I played yesterday and was making fantastic contact with the ball but 90% of them were pulling and sometimes straight up hooking. (A few however were beautiful push draws). This shows up on a Facebook page I’m on and started thinking if this may be the solution. The only thing I’ve been doing differently is trying to engage my hips more (my hips have been very quiet and really lacking rotatation). So if I’m starting the downswing rotating my hips instead of laterally, I’m guessing, would that cause a lot of pulled shots? Oh and a side note: I got paired up with a guy named Avery and he was interested in some instruction and I really talked you up @Tom Saguto. (of course I always do anytime I get a chance). 👍🏻😁🏌️♂️
I have started to visualize that there's a wall about 6 or so inches to the left of my left hip and I need to bump that wall during the downswing. It's also possible to use an alignment stick with a pool noodle over the stick and place it about that distance (or more) to the left of my left hip to get the feel.
My question is should the hips make that lateral move as early as possible, maybe even slightly before the club reaches the top? Seems like Nicklaus and Hogan somewhat "pre-set" their hips to the left as they reached the top of their backswings. Could that be easier on the downswing because their hips were already somewhat slid left? Or am I seeing something that's not there?
My big struggle trying to get the lateral hip move is; I usually end up doing this funky side bend thing as opposed to the actual intended lateral hip move. Don’t know why, but it’s been tough to get the right feel down. Still working on that one. I’ve attempted to illustrate it with stick people. (I did NOT major in art. 😂)
Also, for folks who "prefer" to spin out, a lateral move feels like it takes 2 hours to accomplish, at least for me, plus, I get antsy because I'm used to a more spinning motion.
For me, the hardest part is not keeping my head back. I think that's just another remnant of the conventional swing whereby I shifted to my trail side, then (tried) to shift to my lead side on the downswing....as such, my head moved laterally to my lead side. That old swing is a tough critter to shed!!!
@Buford T Ogletree - Thanks for the shout out!!
Yes - more than likely you're not continuing the lateral hip slide through impact on those pulls. The rotation then takes over as you surmise, rerouting the club and killing that nice in-to-out path. The channel video referenced in the FB post is all about that. There's also this You Need More Lateral Hip Motion Drill from Fixing Common Swing Problems. You can also learn from Mr. Hogan in this channel video. The great news is that you are hitting some nice push-draws, so it's just a matter of building in repeatability with this key move!