Spine Angle

In the video on this page, Tom Watson talked about when he discovered the “secret” to the golf swing. The secret, he explained, was keeping the shoulder rotation on a consistent plane throughout the functional parts of the swing. Think of the spine as the center of a tube (like an empty paper towel roll, or, if you’re really short, a toilet paper roll!). Your hips are the bottom opening in the roll, and your shoulders are the top opening. You tip the roll at an angle that matches the plane of your swing. When you spin the roll, you want to keep it on that plane as long as you can.

The Wind Up

The hips help turn the roll during the wind up. How much they turn, as we explained here, helps determine a lot about your consistency and power. Too much turn, and you may have trouble bringing the club through consistently on the same plane and at the same angle. Not enough turn, and you may find it hard to turn your shoulders enough to generate any power in the swing.

The Launch

Because the hips are the smallest circle among the rotating components of the swing (smaller than the shoulders, smaller than the circle formed by the hands, and smaller than the circle formed by the clubhead) they will start turning first. Remember to flex the knees as we discussed to keep the hips turning on a consistent plane for as long as possible.

The Follow Through

A lot of us won’t be able to rotate our hips as far around as Ishikawa does in the video above, but we should try to keep turning the hips until they face the target. By that time, the clubhead will have released, and the consistent spine angle is no longer relevant. You can let your upper body rise and turn and watch the flight of your ball. But if the hips do not continue through, you may overcompensate by chopping at the ball. That will deprive you of smoothness, consistency, and power.

Go to the next page for Step Four in this revolutionary method for building your perfect golf swing!

Tiger Woods Second Hole Masters

Watch the hips of Tiger Woods in this video. The overall movement is nearly identical to that of the much shorter Ryo Ishikawa in the video above. Like many of the swing components we discuss, the hip turn is nearly universal, varying only slightly between golfers of different sizes. This suggests that the cliche “there is only one golf swing,” may be at least partly true. If you put aside the very unusual body types like Jim Furyk and John Daly, most golfers on the PGA tour have very similar swings from a mechanical point of view.