Pivot Part 1

Pivot is how you move your body from head to toe and does not include your hands and arms. For the moment we will pretend your arms are invisible.

As simple as the word “pivot” sounds, the motion is very complex. The pivot moves every muscle in your body, and in less than two seconds. Your mind can’t key into what’s happening that quickly.

Because it’s so complex, we’re going to make it easy by breaking it into four segments with a drill, called the elbow drill. The elbow drill slows everything down so you have time to think and train your muscles.

The elbow drill is an exact replica of the pivot you should make during the swing. As a result, it demonstrates and reinforces the motion you should make during the swing. It’s a mechanical drill that will give you a sense of feel that you can then repeat.

It’s an excellent drill, and one I still do everyday. I do it before a practice session and before I play to stretch and mentally prepare my muscles. Even if I don’t actually hit a ball during the day, I still swing a club in my living room, or backyard, and I still do my elbow drills.

You can obtain feel through mechanics, but you can’t obtain mechanics through feel. This drill helps you develop what the motion should feel like.

Elbow Drill

Position 1 - Address:

Place something on the ground to represent the ball.
Put the golf club behind your back and through your elbows. The golf club will help with your posture. It keeps your shoulders back, insures you’ll bend from the hips, and not slouch from the shoulders.
Spread your feet about shoulder width.
Equal weight distribution front to back and right to left.
Bend from your hip sockets keeping your back nice and flat, with knees slightly flexed.

Position 2 - Back Swing:

Shift your weight to your right foot.
At the same time, tilt your shoulders vertically so that the left shoulder points down, and the right shoulder points up. The left end of the club will be pointing approximately at or behind the ball position.
As you’re shifting your weight to your right foot, release to the instep of your left foot, so you can get “behind” the ball.
Your head does not move up in the back swing, just to the right.
Check to see if your right foot, right hip, and head are in a vertical line.
If you drew a line from the ball up, you’d be behind the ball now.

Position 3 - Impact

Start with your hips.
Shift your weight to your left foot, by leading with your hips in a slight lateral motion.
Point the club end in your right elbow down at your right foot.
At the same time, release to the instep of your right foot.
You now have 90 percent of your weight on your left foot.

Position 4 - Follow Through, Post Impact

To finish the drill, release your hips by rotating them through, so your hips, belly button, and shoulders are facing the target.
Almost all your weight is on your left foot; your right toe is simply balancing you, it isn’t actually supporting any weight.
Your eyes are looking down the target line, not down at the ground.

If you can make a proper elbow drill, you’re pivoting correctly. Now you need to learn to pivot with the club in your hand, and not behind your back.

Hand and Arm Relationship

Hand and arm relationship is based on proper grip, posture, and pivot. If you have all three, you’ll probably have a good hand and arm relationship. If you have a problem in any of those areas, it’ll show up in your hand and arm relationship.

Picture a bicycle wheel. The hub turns the spokes, which turn the rim. The hub generates the power to turn the spoke. The spokes simply transfer the power; they don’t increase it or decrease it by any movement of their own. They just stay straight. These spokes then give the rim the power to move much more quickly than the hub.

The golf swing works on a similar concept. The body is the center of the wheel, the hub. The arms are the spokes. The hands are simply connectors between the spokes and the rim. The club head is the rim. The body generates the power, and the arms and hands transfer it to the club and club head.

That sounds simple, but many people instinctively snap up the club with their hands and arms in the back swing and flip, push, snap, crackle, and pop, in the down swing. Manipulating your hands isn’t necessary. It actually decelerates the club (which is bad), and the leading edge of the club will start moving up (which is also bad). All the hands and wrist have to do is hold on.

There is a certain amount of hinging and unhinging that automatically happens as a by product of the force generated by swinging the club. It’s a basic part of the swing, but don’t force it in any way.

From Address to the Top

At address, the left arm is straight, the right arm is slightly bent, the elbows are close together. You don’t want your elbows to look like they are bowlegged. You want the elbows to be turned in.

At the top of the back swing, the left arm will be as extended as possible. The right elbow will be bent in and pointing down at the ground. Similar to a waiter’s arm when he carries a tray.

The arms will go back as far as the tilting of your shoulders will allow. It is different for every person depending on the size of their chest and the length of their arms.

Down Swing - Maximum Club Head Velocity

At the top of the back swing, the club and your left arm are at a 90 degree angle. In order to reach your maximum club head velocity, you need to maintain that angle as deep into your down swing as possible.

The way you do so is to start the down swing with your hips, not your hands and arms. When your hips are pulling, your left arm is the primary lever, and the club is the secondary lever. The centrifugal force caused by your hips will then pull your arm, which in turn pulls the club. The angle between your arm and the club will actually get tighter at the beginning of the down swing because of the weight of the club head and the changing of the direction.

The law of the lever states that the club will move as far and as fast as it has to in order to catch up with your left arm. The club is moving fastest when it does catch up with your left arm. This happens at impact.

The club is automatically released as a result of the combination of the angle your arm retains and the power caused by centrifugal force. You don’t have to force the club to release, or catch up with your arm, the motion your body is making forces it to do so.

From Impact to Finish

At impact, the left arm is straight, and the right arm is almost straight. The hands are slightly in front of the ball.

Both arms stay straight about one-quarter of the way up in the forward swing. Then the left arm starts to imitate what the right arm did in the back swing. It will start to hinge, and the right arm will hinge with it.

That leads us into supinate and pronate.

Supinate and Pronate

Supinate and pronate, big words you’ll hear a lot in the golf world. Supinate comes from the word supine - lying on the back. Supinate means the right arm is lying on its back. Think of carrying a bowl of soup in your right arm, it would make your right arm lay back. Pronate comes from the word prone - face down. It’s when your right arm is face down.

The right arm supinates going back, and pronates coming through. That keeps the club moving at a right angle to your target line at impact. This motion or rotation of your arms is much more efficient than pushing with your hands and wrist. By supinating your right arm on the back swing and pronating it on the down swing, your arms create the only motion necessary to release the club.

Supinating and pronating also allows you to make one fluid movement while making sure the club head is moving down on the ball at impact. People are surprised when they find out the club head is moving down on the ball at impact. It’s natural to think that the club head would be moving up. However, when the club head is moving down on the ball, it creates a more efficient spin, and causes the ball to go up.

The Quarter Shot

I do quarter shots every day, right after I do my elbow drills. I originally used the quarter shot to warm up, then I realized how valuable it is in making changes to my swing.

The quarter shot is the next progression after the elbow drill. It is a mini-pivot, but the quarter shot is more advanced than the elbow drill because it includes the club.

The quarter drill helps you implement changes in your technique. It allows you to take the full swing and break it down into a much more controllable swing, the quarter shot. When you’re making the full swing, things are moving so quickly that you don’t have an opportunity to focus on the changes you’re trying to make.

Technique

Take your sand iron and set up to the ball as you would in any other shot. After addressing the ball, start your pivot by shifting back to your right foot. Tilt your shoulders so the club is parallel to the ground and the target line, and the toe of the club is pointing up.

Start your down swing by shifting your hips to the left. Once you have shifted your hips, rotate them towards the target. Allow your shoulders and the club to move with your hips. As you tilt your shoulders, the club will move to a point where the shaft of the club will be pointing to your target, parallel to the ground, and the toe of the club would be again in a vertical position.

How do you incorporate this? Let’s say you’re trying to make a better weight shift to your right foot. When you’re doing the quarter drill focus on getting your weight shifted early in your swing by releasing to the instep of your left foot. The drill allows you to move slowly enough that you can think about it, feel it, and reproduce it.

To Make a Quarter Drill

First - make a swing and stop at a quarter position going back. Focus on the change you want to make. Then start your down swing by shifting through to the left, letting the club brush the ground. Continue in a forward swing coming to a stop at a quarter position. The toe of the club is up, and the weight is on your left foot.
Second - make a quarter swing where you don’t stop. Go back and through, without hitting a ball, thinking about the change you want to make.
Third - Step up to the ball, make the swing and hit the ball.

First, you’re stopping the action, and consciously thinking about it. Second, you’re trying to reproduce that sensation in a continuous motion. Third, you’re adding the ball. This keeps the ball from becoming so intimidating.

Don’t judge how you hit the ball, but whether or not you made the change you were trying to make. This drill will eventually allow you to hit the ball differently. You can see how this drill can be valuable to warm up with, or even to work on a very sophisticated change in your swing. Work slowly and simply, it doesn’t always have to be hard work.

Link to the next chapter, Pivot II