Lower body

Stick by the front foot

Your hips slide on towards the target in the downswing

Let your front hip turn backwards and upwards at impact instead of sliding on towards the target.

Recognise this?

• Fat shots: you hit the ground before the ball, and that point moves from shot to shot.
• High, floaty balls; the shot feels rescued rather than struck.
• At impact your front knee slides past your front foot and your belt buckle goes forwards instead of around.
• In the follow-through you finish more past the ball than over it.

Why it happens

TPI describes slide as any excessive sideways movement of the lower body towards the target during the downswing. Your upper body needs a stable lower body to accelerate around; without it, speed is lost. The physical causes TPI names: too little internal rotation in the front hip, too little separation between torso and pelvis, and weak glutes that cannot stabilise the front leg. Tyler Ferrell of Golf Smart Academy sees the same movement but points to a different main cause: for him the slide is usually a compensation for a soft release in which the trailing arm bends and the clubhead passes the hands. Your body then shifts forwards to move the low point of the swing forwards with it. So work on both: the hip and the release.

What the drill fixes

The stick stands on the target side exactly where your hip ends up if it slides on. If the hip turns away, the stick stays clear.

What you need

• An alignment stick or a small post
• A short iron

medium

How to do it

Step 1: Put the stick next to your front foot

Stand the stick vertically, just outside the middle of your front foot and not next to the heel, with a few centimetres of room to your hip.

Step 2: Turn the front hip away

Hit short, half swings and let your front hip turn backwards and upwards at impact. At the same time keep your hands ahead of the clubhead; the stick stays clear.

Step 3: Finish over your front foot

Build up to full swings as soon as ten short shots in a row leave the stick clear. Your front leg is then straight and your hip is over your front foot, not outside it.

How often

3 sets of 8 short shots

Keeping it short is the heart of it here: the fault is in the low point of your swing, and you check that more easily with a half swing than at full speed.

Safety

The stick stands on the target side and so in the path of your follow-through. Use something flexible and do not put it so close that you hit it with the club.

Sources

• Slide | Swing Characteristics | TPI
• What Causes Hip Slide in the Golf Swing?, Tyler Ferrell, Golf Smart Academy
• Slide in the Golf Swing: Causes, Diagnosis & Fix — Goatloop

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