Lesson 2

Lower Body. (Changed -30/04/2013)

All these lessons are relevant to a right handed golfer therefore a left handed golfer should simply reverse any reference for body actions.

During the back swing movement, the hips play a resistive role, but during the down swing and the follow through movement the hips adopt a totally dominant role over the rotational movement of the compact upper body unit, therefore it is vital that the set up of the lower part of the body is correct, so take your time with this section and practice, practice, practice this movement because you must ensure that every time you address the ball, the muscles of your lower body are held in this firm condition so that two conditions are met:-
(1) The hips do not willingly rotate away from the frontal facing position.
(2) You are conscious of the need to stop the hips swaying during the back swing movement.

During the down swing movement, you have to teach yourself to rotate the hips towards the target area before the upper body begins to move, but you must also learn to rotate the hips without any swaying of the hips whatsoever - whilst the compact upper body unit remains in a totally passive condition.

Therefore throughout the complete golf swing movement any rotational/pivotal movement of the hips must be performed whilst firmly held over a point directly over the centre of your stance.

If you move on to the next lesson too quickly you will not make the progress that you desire.

Therefore there are few basic principles of the lower part of the body that must be adhered if you wish to play very good golf.

The first is that the muscles of the legs, the thighs and the buttocks must be held in a firm condition throughout the golf swing in order resist the hips from rotating away from the frontal facing position, and secondly, it is absolutely vital that the hips are not allowed to sway away from the original address position, not even a fraction of an inch and thirdly, the right leg must never ever become fully straightened as you perform the back swing movement.

Similarly, during the down swing and the follow through movement you must try to totally eliminate any swaying movement of the hips whilst they rotate towards the target area.
(Any swaying movement of the hips during the down swing/follow through movement will probably cause the whole body to move ahead of the original address position at the moment the club head strike the ball thus causing the ball to slice.)

If you look carefully at the video that I have made, concentrate on my right hip and compare it with the back ground. You will see that my hips do not sway away from the original address position for even a fraction of an inch as I perform the back swing movement - this is how firmly you must learn to hold the hips whilst performing the back swing movement.

I cannot stress too strongly how important it is to keep these muscles in a firm condition at all times

In addition, whilst the muscles are held in this firm condition, you must ensure that the hips remain centralised over the centre of your stance at all times, especially as the back swing movement is performed, which can only be successfully done by keeping the heel of the left foot firmly planted on the ground throughout the complete back swing movement.
You must definitely not allow the heel of the left foot to lift off the ground during the back swing movement.

In addition, it is also important to understand that the legs must remain in a flexed condition from the moment you begin to back swing, right through to the completion of the golf swing movement - and only at the very end of the golf swing movement should the left leg be allowed to straighten.

Have a look at the frontal video and side view video of the leg action and note how the flex of the legs maintained throughout the majority of the golf swing movement. Whilst you are looking at these videos, also notice that my left heel does not lift off the ground during the back swing movement.

You must concentrate very hard in order to stop the hips from swaying away from the original address position during the back swing movement and also stop them from swaying towards the target area during the down swing /follow through movement.

If you do nothing else but follow my instructions regarding the lower body, your golf will still improve dramatically.

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