Maintaining a constant height during the swing

One of the most common mistakes that amateurs make is BOBBING up and down during their swing.  To counter this, you must keep in mind the idea that you have to maintain the SAME HEIGHT throughout your swing (yes – a slight SQUAT on the downswing is acceptable, as you can see in Tiger’s downswing).

Pros solve this ‘SAME HEIGHT’ problem by maintaining a constant spine angle. Many coaches will train you to do this – maintain your spine angle. While  I struggled with this, I discovered something that DID work – and helped me maintain a constant spine angle. The discovery was simple – the HEIGHT (my height) was controlled by my HIP joint and my KNEE joint. If my height changed at all, either I GOT UP from my HIPS – or from my KNEES.

The HIP JOINTS (and knee joints) dictate the height during a golf swing.  If one can maintain the FLEX in each of these – one automatically maintains the SAME HEIGHT – and the sought after CONSTANT SPINE ANGLE.  Of these two, I felt the HIP Joint to me slightly easier to work with (Nick Faldo focuses a lot on his knee flex and maintaining that throughout his swing  – as described in his classic ‘A Swing for Life’.

So – as long as my focus is on keeping my HIP JOINTS at the same height , my swing WILL maintain the same height throughout.

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH IT

The idea is to keep the same hip flex at setup – for the backswing and the downswing. Most amateurs lose this flex on their backswing. This happens due to an aggressive takeaway of the club – as opposed to a gentle turn.

It is not trivial for the amateur to maintain a constant HIP FLEX for a round of 18 holes. Part of the reason is that they do not have the lower body muscles (hamstrings, quads and glutes) as the pros do. Pros work on these areas specifically – along with working on their cores.  Fortunately, the way the human body is designed, there is ONE exercise that targets ALL these muscles in one shot. That one exercise that helps  in maintaining a STRONG lower body – and hence , constant height (and balance) is, (you guessed it), the SQUAT.  Everyone hates it – but it is rightly called the KING of all exercises – because it is so effective in targeting multiple muscle groups.

A LEFT-FOOT Trick

Here is how the pros do it. They keep their left foot PLANTED. What this accomplishes is that it prevents the left knee/hip from rising (something that amateurs tend to do). Usually, this is enough to keep both hips level. There are even training aids (tour foot) that help you keep your left knee level.

This website has more information on the tour foot device (warning – the audio starts playing on the landing page). I have used this device with incredible results. Apart from keeping your foot planted on the backswing, it helps keep your foot stable on the downswing – and provides something to ‘hit against’. This results in crisper, straighter shots.

Read more about how the SQUAT and similar exercises can make you a better golfer. To figure out how to setup with the correct hip flex (and knee flex in golf ) , try this post.

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