LOWER BODY STABILITY DURING THE BACKSWING
 

What I want to discuss today is what happens to the lower body, specifically the right leg, as you make your backswing, because this is where I see a lot of swing problems begin, leading to players not being able to swing the club in a balanced, efficient manner.

In order to do this, we first need to establish what a reasonably proper lower body position is at address. As you stand at address, it is important that your lower body form a stable "A-frame" platform from which to swing. Although there will be slight variations based on each individual's body physique, the general body set-up should look something like this: The instep of each foot will be slightly outside the hip joints. There will be a slight flex to the knees but you should not feel as if you are squatting. Your weight will be distributed fairly evenly between the two feet, and also from heel to toe, however, you should feel a bit more weight (or pressure) towards each instep as opposed to being flat footed. If you look at yourself from the face-on view (look in a mirror), the imaginary line from the hip joints down to the feet should resemble the letter "A", or upside down "V". Your knees will be located between your insteps and your hips will be located directly between your feet. As a side note for this discussion, your shoulders should be stacked directly over your hips. This will put your spine in a fairly vertical position and you are ready to swing.

During the backswing, your lower body should maintain the same relative "A-frame" look as at set-up. Again, looking face-on, at the completion of you backswing your knees and hips should still be between your feet and you should still feel your weight towards the instep of each foot. The only real visual change to your lower body should be that your hips and knees have rotated.

If you go to this UTube video of Tiger Woods swing, take note of his body position from the waist down during the backswing. There is a slight rotation of his hips, but generally speaking his A-frame foundation is unchanged.

The two issues I usually see with students are:

1) Allowing their hips to slide to the right during the backswing. When this happens, you will see the right knee and hip joint slide over the top of, or sometimes even beyond, the right foot. A couple of the problems that can crop up when this occurs are: difficulty getting the weight moving back over to the left side during the downswing. And a tendency for the shoulders not to rotate properly. This usually results in the club being swung too vertically into the air, rather than being swung around the body.

2) Allowing their right knee to kick out to the right during the backswing. Now the right knee is no longer in a stable, balanced position between the feet. When the right knee kicks out to the right it forces the weight distributed on your right foot to roll to the outside of the foot. Just as with the sliding hip, this makes it difficult to get your weight moving back towards the target for power.

So, check your swing in a mirror. Do your knees and hips stay between your feet on the backswing? If not, than you have a few extra moving parts in your swing that will make it less efficient and will influence your consistency.

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