Hip Movement from Face On: What to Look For

I spend a lot of time discussing and showing how the best players move their hips when observed from the down the line view. In fact, if you go back just a few weeks you’ll find 3 consecutive videos on hip depth and how players who I think have superior technique use the DTL “hip box”. But as I tell students who send in online videos for review from only DTL, watching from face on is every bit as important and telling as from DTL and in fact a full analysis is impossible with only one view available. In this video I look at 10 or so major championship winners and focus on how they move within the face on “hip box” while keeping equal concentration on what the upper body (and thus the head) are doing at the same time. It won’t take long to figure out that I am a big fan of “extension”, or the stretching of the arms and hands away from the center of the body, and along with it a bit of rightward movement both in the head and the hips, although either can stay perfectly still if they don’t move forward of their starting position in the forward swing. I could pick out players who don’t do this (it’s not a must), but I much prefer the right hip to stay up against the right side of the box (the “wall”) all the way to the to end of the backswing so that the drive from right to left can start from a consistent position. I also see a huge benefit as far as creating potential for power by utilizing the pivot to wind the body up to the max without creating too much excess movement.