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Free Golf lesson on Swaying

One of the most common mistakes golfers make is the dreaded sway. Many golfers don't even realize that they are swaying during their golf swing.

What is a sway and how can it affect your golf swing?

A sway is the sideways movement of your hips during the golf swing. While the hips are supposed to turn during the swing, there is a slight lateral movement during the golf swing, but that is not a sway.

What's the difference? when a golfer sways, his hips rock and change the line of their plane. During the lateral shift in a good golf swing, the hips stay level with the ground. As a matter of fact, the lateral shift during a proper downswing is almost a "backing" motion because the lower back should be facing the target when the downswing is first started.

Most golfers who sway, also lock their back knee during the backswing. The locked knee forces the body to lean back towards the target, producing a reverse pivot.

If you stop at the top of your backswing and you can't pick up your target side foot for a second without moving more weight to your back foot, you have a reverse pivot that may have been caused by a sway.

The problem is compounded when an instructor tries to correct some of the problems without going to the root of the problem. If he tries to address the reverse pivot without correcting the knee or the sway, the problem will, and often does return....leaving you to wonder why you took a golf lesson to begin with.

In addition to the previously mentioned problems, the sway also puts the back hip in a position that does not allow a full body turn during the backswing. This happens because the hip is out of line with the leg and locks the joint about 1/4th of the way into the backswing. The result is a mostly arms, over the top golf swing that is not powerful and is hard to time.

Many instructors won't try to correct an arm swing because they usually don't know the real cause. When I see an arm swing, the first place I look is at the hips. When I correct the sway, I immediately correct about four other problems.

How do you stop a sway during the golf swing? Very easily! Just take away the need for any lateral movement during the backswing.

The next time you take your stance, once you are comfortable, simply angle your body from the hips up (keeping the hips centered on the feet), away from the target until your head is behind the ball and 70% of your body weight can be felt under the arch of your back foot.

Your back knee should be flexed and you should keep it that way during the backswing. If you do these two simple adjustments to your setup, you should prevent the sway before you even start moving the golf club.

Make sure you keep the weight in the arch and keep the knee from straightening during the backswing and you'll find the downswing will be easier to start.


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