The pelvis is the engine of the golf swing, so use it to your advantage!
Getty Images
Understanding where the pelvis should be in the golf swing is one of the most important parts of hitting good shots. If it gets too far forward too early in the transition, your hands often get thrown forward as well, which impacts the club path and can cause poor ball-striking.
To help work on your pelvis movement in the swing, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood recently shared a video of a lesson he did to help a student work on the positioning of his pelvis.
In the lesson, Yarwood shows what typically happens when someone spins their hips from the top, which the teacher says is common for many amateur players; especially younger golfers.
“I see juniors doing this a lot,” he says. “Their legs are strongest, so they tend to take over as their body is developing.”
But by properly using your pelvis in the golf swing, you’ll see straighter and farther shots — so take a look below to see how Yarwood’s instructions can help you achieve that.
How to properly use your pelvis in the golf swing
“The pelvis is the engine of the swing,” Yarwood says. “So when a player extends or thrusts it too early in the transition, it creates all sorts of issues.”
Yarwood continues by explaining why he views the pelvis as being the centerpiece of the golf swing.
“Basically, the pelvis is a huge bone and mass. If it moves towards the ball in transition, there’s a large mass in the way of the hands; so they have to adjust course and manipulate things,” he adds. “This impacts all of the vital ingredients of a shot like attack angle, shaft lean, and face control, which leads to a myriad of inconsistent shots.”
As the lesson in the video above shows, the student gets his pelvis spinning, which pushes the hands away from the ball, impacting the starting point at impact. So Yarwood uses a medicine ball to help the player correct the issue.
By placing the ball on a chair rested up against the student’s backside, Yarwood says this adds more pelvis tilt, allowing the legs to use the force of the ground to help get the hip beneath him.
“The hands [come back on plane], because we’ve created a ton of space with better pelvic movement. There’s no thrust,” Yarwood adds.
The latter part of the video has Yarwood analyzing the swing of a PGA Tour winner, further demonstrating the importance of the pelvis and how it impacts nearly every aspect of the golf swing.
“The pelvis is a key for many reasons,” says Yarwood. “It can generate energy and stability, almost like a hub of a wheel. For that reason, it’s the engine of the entire swing.”
