Transcription
Milo Lines:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back out to Superstition Mountain. Milo here, along with Henry. We’re standing here on the 10th tee here at Superstition Mountain on Lost Gold. And we’re talking a little bit about a really important topic about how our pivot works. And that topic is how to keep the left side of our body, the left shoulder especially, low in the transition period. Okay. A really common problem I see amongst players, in general, is in transition this front side of their body goes up this way.
Henry Fall:
Right.
Milo Lines:
Right? And when that happens, what happens to my golf club? It falls back behind me causing me to have to now use my hands to get that club out on the ball. Right?
Henry Fall:
Yep.
Milo Lines:
So there’s some compensations being made. So what I prefer to see is a pivot that’s very symmetrical. So as we change directions, the left side of my body is working down and around. Okay? Now there are some keys to this, and off camera, we were just talking about it. And I think it was like a little aha.
Henry Fall:
It is a little aha. So when we want to keep the left shoulder lower in transition, or to start the down swing, are we just keeping the left shoulder lower? Should that be our focus?
Milo Lines:
Maybe.
Henry Fall:
You’ve probably also heard, “Have your left shoulder separate from your ear,” too. You probably heard that, as well.
Milo Lines:
Yes. Have the left shoulder separating from your ear, staying down, but those things are impossible if one thing in our lower body moves incorrectly.
Henry Fall:
Well, and this all goes back to a bunch of your videos in the past about sequencing, starting that chain that goes up to the rest of your body. Right?
Milo Lines:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Henry Fall:
So sequencing wise, this is more towards the end, isn’t it? Wouldn’t be one of the first things.
Milo Lines:
Well, it’s definitely not the first thing to move. The first thing we see move on most players is the pelvis, left knee. So I’d say motion generally starts right in our middle right here, works down our legs, our legs hit the ground, put pressure into the ground, and then our upper body starts to go. Now this is all happening in a split second. Now the difference in the timing of when my pelvis moves and when my shoulder starts to move is like hundredths of seconds. Literally, on the frame, it might be one frame. But it’s important. That one frame is important.
Henry Fall:
Right. So sounds like what you’re saying is where this hip goes, so does the shoulder go.
Milo Lines:
And that’s what we talked about off camera. As I told you, if your left hip starts to go up in transition, this shoulder will not stay down. It also will not get away from your chin. You hear that, “Get your shoulder away from your chin.” Well, if this goes up, that’s not going away from my chin. So the problem is not the left shoulder going up. It’s a symptom of something else happening earlier on in the chain.
Henry Fall:
Now what about the people that are home watching us, and they’re saying, but the left shoulder always rises in the golf swing. Well, it does, but when is it happening? Right?
Milo Lines:
Yes.
Henry Fall:
Do we want it to be early in transition, or is it later?
Milo Lines:
Yeah, it’s the second one. It’s later .
Henry Fall:
And it’s really more where the camera is and the fact that it’s circling back around on plane. Right?
Milo Lines:
It’s a spiraling action. And in the downswing, we want to have everything working down. We don’t want to have our body working up. So as we’re starting to transition down and till my legs have re-squared, everything is really going downhill. Okay? Once I’ve gotten back to where I’m square, now my left side is going to start to post up and go around the corner, and you can see my shoulder is going to start to go up and around. And how high up and around behind me my shoulder gets, some of that’s determined by some other factors. For me, my body’s going to get really around. By the time I hit it, my body’s facing very much back toward the camera. So how high up is this shoulder?
Henry Fall:
Well, pretty high. Right.
Milo Lines:
Pretty far down behind me. And now if I was a player who has less of that kind of an action and I arrive more at impact like this, with less opening, this shoulder is going to be lower. Just the way it works.
Henry Fall:
And a little bit more of a shrug, I guess.
Milo Lines:
It’d probably be a little more shrugged up. You’d be looking a little bit more like this. Now that wouldn’t be my preference. My preference would be to have the body getting around the corner a little bit more.
Henry Fall:
Yeah. All right. So this has been one of my issues for years, this lateral motion, and then my hip going up. Right?
Milo Lines:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Henry Fall:
So now I got the shoulder that’s high and you’re saying, okay, it’s just a by-product, really, of what’s going on down here. So what should be my focus if there’s a drill or practice I should… ? Or maybe it’s just a thought I should be thinking.
Milo Lines:
Well, number one is that hip socket can’t get outside of that ankle.
Henry Fall:
Okay.
Milo Lines:
So if your hip socket starts to go outside of your ankle… So swing it up. Get your hip socket outside of your ankle. Now what’s going to happen from there on?
Henry Fall:
Right. Shoulder’s going up.
Milo Lines:
That shoulder’s going to go up.
Henry Fall:
And then I got to throw this. So whatever angle I’ve had is lost, and it stalls the rotation, too.
Milo Lines:
Exactly. Yep. So the opposite would be the answer. We want to feel like now as you change directions, this is working down and around. Now see how this shoulder’s staying low?
Henry Fall:
Yeah.
Milo Lines:
Now you can just pour on the gas and keep coming out of the way.
Henry Fall:
Okay.
Milo Lines:
Okay? That’s a little different motion, right? And that hip never really gets outside of your feet-
Henry Fall:
Right.
Milo Lines:
… or ankles.
Henry Fall:
So this is right inside my ankle bone here. It’s this hip moving back around, instead of into that pose.
Milo Lines:
Exactly. That would be my preference. That’s the most dynamic way to pivot. That’s how we see baseball players, tennis players, pretty much everything. That’s how you swing a stick if you want to do it with maximum force. For some reason in golf, where most people tend to be a little more slighty, a little more lateral.
Henry Fall:
Yeah.
Milo Lines:
A lot of it’s because we’re trying to swing inside out and hit draws. But my preference would be that we stop that.
Henry Fall:
Okay. So my focus is to keep my shoulder lower in transition. My real focus should be keeping my lead hip inside my ankle bone.
Milo Lines:
Yep.
Henry Fall:
Okay. Should I try one?
Milo Lines:
Let’s try one. It’s that simple. See what you got.
Henry Fall:
I don’t know if I can do it just on the fly, but we’ll see.
Milo Lines:
Cold turkey right here. Haven’t hit any balls for a while. Now, that was pretty pure. My guess is that you were very successful right there.
Henry Fall:
It really was feeling like that hip is going back and around, almost like I’m trying to get this left cheek almost facing the camera sooner in a way.
Milo Lines:
Yeah.
Henry Fall:
Because even playing golf today, I think I was getting a little bit that way, too.
Milo Lines:
How’d that one feel?
Henry Fall:
Good. It was a nice little cut. That’s what I like to see.
Milo Lines:
So there you go. There’s a perfect feel for you.
Henry Fall:
All right. Well, thanks guys for watching. Make sure you hit the subscribe button bell icon, so you get notified when new videos up and check out milolinesgolf.com. We do monthly analysis. We got tons of video content there, more information. So check out the link. We’ll see you next time.
