Golf Instruction - Moving The Assemblies

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The Movements

This section is largely hands on. Therefore, it would be wise to be warmed up and stretched before proceeding. The two main portions separately cover the back swing and the forward swing. You should be wearing clothes that fit snugly enough so that you can clearly observe the individual parts of your body. Use a short club, eight iron would be fine, and if you normally wear a glove, do so. The last section, Timing, puts it all together.

The back swing consists mainly of actively moving three assemblies, mostly at the same time:

• The hips
• The shoulders
• The arms

By mastering these three parts separately (not hard to do!), you'll have an understanding of what should be where and when. It's really deceptively simple once you know it.

• The Hips: "Turn the hips on a solid right leg."

Turning Against A Firm Right Side - Take your stance with the club. Imagine that your right leg assembly from your foot to your upper leg is concrete and immovable. Feel your weight slightly favoring the inside of your right foot. Now, while keeping the feeling of concrete and the weight, turn your hips to the right 45 degrees by turning your navel..

• Did you do it? There should be no independent turning of the shoulders or lifting of the arms or club during this learning phase of the hip turn. Of course, since the shoulders are sitting on top of the torso, they will turn also as they "go along for the ride", as will the arms (in their down position), and wind up facing in the same direction of the hips. All we are concentrating on now is how to do a proper hip turn.

Now do it again and watch you right leg and knee. They should stay in place. There should be no movement to the right of either. You'll note that there really is very little motion going on here with just the hip move. That right leg assembly is controlling the precision by remaining a solid registration point.

Turning With A Passive Left Side - After getting comfortable with the above, it is now necessary to learn and practice what the left hip/leg assembly should be doing. Imagine that your left upper leg, knee, lower leg, and foot assembly is merely dangling from your left hip. If it is keep completely relaxed, it will be pulled whatever distance and direction just by merit of being connected at the left hip. You should neither encourage nor discourage it's movements.

Now, with the feeling of passiveness on your left side, turn your navel again 45 degrees right.

• If your left knee moved pretty much directly to your right and is in a spot roughly between your feet, you've done it correctly. Please note that you are not to be trying to control where it goes. It's only mentioned here for learning purposes so that you can tell if you are understanding the passive role by observing it's passive movement. Also note that your left foot will turn in slightly, so that it is resting somewhat more on the inner side of the foot.

Now try it again, and feel a sense on lightness on your left foot as your hips turn to the right. At 45 degrees, you should almost feel as if you could lift your left foot off the ground and be supported only by the right.

The True Nature Of The Hip Movement - The hips do not rotate in place around a fixed center. Instead, it is more like a car going around a right hand turn too fast. The front wheels move to their right (the right hip moves back to the rear), and the back wheels continue forward and actually move out a bit to their left (the left hip moves left to right primarily and a bit to the front). The end result is that the hips, besides now pointing 45 degrees to the right, have also moved right. This is because the right leg assembly is keeping the right hip from moving in an actual circle (so it has to move backwards behind you instead), and the left leg assembly is passive, allowing the left hip to go where it may.

A by-product of the hips moving to right is a substantial weight shift. It's not that a weight shift is necessary. It's just that a weight shift results when the body is moved into the proper backswing position. That is why the left leg assembly feels light after turning that 45 degrees.

Please note that these descriptions of the end results are just end results. You should not be trying to move the hips right while turning, or to shift weight. These are just the by-products that you can observe when learning to determine if you are executing the active/passive assembly movements correctly. Turn the hips against a solid right side and with a passive left side, and the parts will move into their proper places automatically.

The Shoulders: "The shoulders turn in response to the hips turning."

The Hips Jump Start The Shoulders - It's true. Once the hips start turning, the shoulders want to start turning independently also. In fact, you've probably had to fight them turning when doing the hip turn movement. Now, do the hip turn again, and let your shoulders turn also in a clockwise direction 90 degrees until your chest faces directly to your right. Caution: Do not hold them in the 90 degree position for more than a few seconds, as this would strain the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

• Exactly when do the shoulders start turning? This is more a matter of feel than absoluteness, but suffice it to say that their independent motion starts early on after the hips start. The timing should be such that the shoulders have just completed their 90 degree turn when the hips complete their 45 degree turn.

Do it again, and notice that your shoulders do seem to start turning on their own after the hips start. This is fine, and helps to make a smooth movement. Near the end of their movement, you need to focus on them turning the full 90 degrees.

The head must not rotate to the right during most of the back swing. Near the end, it will rotate to the right 10 to 20 degrees as it is pulled by the shoulders. This is proper. But keep your eyes looking at the ball even though the head turns a bit.

Try it again, and notice your head turning as your shoulders approach that 90 degree mark.

One other aspect of the head is that it will move to the right some 4 to 6 inches, due to your torso moving to the right as it rides on the hips moving to their right (remember that car fish-tailing around that right hand turn!). The point is to neither encourage or discourage it. The head will move as it may. Remember, it isn't moving on its own. it's only an indicator that the body below it has moved a bit to the right, as it should.

Do it again, and notice your head moving a few inches to the right near the end of the back swing.

• Practice the hip and shoulder turn working in conjunction with each other until it feels comfortable. Check out each assembly, active and passive, being used at each stage of the motion, and confirm that it is doing its job as prescribed. After you know by memory what should be doing what, and you are able to replicate the movement properly, move on to the last of the 3 main assembly groups in the back swing: the arms.

The Arms: "The arms rise straight up and the hands cock the club."

The Arms Move Up In Relation To The Ground - After approximately the first quarter of the back swing, you must raise your arms straight up towards the sky until you sense that your hands are at the same level as your shoulders. Your timing should be such that the hips reach 45 degrees, the shoulders 90 degrees, and you arms/hands assembly obtain shoulder height all at the same time. Go ahead and try it now.

• You'll note that there is a very strong urge for the arms to want to tug right, and wind up to the right of your body. You must fight this urge, and command them to move straight up only. Because your body is at an angle (tilting forward in your stance), your hands will be positioned directly opposite your right shoulder when you've turned 90 degrees, or aligned just to the outside of your right shoulder's edge. This is normal. But anything beyond that signals that the arms have pulled themselves clockwise instead of just going along for the ride.

Try it again, and if possible, verify in a mirror placed to your right that the arms/hands are finishing up where they are supposed to.

During the time that the arms rise up, your left arm should continue to remain straight, but not tense or rigid. Think of it as a relaxed straight state. Meanwhile, again, because of the body tilt, your right arm will bend at the elbow of it's own accord.

Think "relaxed arms", and try the back swing again. Note how the left remains fairly straight, and the right naturally folds at the elbow.

• You may have not noticed it, but your hands are probably cocking the club up on their own accord already! To demonstrate a proper cocking action, put both arms out in front of you and clap you hands together. Now still with your palms touching each other, without moving your arms, point your finger tips down. Your hands should only be able to hinge about 20 to 30 degrees comfortably. This is pretty much the same angle your hands are at when you take your stance.

• Now, point your finger tips up. This is the correct cocking action. Note again that your hands only comfortably move 20 to 30 degrees up from the horizontal position. In total, you'll only be cocking them some 40 to 60 degrees from start to finish.

Now do it again, and slowly start the cocking action at the same time that you start to rise your arms up. The goal is to complete the cocking action at the same time that the arms have reached their end position.

As a side note, the cocking is pretty much automatic too as the bending of the right elbow changes the angle of the hands, hencely jump-starting the cocking action.

Try it a few more times. When you are able to verify that all assemblies are working together as planned, you will be ready to move on to the next section, the forward swing!

Just as the back swing has three main assemblies that you move, so does the forward swing:

• The hips
• The right hip
• The right elbow

Again, we're able to learn each part separately, but with these three, as will be shown, the hips move first, and then the right hip and right elbow move together.

• The Hips: "Move the hips directly to the left."

Moving The Hips Left Changes The Registration Point - As we pointed out previously, the back swing depended on a solid right leg assembly for alignment. On the forward swing, it is the left leg assembly that eventually provides the registration point for all the other moving parts.

Now, from your back swing position, while still maintaining that solid right leg assembly, move your hips directly to your left until they are back to where they started from when you first took your stance. Your left leg assembly should also have moved back to it's starting position automatically without any effort on your part.

It is very important that the upper body and head does not immediately move left during this initial movement along with the hips.

Try the hip move left again, but this time keep your head from moving left with them at the beginning of the movement. Eventually, at the halfway point or so, the head and upper body will start to move back to close to where they where in your original stance position.

It is also necessary for the right leg assembly to retain it's position when the hips move left.

Do it again, and guard your right knee from moving left. At the end of the hips moving left, they will be pretty much in the same position as at the beginning of the back swing.

Amazingly, if you check the positions of your arms after your hips have moved left, you'll note that they have automatically moved halfway back down! This is because the shoulders, because they rest on the hips, have turned 45 degrees back to the left, as they should.

Try it again, and note that your shoulder and arms have passively 'unwound' halfway down on their own accord. Actually, this is somewhat misleading. They are really still at the 'top of the swing' position. But by virtue of the hips moving, they have been repositioned in space. However, the arms and shoulders are still in the same position relative to each other.

Note: It is critical to not disturb either the arms or shoulders during the hips move left motion. Their active movement after this stage will be described in the right hip/right elbow section that follows shortly.

When the hips move left, they pretty much retrace their fish-tailing car motion, but in reverse. The left hip will move forward slightly, and then to the left, while the right hip mostly moves forward. It is important that the movement winds up with the hips eventually going directly left, rather then left and to your left back, which is easy to do.

Move the hips left again, and make sure that there is no backwards movement (which would pull you back away from the ball).

Swinging The Right Hip Out Leads The Way For The Rest Of The Body To Follow - After the hips move left, the left leg assembly should now become 'concrete', just like your right leg assembly was on the back swing. This time, however, the hips move differently, like a door on a hinge. The left hip is attached to the hinge, and swivels around the left leg assembly directly, while the right hip is the 'door knob side' of the door, and swings out and around as it traces a 90 degree quarter circle in a counter clockwise direction.

Now move the hips left, and follow that with the right hip 'swinging out' into that 90 degree quarter circle. At it's completion, your navel should be pointing in the direction where the ball would be heading to.

The upper body and head must not move left when your right hip swings out and left. After the arms have passed in front of the body (i.e. after the ball has been struck), the force of the arms and club swinging left will pull the upper body left, and your navel, shoulders, and head will all be facing in the direction where the ball would be heading.

Try it again, and this time, hold your upper body and head from moving left when the right hip rotates out. Allow your arms to eventually pull the rest of you to face your left at the end of the swing.

If you've tried the swing with moderate speed, you'll note that your weight winds up on the outside of your left foot at the end of the swing. This is how it should be.

Try it again, and observe your weight on the outside of the left foot at the swing's completion.

Because of the reverse 'fish-tailing' effect, your right hip is already moving on it's own (passively) forward (to your front, not your left) from behind you during the hips move left motion. Therefore, it is not from a complete standstill that you swing the right hip out (actively) on the 90 degree quarter circle.

Do it again, and note that the right hip has a smooth transgression from passive movement to active movement.

The Right Elbow: "Move the right elbow left so it passes in front of the right hip."

Passing The Elbow In From The Right Hips Swings The Arms Without Activating The 'Hit' Instinct - At the same time that the right hip moves out and around on the 90 degree quarter circle, the right elbow must pass in front of the right hip, moving right to left and slightly angled forward so that it does not run into your right hip.. The arms/hands/club assembly all remain passive, just going along for the ride.

Now try out your whole swing up to this point. For the forward swing, you want to move your hips left, and then after, turn your right hip 90 degrees and pass your right elbow along right to left and slightly out in front of your right hip. So, as you do the forward swing, it will help to think to yourself; left, turn out.

You've probably noticed another amazing thing. Even though you didn't try to swing your arms or try to 'hit' the ball (or where the ball would be) with your hands, your arms swung where they should, and the club, all on it's own, swung through and pulled your hands and arms into the follow through position. How can this be?

The reason it worked was because we 'tricked' our mind out of thinking it was going to 'hit' something. Since the elbow is not normally used to beat upon anything, it's safe to use that to move the entire arm/hands/club assembly in it's swinging motion.

Try it again, and make sure that your hands continue to very lightly hold the club during the forward swing. Think 'light hands' and feel the club 'swing' itself past the ball.

Our main goal at this stage is to avoid having the 'hit' instinct take over. If you try to 'hit' the ball, your arms/hands/club assembly will lose it's position. Do not ever, EVER, try to hit at anything! It might feel like you hit something, but it was the club that did the work. Remember that.

Timing was already mentioned in the back swing, namely, that all the moving parts must complete the back swing at the same time. Being slow in nature, that task is fairly manageable. But the forward swing, ah! Therein lies the rub!

How do you know if your timing is off? Usually, the ball does not go in the direction that you've intended! And how do you correct it. For starters, slow down. Then try being slightly more aggressive with one of the active movements on the forward swing, such as the right hip turning it's 90 degree quarter circle. Perhaps the hips move left motion is too severe.

You'll find that once you hit upon the correction, that you can 'groove' repetitive swings after that for a while, while you still have the 'feeling'. But it doesn't last forever, and it could be gone 10 swings later. But the more you groove it over time, the less off your 'bad' timed swings will be.

This concludes the Moving The Assemblies section of the Golf-Guide Instruction Manual. Review your assemblies often, and most importantly of all, enjoy all aspects of the great game of golf!

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