I will take that tip to the range this afternoon.

john
 
Please Andy interject if this is not helpful but the thing I try to do in order to encourage that firing of the left side is to point my left knee at the target. I think if I am not mistaken that prevents the hip slide as all you can do is fire the hips from that position. You can't slide your hips without falling over from there. I point the knee immediately before firing the hips and it is almost but not quite simultaneous.
 
Jnug I like that as a swing thought. Finding a sensation that you can repeat that give you the result you want is what it is all about. Thanks for that!
 
Thanks Jnung, I have been thinking of my hips like pistons the right hip moves back a little in the backswing and once everything is in place at the top the left fires straight back building up torque in my core. The longer I can hold on the better the results are.

Andy I did the build up the speed with the driver yesterday before I played a round. Results were still similar though. Irons were solid, hybrids solid, four wood very solid, driver trash. I ended up ditching the driver off the tee to save my round at the turn. What boggles me is that the misses are so inconsistant ranging from low and left to high and right even the few times that it did go straight the distance was no where near what I would expect to see. This was magnified by the weather and course conditions as the course was a swamp but the carry distance of a good drive was about 30 yards shorter than what I was expecting. Rain is forecasted here for the next week but I have access to a covered range so I will be able o practice some at least.

Thanks again
john
 
I just wanted to add a big huge thank you to Johnny and Andy for this exchange. I showed it to my coach and he said "I want you doing this". I did over the past two weeks and on Sunday, during a playing lesson was hitting the ball better than I've ever hit it. So, Thanks guys!!
 
MaryC said:
I just wanted to add a big huge thank you to Johnny and Andy for this exchange. I showed it to my coach and he said "I want you doing this". I did over the past two weeks and on Sunday, during a playing lesson was hitting the ball better than I've ever hit it. So, Thanks guys!!
Click to expand...

Very cool Mary! I am really glad that someone else was able to get a similar benefit out of the tips Andy shared in this thread.

Happy Holidays,
john
 
I hit three buckets of just driver tonight at the range and worked out most of the major kinks. My stance was too open and the club face was closed. This terrible set up was making it impossible to improve. I broke out the alignment sticks and went to work. Visually it looked all different/wrong but the results were on the right track. My launch improved drastically and my misses became much more consistant. The misses were almost exclusively high and right with the movement right towards the peak of the ball flight after starting out slightly right to begin with. They are a far cry for the banana peels and snap hooks I was experiencing last week. I think once I can better clear my hips without swaying or thrusting my body will be in a better impact position and I can accelerate more through the release.
 
Good work. The first things you need to look at when things aren't going well is the basics. Nice job getting back on track.
 
Just checking back in. The weather here has not been copperating but I was able to get out and play yesterday and today. Things are really starting to come together and my new hip motion feels second nature.

One thing I have been a little up in the air though how much should my wrists hinge at the top of my swing. Currently I feel pretty restricted and the hinge feels pretty minimal, I guess I am emulating a Steve Stricker like move. I have noticed though that when I want to play the ball a little higher (almost exclusively with wedges) I loosen up the wrists and add more hinge and it is more of a sweep through contact (probably close to flipping.)

So I guess my question is, am I robbing myself of clubhead speed by not tapping into the available flexibility of my wrists. I am extremely happy with the trajectory of my ball flight right now (other than my driver) but I would not mind getting some more distance.

Thanks again for everything Andy and hope your season is starting off great.

john
 
Proper setting of the wrists or hinge is a must in my eyes. It adds width to the swing and does help increase over all club head speed. WOrk on this for a bit. Swing back til your left arm is parallel to the ground, and hinge here to form a 90* angle between the shaft and your left arm. This is the feel you should have at the top. Work on this and just let the shoulder turn take your arms higher than this if you like.
 
Thanks Andy I messed around with my hinging for quite a bit over the last few days using your tip. I have found a sweet spot between too firm and too loose and the result is I am much better at making sure the club face is square at contact. The move is pretty Stricker like but it is repeatable and allows me to be much more consistant. It feels like my hands roll back on the backswing, at contact I make sure the back of my left hand is exactly square and accelerate through rolling them over to prevent flipping.

In fact things went so well at the range today that I experimented a bit with the tips from your working the ball video that is here on THP. I probably should go back and rewatch it but I was able to get results on the range by lining up my club face to the target and either opening or closing my stance. The way I understood it your swing path is normal in that it follows the target line established by your stance. I am not sure if I worded that correctly. It is something I will have to work on a ton more to have confidence in it but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Thanks again for everything Andy and I will try and twist my girlfriend's arm to get her to shoot some video for me at the range so you can see the changes.
 
That sounds great. Nice work on sticking it out and working so hard on the range. The vid on working the ball is a good one and some time on the range with it is a great idea. I would love some updated videos. Keep at it and I will keep my eyes out for the video.
 
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