How To Gain 5-10 Yards in 5-10 Minutes (Part 3)

Want to know another key to hitting the ball farther while protecting your body?  Let’s go!  But first, let’s recap where we’ve been.  

So far we’ve discussed the importance of swinging both directions and in different body positions.

Then we discussed how to engage your core ever so slightly to prime the correct muscles and get your lumbar spine and low back to a neutral position.

Today, I want to discuss “hip hinging” for your golf posture.  Hip hinging in everyday terms is the ability to stick your butt out while keeping a neutral spine.  We just discussed last week how to get to a neutral spine.  Now we need to do our best to get in a “power position” while keeping that neutral spine.

Hip hinging is not just some fancy fitness term that sounds good and means nothing.  It really is about providing your body and your golf game the prerequisites to be the most successful: hit the ball crisply and far while staying pain-free.  

So why is it so important to hip hinge properly?  Here are the top 3 (but not all inclusive reasons).

1. It puts your trunk in a plane that will ultimately help you keep your shaft angles and club path as efficient as possible and minimize “standing up” in your golf swing.
2. It puts your glutes (buttock muscles) in the best position, length, and tension to do their job of power production and stability.
3. It positions your trunk over the ball while engaging your core properly so that you can swing down on or through the ball most appropriately.

Honorable mention: it puts your spine in a neutral position so that you can most efficiently rotate around your lumbar spine as freely as possible, not fight against your own resistance.

I’ve included a simple exercise/drill here to start working on the proper hip hinge position.  Even though you will not bring your trunk bend this far forward, it’s important to push to your end-range in order to make the proper position as comfortable and natural as possible.