PerformPKB: It’s All in the Hips

This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB “Complete Golfer” program by Chris Finn, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina.

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Has anyone seen Michelle Wie or Rory Mcilroy move their hips in their swing lately? Tough to see unless you slow down the video because they are so fast. As a reference point, the average PGA tour player rotates their hips at most about 500 degrees per second. Rory’s speed is around 740 degrees per second.

Power in an efficient golf swing such as with Michelle or Rory starts from the ground and works it way up through your hips, core and out through the hands into the club eventually resulting in faster ball speed. There is also an efficient weight shift from the trail leg to the lead leg through rotational movement and some lateral shift which comes from using the ground efficiently and driving off of the inside of the trail foot.

With juniors, the goal needs to be to teach them how to move efficiently and harness the potential energy that they are creating to maximize their swing and ultimately ball speed in a safe and repeatable manner. Your golf performance program helps to support these technical goals but making sure you are using the right muscles in your swing to optimize your power output in addition to making sure you are using the ground appropriately.

I am sure many of you remember this past spring when Tiger Woods made that comment after a round that his “glutes weren’t firing”. A lot of people gave him a tough time and thought he had gone off the reservation. In fact, he was correct in the sense that if the glutes are not firing efficiently, the lower back muscles tend to become overactive leading to a power loss and sometimes injury. If we are going to maximize our power we need to start at the ground level and work up to the hips. If we are using the ground effectively and using our glutes and abdominals as they are supposed to be used, then we are setting ourselves up to be successful, powerful and healthy golfers with long careers ahead of us.

So, what can you do to start getting your glutes and abs turned on and practice using the ground effectively? Below is one exercise to get your glutes and abs on and a second that will help you practice using the ground effectively and powerfully. Have fun!

Single leg Bridge: