Get Your Hips Moving Well to Save Your Back
There are 2 foundational areas that we need to move well from in order to make an efficient swing: Our HIPS and our UPPER BACK.
Today, I would like to discuss hip mobility and its importance for you and your swing. Our hips and lower body are our drivers of our golf swing. We use the ground to generate force and transfer that force back through our hips to: our core, upper back, arm, hands and then the club ideally in that sequence in our best effort to make an efficient and powerful down swing.
However if our hips are not moving well we are unable to properly move into an ideal impact position as easily and will create more stress on our backs, knees and ankles.
Downswings happen at a high rate of speed; our lead hip as a result needs to be able to move well to absorb this speed. What happens when you do not have the rotational mobility in your hip to absorb all that speed? .… It must get absorbed in other places. Usually places like your knees, ankle or lower back take the brunt. You will also lose control of your lead foot position once you run out of room in your hip to move. Have you ever seen someone who’s leg and foot turns right out at follow through? The most common cause for this is lack of mobility in their lead hip.
There are even guys on tour that have this issue and you see either their foot turn out or they roll over slightly onto their ankle. Patrick Reed is an example of this ( I couldn’t tell you for sure, but it would appear he has some limitation in his lead hip)
Compare that to Rory and you see a big difference. I can guarantee Rory’s hips are moving better!
The big takeaway here is that the better your hips are moving and most specifically your lead hip the less stress you should place on your low back and knees. This is well supported throughout our literature on back injury with golf. Amateur golfers with lead hip mobility restrictions are at greater risk for low back pain and injury. Mechanically this makes perfect sense. Our hips may stop moving but the club and our body doesn’t, creating more movement from our back and loading our back in a less optimal way.
If you are serious about the game of golf and serious about playing for a long time and staying healthy doing it, work hard to improve the mobility of your hips! If you are unable to gain ground in your hip mobility you should consider changes to your set up such as pointing your lead foot out closer to the target. Your back and your body will thank you!
Keep an eye out for my next blog article 3 great ways to start getting your hips moving!!
Have a great week and hit ‘em straight,
Dr. James Ashcroft DPT, OCS, CSCS