A model swing: the transition

By T.J.Tomasi

This is the fifth in a series about 11 key swing positions that allow you to match your own swing to a standard model to see how it stacks up. The model assumes a right-handed golfer who is hitting a straight shot.

Position 5: The transition

The transition occurs at the top of your swing when the club changes directions. At this point, the club was moving away from the ball, now stops and begins to arc back toward the ball.

It is here that golf's smallest but most important movement takes place: the hip switch in which pressure is transferred from the back hip to the front hip without actually rotating the hips. Basically, you simply step to your front leg.

If there is one move that distinguishes a good player from a bad one, it is this change of pressure applied to the front hip without any premature hip turn.

Your goal here is to increase body coil by a lateral bump or shuttle of the hips. Studies of the transition show that to create coil, you should rotate your shoulders twice as much as your hips, a ratio known as the X factor. However, the most powerful hitters take advantage of a technique that ratchets up their power factor even more, called the stretch factor.

Most low-handicap players start the bump as the clubhead reaches the end of the backswing arc. But to take advantage of the stretch factor like the pros do, you must start your hips moving BEFORE you complete your backswing, while the club is still moving up on the backswing arc.

It's just physics, not magic, but you will think it's magic when you see how far the ball goes using the stretch factor. It's the technique used by those tiny bombers on the LPGA Tour. Japan's Ai Miyazato is only 4 feet 11 inches tall, but she hits it 260 yards using a driver that looks bigger than she is. Such is the power of the stretch factor.

Here's the key concept that escapes the less-fortunate observer who's over-blessed with common sense. You would think that hitting a ball hard is simply a matter of speeding up the club by speeding up your body, but that is only half the story, and you can't play good golf with only half a story. Not only do you speed up your hips, but then they slow down to pass the power on to the shoulders, which speed up, then slow down to pass the power on again until at impact the power is dumped into the ball.