Why Bump The Left Hip??

When you have been to one of my lessons, I will often mention to bump your left hip at set-up. This simply means moving your left hip around two inches to your left. The reason being is that it will line up straight with your left shoulder and therefore will most likely return that way at impact. It is crucial to have this position when hitting the ball as it will mean your upper and lower half are working together in the right sequence.

One of the biggest reasons for people ‘slicing’ is that the left shoulder starts in front of the left hip. This is because when the left hip is not forward, the lower half tends to stay quite passive through the swing and hence allows the upper half to dominate the downswing. The more the left shoulder is forward of the left hip, the more that the sequence of the downswing will start with the arms and shoulders instead of the lower half. This will invariably throw the hands away from the body and cause the path to move outside-in resulting in ‘slicing’. It will also cause lack of power as the legs will be less active.

When you bump your left hip forward at address, it is also important that it raises a little as well. This simply means that the left hip should be slightly higher than your right hip. This should be relatively easy if you have a neutral grip and have slightly tilted down the right shoulder at set-up. When you have achieved this, you will feel as though your lower half is quite activated. Also when you swing, you will notice that your lower half starts to become more stable on the backswing and starts to initiate more on the downswing.

Bumping the left hip will also have great impact on your direction and power. The reason being is that when the lower half starts the downswing, the path starts to flatten. This means that through impact the club starts to work more on an inside-out path resulting in ‘draws’. You will also increase distance as when the lower half initiates the downswing, the right knee will also start to drive causing greater force through impact.

If you’d like any further help in understanding how to set-up for a golf shot, just contact myself at David Waters Golf.