Forget Your Hips, Consider Your Knees

Knee position at the top.

We often hear that the downswing starts "from the ground-up." And then, we invariably hear that this means we should focus on our hips, which inevitably leads to debates about hips rotating versus bumping, ad infinitum. Amateur golfers develop all sorts of bad habits as a result of this debate.

But if we're focused on "ground up" sequencing in the downswing, doesn't that mean that we should start with the feet? And then ankles? And then the knees? Followed by the hips?

The first thing you should feel in a "ground up" transition and downswing is increased pressure in your left foot, almost as if squishing water from a sponge under that foot. This all occurs while your back is still turned towards the target (see "Knee position at the top" image).

Knee position at impact.

A few notable golf instructors and professionals have spoken or written about how weight should move in the feet. Some talk about "rolling the ankles" (which sounds painful). And a few have written about the knees' movement during the downswing. I'm proposing that you consider the lateral, "rotational" movement of the knees. Why? The knees are closer to "the ground," kinetically-speaking. And you don't have to worry over weight movement in the feet or twisting an ankle, as you haplessly try to figure out what rolling them means. It seems that, if you move your knees correctly to start the downswing (especially that right or back knee), the weight shifting sensed through the feet is correct, and the hips automatically, kinetically, perform the correct actions.

Knee position at finish.

Here's a tidbit that is not offered openly by very many teaching professionals: The knees move laterally, linearly, and "rotationally." The rotational part is an important, elusive tenet and one you may not have heard elsewhere, but the knees face the target line at address (i.e., towards the viewer in face-on view and parallel to the target line in DTL view) and turn to roughly face the target prior to impact. It's an optical illusion, or simply a misunderstanding, that leads weekend golfers to believe the knees remain in their address orientations throughout the swing; and put into practice in this way, it's a large power leak.

Note the images accompanying this post of touring professional, Jeff Overton, hitting an 8-iron in the face-on view. Using a golf swing analysis app, I drew red circles over the address positions of Jeff's knee caps to demonstrate how the knees shift and "rotate" during the swing. At or approaching the top, you can see that the right knee doesn't really move from its address position, while the left knee moves slightly toward the right knee (pointing at the ball). At or approaching impact, both knees have shifted toward the target considerably, both knees are still quite bent, and they have "rotated" more towards the target. At or approaching the finish, both knees are now facing the target. The right knee is bent, and the left is mostly straight. The right knee, though facing the target, has replaced the address position of the left knee. Both knees are nearly touching.

You may be thinking that the knees don't really "rotate" or turn, biomechanically speaking, and you'd be right. What actually occurs is that the left or forward hip joint undergoes external rotation (moving from an internally rotated position at the top of the swing), which allows the inside of the left leg to face the target line and the left knee to go from facing the target line at address to facing the target at impact.

The right hip internally rotates so that the right knee folds inward towards the left knee; during this movement, the right foot rolls to the inside but remains roughly on the ground, lengthwise, until it's finally forced onto the toe by continuing rotation. Both the "right foot roll" and the right knee "folding inward" occur together as a result of the correct lower body movement. It's possible that this "right foot roll" is the origin of the "ankle rolling" advice.

 

Regardless of which knee you choose to focus on, either knee is making specific movements and can lead the other knee to follow properly. Now, what about the knees moving laterally and linearly? If you should prefer thinking of the left knee: The bent left knee should move--laterally--out over the left foot (maybe even fractionally outside the left shoulder), separating itself from the right knee, causing the infamous "squat" look that Sam Snead made famous. It's also at this time when the left knee "rotates" to face the target, because the left hip externally rotates. This movement of the left knee forward begins WHILE the club is still setting at the top, which enhances lag on the way down.

The linear part of the movement really refers to the action of both knees. After the initial separation and lateral movement of the left knee, the right knee follows along the same line traveled first by the left knee; it appears to tuck in behind the left knee's address position when viewed down-the-line.

Not all pro golfers utilize a separated knee action and its pronounced squat move. But all of them have knees that move toward the target prior to impact and "rotate" to face the target.

Now to make a powerful transition in your golf swing from your backswing to your downswing you should transfer your weight from your back foot to your front foot.

A great way I have found to do this is to initiate the downswing by moving the front knee towards the target.

However, it’s a good idea when doing this to try and keep the back knee where it was in the backswing because this knee separation creates lag in the downswing, which helps to create the late hit that every golfer wants because it gives longer golf drives!

The Golf Swing: What Your Legs Should Be Doing To Hit Longer Golf Drives

If you're having trouble keeping your swing consistent when a match is on the line, key on your left knee to start your downswing. When you practice, remember to support your backswing with your right leg, then move your left knee and thigh laterally, then rotationally, to your left. This allows your arms to drop the club inside the target line on the downswing for long and consistent shots.

Jim Flick: Knees Are Key

Even as the wrists are completing their part of the turn, the lower body has moved into the backstretch. The left knee moves laterally into the downswing and pulls on the left hip which in turn pulls the left arm downward. At the same time, the right knee begins to drive toward the target, taking with it the shoulders, arms, and hands.

When you execute the swing properly, the leadership of the legs creates a lag of the hands and clubhead, resulting in what's commonly called a delayed release. In this position, just prior to impact, the wrists have not yet uncocked and there is a tremendous amount of club head speed ready to be unleashed.

Instruction Tip #50 - The Downswing | The Shark

Jim Furyk won the Tour Championship and the Fedex Cup in 2010—thanks to his left knee. As we show in this video, the most consistent winners in the history of golf also started their downswing with their left knee. This made them consistent winners because it helped to insure that their downswing sequence was in the right order and that their front spine angle remained fairly constant.

Furyk Wins $11.35 Million with Left Knee

Sequencing Drill: Place and hold a clubshaft behind your back just above the shoulder blades and a soccer ball between your knees, and assume your address position. Just before your shoulders reach the top, drop the soccer ball by moving your left knee toward the target. This move will produce the feeling of a correct transition and a "sitting-down" look in your lower body.

Automatic Transition

The idea is to make your backswing move, then get a real sense of 'squatting' and 'settling' in the lower body as you fuse the two halves together by reversing momentum from the ground up. Your weight shifts back across to the left foot, left knee working towards the target while left hip and left shoulder pull in that same direction. The result is a natural shallowing of the swing plane as the right arm and shoulder drop, setting up the desired inside attack on the ball.

Driving to Success

To do this the legs start by shifting both knees and ankles targetward. It is true that the head stays behind the ball, but the core of the body shifts and clears past the ball rather dramatically. This assists the hands and arms in making their initial drop to the waist high area while wrists are still fully hinged. At this stage the right wrist should still be bent back fully but the palm is now facing the ground not the sky. With the palm facing down this insures the clubface is also facing down or toward the ball and requires no scooping or manipulation to be squared up in time for the hit.

Golf Lag: Stop Casting, Lag like Tiger Woods

Use this image to check your weight transfer: Your right knee should point at or slightly in front of the ball at impact. That shows you've made a good shift. Here's the sequence: Left knee points behind the ball at the top; right knee points toward it at impact (above).

Tom Watson: Right Knee Power Key

As I transition my weight from my right side to my left side, I begin the necessary move of the right knee toward my left knee. You can see that happening here as I drop the club on the downswing and rotate my hips open. As the right knee gets closer to the left knee, the left knee straightens out.

Quick Tips To Play Better

 

Hip and Shoulder Separation

Bae's Shoulder and Hip Separation

Many of my blog posts go over the same information, again and again, in different ways. That's because golf is often based on feels, and everyone learns a different feeling to engrain some fundamental. I write about what I try and what I find useful, primarily so that I can go back and revisit these things from time-to-time. I revisit them because they're the fundamentals that can easily be forgotten or overlooked; a round can suddenly go south because a grip has drifted too weak or too strong, pre-shot alignment is rushed and faulty, an unconsious sway on the backswing, improper weight distribution, etc.

I've posted extensively on the hips' role, the shoulders' role, how to pivot, separation, about lag, creating distance, etc. But I wanted to spend a few more electrons on the subject of separating the hips from the shoulders to generate power. Now, I've examined Jim McClean's X-Factor a few times on here, and you'll find the usual for-and-against golf enthusiasts out there on the interwebs debating that very subject. Reputable instructors will offer up valid logic on why you should or should not resist with your lower body while your shoulders turn on the backswing. Take a stance on just about any "unassailable" fundamental of golf and you will eventually find someone--someone with a low or scratch handicap--who disagrees.

I believe that the so-called "X-Factor" of hip and shoulder separation is far more important in the transition and early downswing at generating power and consistency than using separation in the takeaway and backswing to generate potential power. I believe this because there are examples of long-hitting professionals who turn their hips a lot on the backswing (more than they believe or more than Jim McClean says they should). But on the downswing, their hips ALWAYS start first, before ANYTHING else moves; I haven't seen slow-motion video yet of a single professional golfer who moves the shoulders before the hips (if they did, they would immediately be OTT and NOT hitting inside-out). Their entire pelvis shifts towards the target a few inches (and thus so do both knees, pushing weight into the left leg) and then rotates (the belt buckle turns) towards the target, followed closely and sequentially by the belly, shoulders, arms, hands, the club, and finally the club head. This sequential unwinding "from the ground up" produces the kinematic sequence--the use of the entire body somewhat like a whip to send energy from the ground up and out (inside-out) through the club head and into the ball.

Sticking with the belt buckle swing thought mentioned above, try to start your downswing by first moving the belt buckle over the left (or front) leg WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY rotating the belt buckle towards the target. All of this should happen while the shoulders are still mostly closed and the arms completely passive--almost floating. Another way to think of this--to ensure you're not throwing, casting, or hitting with your arms from the top--is to imagine that you have a golf club extending from your belt buckle and that you're trying to hit the ball using nothing but the belt buckle motion, while your arms come through afterwards with a second club. Your arms are lagging behind your belt buckle. FORGET YOUR ARMS! They will naturally, quickly, and fluidly follow the motion of your lower body. I've found that thinking of hitting the ball with my belt buckle (thus shifting my belt buckle targetward and rotating around at the same time) helps keep the instinct to hit the ball with the arms at bay.

A "from the ground up" downswing, that enables hip motion to separate from shoulder motion, starts in the feet and how the weight is distributed in them--front-to-back--to provide balance. Verified when I recently took a golf lesson from a local PGA teaching pro, I've had a bad habit of sitting back on my heels when taking my stance (setup as part of GASP), and this can absolutely destroy the ability to easily shift the hips forward and rotate and properly. I've had to make sure that my weight is shifted into the balls of my feet (shifted towards my toes but not in my toes); the weight is mostly in the arches, balanced evenly between the heels and toes. One should only be on the heels for a lie below the feet, and only on the toes for a lie above the feet. The correct athletic stance that promotes an easy shift and rotation of the pelvis while the shoulders remain closed feels almost as if one is preparing to dive into a pool or receive a serve in tennis. There are a few teaching professionals (e.g., Chuck Quinton) who, predictably, contradict this fundamental, but most touring professionals, like Tiger Woods and Tom Watson, and teaching professionals, like Shawn Clement and his "suction cup" foot analogy, advocate for the balanced ball-of-the-foot approach, and that seems to work best for me. Chuck's admonition seems related to keeping the left knee healthy (implying this is what caused Tiger's knee woes), but someone like Tom Watson is currently in his 60s and hitting the ball a mile. I think I'll believe Tom Watson and the PGA pro I saw on this one.

At the top, the shoulders should momentarily stay put (stay turned away from the target), while the pelvis (hips) execute the motions described above in the transition to the downswing. The shoulders and arms follow because they physically must do so. No thought should be given to moving the shoulders and arms (and club); simply let the hips start the process and let everything follow and unwind. In a sense (at least in terms of how it should feel), you're making a move to hit the ball with your legs and hips, letting everything else follow! The amount of lag generated by doing this correctly is amazing and the distance and consistency that is achievable by learning to trust this one movement cannot be overstated.

This is useful throughout the bag (except for the putter, where you want a stable lower body). You need to do this in the sand. You need to do this when pitching. You can even do this--albeit very slightly--when chipping. Let the lower body lead and find out how easy this game can be.

For me, this works best with a centralized backswing pivot, where the right shoulder pulls directly back and behind the head; in other words, no swaying. For me, a backswing sway can be so slight and so easily and unintentionally introduced when focusing on the right transition and downswing; it will wreck the benefit of a properly executed downswing sequencing. When you're doing it right--putting both a proper backswing pivot and hip-shoulder separation on the downswing--you'll be fully and naturally posted up on your left leg at the completion of the swing.

Watch your favorite guy on the Tour -- Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Vijay, me, anybody -- and forget about his arms and hands and head when he makes a golf swing. Just focus on his belt buckle.

Then watch another swing, this time trying to focus on your guy's hands in relation to his belt buckle. They're always, always just a little behind through contact.

Let your belly lead your hands - Golf - John Daly - ESPN

Rotating your lower body toward the target helps propel the ball from the sand and assists in maintaining acceleration. Try this for a swing thought: Turn your belt buckle to the target.

Tiger Tips: Belt Buckle To The Target : Golf Digest

The way they sequence that power’s delivery to the ball is the key to maximum efficiency and distance. For an effective kinematic sequence to occur they must start the downswing from the ground up. That is to say that the hips start or fire first, followed by the torso, then the arms and finally the club. If this order is compromised power loss and errant shots will occur.

The more turn you have while keeping the shoulders stable/still the greater your potential for the “X Factor” stretch in the downswing and generating power. If you found it hard to do this test you will find it difficult to sequence correctly in the downswing.

Blackburn Golf | Tips & Articles | Sequencing Successfully!

Conventional wisdom states that the downswing begins from the ground up. A golfer must shift his weight forward and begin rotating his hips before swinging his arms forward. Golf instructor Jimmy Ballard explains that when your weight shifts forward and your hips rotate properly your arms “respond naturally, falling into the correct downswing plane” as they approach the ball.

Slide vs. Turn Golf Downswing

The transition from backswing to downswing is crucial to generating power and accuracy. The key is to start the downswing with the lower body.

In the best swings the lower body starts forward while the upper body is still turning back. The left hip turns toward the target as the shoulders continue to coil. That takes terrific timing and a lot of practice.

Tom Watson: Lead With Your Lower Body : Golf Digest

Rotating through impact can be felt in different ways, such as a pull with the left side, push with the right side, downward push off the right foot, inward kick with the right knee, left hip clearing, etc. There are numerous ways to feel the body’s rotation. It doesn’t matter what your feel is as long as it starts with the lower body. It’s not a passive role by any means. There must be a conscious effort to turn the body all the way until the finish.

A great thought is turning the belt buckle to the target as quickly as possible as you swing through the ball. It targets a key area – the hips – and engages the lower body and creates speed in the unwinding process.

But remember, rotation must be sequenced correctly.The lower body shifts weight first and rotation to the target comes second. You maximize everything you got by following that sequence. Some amateurs do the opposite and rotate too early. This tends to throw the club outside the target line and cause slices and pull hooks.

Tour Players Rotate Through Impact | Scratch Golf School

The best way I can describe the feeling of using the body to hit the ball is, it’s an UNMISTAKABLE feeling that I used my legs and hips. After the shot has been hit, I feel a radiating all the way down my right leg and in my hips whereas, I feel nothing in my hands and arms.

Golf Tip - What Starts the Downswing?

Most amateurs just are not able to get the club in the slot because they rotate their shoulders early from the top of their swing. This, of course, throws the club outside the target line and usually results in a slice, a pull, or even a top.

Jim Suttie: The most important move in golf ... get in the slot

At the top of your backswing, your back should be facing your target if you have completed your shoulder turn correctly. Your back should stay facing your target for just a second as you begin your downswing. This will allow the golf club to swing down properly on the correct swing path as you approach the golf ball at impact.

Starting the downswing by opening up the upper body too early will lead to an over the top swing as well as an out to in swing path. This can lead to either a slices or pulled golf shots. At impact, the shoulders should be square to your target line so it's important that they don't open up too early from the start of the downswing.

Perfect Your Golf Downswing Transition

Keep your back facing the target at the start of the downswing.

What this 'feel' will do is keep your club to the inside on the downswing. If you open your shoulders real quick, and NOT have your back face the target, this will throw your club to the outside, and lead to an over the top swing, and hence a bad golf shot. This is a problem slicers are notorious for having.

So when you reach the top of your swing, do this:

Feel that your hips bump slightly laterally, then begin to turn out of the way.

The key is to keep your back facing the target for a split second longer as you make this initial move with your hips. You should feel that your back resists against your lower body. Your upper body stays still, your lower body begins firing, your golf club is automatically dropped into the slot, your golf ball goes straight and far!

Golf Tips - Fixing your Slice - Keeping Your Back to Target

A quick look back at Hogan’s original quote in this essay tells us that “...under no conditions should the downswing be inaugurated by the hands.” I agree wholeheartedly. It is folly. Watson agrees as well:

“A lot of fairly good players try to start everything down together: feet, hips, arms, shoulders. I made the mistake of trying to do that myself for several years with no great success. If you start everything down together, there is a strong tendency to throw the clubhead at the ball with the right hand too soon, dissipating your power and not helping your accuracy, either. I converted to starting down with the lower body and became both longer and straighter.”

Secrets In The Dirt

Do you[r] best to keep your back facing the target for longer and you will set up the ideal DOWN swing sequence that will move the golf club on a path that travels outwards through the ball rather than across the ball. You can do this by controlling your armswing and shoulders consciously and deliberately or by using your lower body in such a way that the result is that the shoulders are delayed.

May, 2012 | Golf Confidence Academy

Professional golfers transition to the downswing by moving their lower bodies. In every great golf swing the legs and hips move first. The torso follows the hips; the shoulders follow the torso; the arms follow the shoulders; the hands follow the arms; and the club follows the hands. That’s the order of the downswing. : The sequence is from the ground up. The lower and upper body have to be synchronized. Strong hips and stabilizers create strong downswing.

Cindy Reid Golf

Just like that basketball player, you want to be on the balls of your feet -- not the heels, not the toes. That's the key to balance. No good athletes in any sport play with their weight back on their heels. It's important that you start with your weight on the balls of your feet and keep it there through impact. You can easily check your set-up position in a full-length mirror.

Tom Watson: To Set Up Right Get On Defense : Golf Digest

If you swing your belly button back and through you are activating and/or energizing many of the muscles that Mike Austin wanted you to utilize in the swing, including the internal and external obliques, the transverse abdominis, the glutes and the sartorius, just to name a few. The good news is that you don’t have to think about those muscles, if you don’t want to. Just swing that belly button. The further and faster you move it (albeit smoothly) the further that ball will go.

The Belly Button | Mentored By The Legend – Mike Austin

 

Shortened Backswing

Garcia's short backswing.

One of my major problems is that my backswing gets too long; I learned this by studying video from a recent golf lesson. I can get the club to parallel, but the club ends up too close to my shoulders because my arms tend to collapse, decreasing width. This error causes many problems, including a tendency to cast from the top (as the left arm re-straightens) causing a loss of lag; this ironically slows down clubhead speed, even though the point of such a long swing to begin with was to increase speed and thus distance.

The cure? Shorten the backswing. Think short-slow back and then fast down. Maintaining connection is the best way to accomplish a short backswing; keep the upper arms pinned against the sides of the chest throughout the swing. A drill for this when the arms are at fault is to place a small rubber ball between the elbows and practice the backswing without losing the ball; another drill involves using a towel under both arm pits (or similar drills); those drills, however, don't address other ways the backswing can get long, such as too much hip turn, too much wrist hinge, grip coming apart, etc. Usually, it's an arm problem: The arms become disconnected and unsynchronized with the movement of the body.

Essentially, the arms should stop moving upward when the shoulders reach a fully turned position; there's no benefit to continue lifting the arms and club in order to get the club artificially to parallel. The right arm should not be consciously bent at the top; one should think of keeping it straight and pushing the left hand away from one's shoulder. The feeling is of using a 3/4 backswing and full downswing. In reality, the club will continue traveling backwards much further, even though the downswing has started, preserving lag. There's also a sensation that the elbows are staying oriented to the hips, keeping their downward orientation, even though the upper torso is turning away from the hips slightly on the backswing.

When pro golfers reach parallel (or even past it), photos show their hands are pushed well away from their bodies, and their left arm remains straight. Many amateurs--lacking the flexibility or ability of the pros--attempt to manufacture a parallel position by bending the arms or wrists too much, and as a result overswing and get the club off-plane. Instead of generating speed, this goofy looking position actually hinders speed. We long-swinging amateurs would do much better with a shorter backswing; speed and distance would actually increase for most of us, as would consistency.

What if too much hip turn is your problem or part of your problem? Too much hip turn has definitely been one of my problems; it may be yours too if you find your right leg straightening significantly on the backswing or if you notice you pull the ball (an excessively rotated hip turn in the backswing will lead to overly active hips coming down). Clay Ballard of RST has a great thought for limiting hip turn. Imagine your right knee has a laser pointing from it to the target line; try to leave that laser pointing at the target line as you go to the top of your backswing to feel a proper coil with minimal lower body movement. There are other similar ways, but this way definitely will get you coiling better. Another way to diagnose excessive hip movement on the backswing is to see yourself in DTL video; you will notice a gap appearing between your knees if there's too much movement.

All right, if you are still reading, you may want to brace yourself because your game is about to change forever. I know I shouldn't be doing this for free because it's probably the best tip you are ever going to get, but here it is anyway...SHORTEN YOUR BACKSWING!!!!! Probably not the first time you've heard this suggestion, but it is time to heed this advice.

A technician at a local electronics store once told me a truth about electronics that is very relevant to golf, "The more things that move, the more things that can break." Well, the same thing is true for your back swing. When you take a big back swing, your left arm breaks down at your elbow and at your wrists. Strange as it sounds, you also tend to under-rotate your shoulders. Both of these things not only cause you to be wildly inconsistent, but also actually cost you distance. That's right folks, too long of a back swing makes you hit it shorter, not longer. If you maintain a straight left arm, you will rotate your shoulders farther instead of bending your elbow and wrists.

When I tell people to take the club back to about 75% of their normal back swing, they almost all still take the club back past parallel! Parallel is the absolute maximum distance that your back swing should ever go. It is the MAXIMUM, not the GOAL of a normal back swing. You should only take the club back as far as your shoulders allow you to turn without bending your left arm at all.

Shorten Your Backswing For More Control

Most golfers have long swings because their arm swing continues to move after their shoulders have stopped turning. If this sounds like you, try to stop your arm swing once your shoulders have stopped turning. Doing this, you will be able to start your downswing with your lower body instead of starting your downswing with a "casting" motion of your arms and hands.

Local golf: Shorten your swing for better consistency

Slow down and limit the length of your backswing for more consistency.

You don't hit the ball with your backswing, you hit the ball on the downswing. A backswing that is too quick, or too long, can easily get the club out of position, and can prevent you from storing the energy needed for a powerful, consistent downswing.

Golf Swing Video: Shorten Your Backswing For More Consistency

Human nature says that the longer your backswing, the farther you'll hit the ball. But if this was true, why is it that I can hit a ball 300 yards with a three-quarters swing but I can't hit it 400 yards with a longer swing?

How a Longer Backswing Can Lead to Shorter Shots in Golf

It's really this simple: given that clubhead speed equals distance - with all else being equal - if my swing is long yet slow and yours is small but fast, you will get more distance than I will.

While a big backswing tends to promote deceleration, a short backswing does just the opposite.

A short backswing promotes acceleration. Your proverbial win-win. Mentally, it is almost like you don't believe the short backswing will do the trick, so you accelerate to make up for it.

Shorten Your Swing For More Power

Most golfers will gain distance almost immediately by shortening their backswing. A more compact swing not only give you more distance but it also give you more control over your swing and therefor better accuracy as well. The extra effort required to get the club past parallel , which is working against gravity, increases the chance of getting the club in a bad position.

Shorter Backswing

The solution is very simple: shorten up your backswing. Intuitively, golfers feel that this new position will cause them to lose power. But as a recent commenter posted"What I thought would result in a shortening of my shots actually gives me more distance."

The #1 Golf Swing Fault Golfers Over 50 Make

Now that you understand that you don't have to have a long backswing to generate power, how far should you go back? I tell my students that once their shoulder rotation stops, so should the club. You want the shoulder rotation to determine your backswing length instead of your club still going back long after the shoulders have stopped. At first, this shorter backswing will feel like you don't have a lot of power so it will be more difficult to do, but as you get used to it, you will soon see your shots fly just as far, if not farther, with half the backswing.

The Pro's make the golf swing look so easy!

Focus on your left arm. When you are making your backswing, feel like your left arm is going to stop parallel to the ground. In reality it will be further than that, but this is a good starting point.

Along with your left arm is your hands. Think of your hands only going slightly higher than your hip height. Again in reality it will be further.

How to Shorten Your Golf Swing

Jim McLean, currently one of the best teachers on the planet, has a great tip for the over swingers. As his teaching assistant, I saw first hand how effective this simple tip can be. Here it is: When the shoulders stop turning the arms stop swinging. This concept matches the body with the arms on the backswing. It also shortens your backswing for consistency. Most high handicappers allow their arms to continue even after their shoulders stop turning. This leads to a disconnect between the body and arms, and an extra long backswing. All potential for serious inconsistency.

A Shorter and Connected Backswing for Consistency

First and foremost, you are going to get more control by shortening your backswing. The second reason why a short backswing in golf is better has to do with an increase in overall distance. It seems counter-intuitive that a shorter backswing will produce longer golf shots, but that is precisely what happens with the average player. Shortening your backswing will enable you to avoid many back problems that are common to golfers.

Is a short backswing in golf better?

"I recommend that at some point, every golfer practice hitting balls with a three-quarter backswing," said Joe Hallett, the director of the PGA Center for Golf Learning and Performance in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "Then, when everything seems to be going wrong, you can fall back on the three-quarter backswing shot. It's a nice safety net, and it will solve a lot of problems.

Shorten the Backswing to Calm Things Down

Imagine your backswing as short, wide and tight. As you swing back, make sure your hands are outside your right shoulder halfway back (when your hands are waist high on the backswing). Also, in this position the wrists should be fully cocked.

Easy, Tiger! Shorten your backswing for more accuracy

I have sat on the range watching people hit on a launch monitor and seen this 1000 times if I have seen it once.

A long sloppy arm controlled backswing that produces 80 mph of club speed and 110 mph of ball speed.

Followed by a short compact shoulder controlled back swing, that allows the hips to clear and produces 95 mph of club speed and 140 mph of balls speed.

Then the proverbial, “That shorter back swing feels so powerless, I don’t think I can do that.”

It doesn’t matter whether it’s launch monitor numbers, or just eyeballing a drive that goes 10-20 yards farther, it’s all the same.

Almost every golfer has a backswing that is too long

To get an idea of what I mean by keeping your elbows in front of you, grab a club and take your setup. At this point your elbows are basically right in front of your stomach. From here they will go UP a bit so that they are out in front of your chest, but it's preferable that they don't go anywhere else relative to your upper body.

The Gateway To Better Golf: Elbows in front

Any attempt by the golfer to independently move the arms “around” the chest or “behind you”during the backswing will disrupt this proper V shaped up and down in front of the chest motion, and cause the golfer to “get stuck” with the arms too far behind the chest, i.e. too far to the right side. You will then “come over the Top” during Transition, trying desperately to get “unstuck”, and then of course the severe out to in clubhead path and early wrist cock release occurs, the signature start of the downswing move of the high handicap golfer.

Gotham Golf Blog: Mastering the Craft of Ballstriking By Jim Waldron

The best way to understand where your arms should connect to your body is to stand up straight in your natural posture, letting your arms hang down; if your posture is ok, you will find that you arms hang on the side of your chest. Try and feel where the connection point is because this is the same point when you take your golf address. Connection between arms and body at address should happen more on the side of the chest rather than on top of the chest, with the shoulders remaining back in the natural body’s posture.

Connection

There is a trend on the professional tours these days to shorten the backswing with all clubs. Surprisingly, there has been little or no loss of power in doing that. To shorten the backswing, have your arms stop going back when your left shoulder stops turning (for right-handers).

It is risky to keep the arms moving up and back after that shoulder has reached its flexible limit. And don’t consciously cock your wrists. They take care of that by themselves.

Golf Tip of the Week: Shortened backswing helps with accurate distances

 

Latissimus Dorsi Golf Swing

The golf downswing should be powered from the ground up. This is a near universally accepted fundamental in golf. And I don't believe it's wrong; however, it's possible that--like many things in golf instruction--it is misleading.

I am now a believer in pulling instead of pushing in the golf swing, and translated to TGM principles, I suppose that would indicate that I'm more an advocate of swinging versus hitting, respectively. What does this mean? Recall that pulling the right shoulder back in the takeaway and backswing is the correct pivot move versus pushing the left shoulder back behind the ball. Executing a pull takeaway and backswing engages a different set of muscles--muscles in the right side of the back that pull--a more efficient biomechanical motion. Pushing the club back uses a different group of muscles in the left chest and triceps; and this less efficient movement can introduce many errors into the pivot and torso turn. Likewise, pushing on the downswing can introduce errors and rob one of power.

For the backswing, concentrate on pulling your right latissimus dorsi or “lat” (the large wing-like muscles on the sides of your back) immediately back behind you and as far away from the ball as you can. In the downswing, do the opposite with the left lat; it moves first before anything else. I like to think of a “lat dowel” (a wooden dowel that extends through both lats) as powering the golf swing—including chips, pitches, putts, and bunker shots. Thinking of only the lats rotating and moving the arms and club gets you turning instead of swaying, and it really builds up tension across your back that you want to release. It also takes concentration off of your arms and wrists, which is a good thing in golf when you want to swing rather than hit at the ball. The motion gets your right side deeper on the backswing, making room for you to come from the inside, and prevents you from faking a “shoulder turn” using the very independent movement of the shoulders themselves.

Don’t worry about your hips turning as a result of this rotary lat motion—they should! Ignore those who tell you to keep the hips still, as I believe this advice gets more amateur golfers to sway than anything.

This “lat dowel” motion is not unlike trying to start a lawnmower; you would have to pull hard using your lats to get the engine to turnover. Rowing a boat with dual oars also illustrates the pulling-pushing difference: You would pull against the resistance of the water to propel the boat forward using both lats predominantly, and you would push using predominantly both chest muscles to get the oars back into position for the next pull. Trying to propel the boat through the water using a pushing motion of the chest and triceps would be less efficient, because those muscles aren't as big or strong as your lats and shoulders that are designed to pull. The physics of pulling trump pushing nearly every time. Have you ever seen a motorboat pushing a water skier? Have you ever seen a truck pushing its trailer?

So what about starting your downswing from the ground-up? Well, I've found that pulling with my left lat (or really releasing it) automatically engages me from the ground-up. I don't have to think about bumping my left hip and then turning my left hip back; all that happens without thought when you're telling your body to pull down fast with the left lat. You can't pull if you're not connected to the Earth, and you can't pull from the left side if you're not over your left leg.

As a right-hander, I personally like the golf feeling that my right-side Lat muscle is pulling on the backswing, stretching the Lat on the other side, which then pulls the downswing. (And, of course my external and internal obliques are aiding the rotation—it’s unconscious, and it’s called the anterior oblique sling.)

Bottom line: the conscious turning is accomplished from the sides and back, not from the front. And, it happens lower than shoulders, and higher than the hips (which are both just joints and bones, and are just along for the ride).

Guest Column #2 (The Biomechanics of the Golf Swing) | Monte Scheinblum's Blog

Your legs should play a supporting role, but the real key to starting down correctly is to engage the left side of your torso (for righties), particularly your latissimus dorsi, or "lat" muscle.

Smith: How To Control Your Power : Golf Digest

The correct concept involves “pulling” your arms down in front of you using the large muscles of your back and shoulders. You should feel as if there is a point just under your left shoulder blade (the opposite for left-handers) that is the center of this pulling action.

Put your back into it | Spotlight E.P. News

As you start down, make a lateral move toward the target with your left lat. Your left hip and entire lower body will support this move naturally. Now you're ready to unwind.

Rick Smith: How To Get Down : Golf Digest

The latissimus dorsi has the largest surface area of any muscle, and it is capable of producing tremendous power. By stretching it in the backswing and then quickly shortening it in the downswing, the latissimus dorsi transfers and amplifies power up the kinetic chain from the hips to the upper body.

Latissimus dorsi muscle | Golf Loopy

The target-side latissimus dorsi helps pull the golfer onto his target side while countering the force generated by the pectoralis muscles on both sides of the golfer’s body.

Generate speed and power with each swing

To get the feel of contracting the latissimus muscle, simply go to the top of your swing and pose, then drop your lead arm, feeling as if a point in the middle of your left scapula is actually contracting and pulling the left arm down.

Here's the big thought: You're not pushing the club down; you're pulling it down. And you're not using your arms, hands or any other part in the front of your body; you're using your back.

The age-old question is, "What starts the downswing?" Now you know the answer: In the upper body, the back moves the front.

It's good for your game

This feeling of having your lat muscles engaged is what you want to hold onto throughout the entire golf swing. That's what keeps the shoulders down and keeps you "in the box." It keeps you connected to your core muscles and all the muscles in the torso, allowing you to use your big muscles in the golf swing.

Learn How to Activate the Correct Golf Muscles in Your Golf Swing

Clarifying the Hips' Role

Typical sway (rear view).

The dreaded sway is a plague. For one thing, it's hard to discern if you're guilty of it if you're not paying attention, and an amateur golfer with a sway is usually focused on other parts of the swing. And the opposing sensation--the correct one--will feel wrong when first attempted. Let's face it. A sway feels powerful to a beginning golfer; after all, they're "shifting weight to the back foot" like they've been told to do. But they can't figure out why they're seeing all these weak, floaty, fat shots coming off their club. Must need to swing faster...or sway more. Nope.

I recently understood why--finally--I had thought that keeping my right knee bent was helping me during a particular round but didn't seem to help much subsequent to that. I had assigned the results I was getting at the time to the wrong aspect of my backswing. Yes, I was keeping my right knee more bent in the backswing, but the real help was that my pelvis was passively turning in a more centered fashion WHILE keeping my right knee bent! This is a prime example of how we golfers can go on wild goose chases for that "thing" that will always be with us on the course, when in reality we can only count on a few key fundamentals and physics. We must continue coming back to those and working on them.

First, there are some setup characteristics that encourage an over-active hip rotation and its more desirable opposite. The more closed your stance (as if presetting for a draw), the more likely you will over-rotate the hips going back. Conversely, squaring your stance (or even opening it a bit) will decrease the possible amount of hip turn going back; the caveat is that a more open stance increases your chance of hitting outside-in. A ticked-in right knee will discourage hip over-rotation, as will a right foot that is kept perpendicular to the target line. Finally (already alluded to this), keeping the right knee bent in the backswing will prevent the hips from turning too much going back.

Correct right hip pivot.

Even though you do shift weight to the right foot (for a right-handed player), the pelvis--and thus the right hip--should never move to the right from its address position. Instead, the right hip rotates both backwards and towards the target in response to the right shoulder pulling straight back (causing the left shoulder to turn behind the ball); the rear hip never moves away from the target or to the right, which is the textbook definition of a sway and probably some form of a reverse pivot. The weight automatically stays concentrated on the inside of right foot and right leg as its supposed to.

In other words, imagine a line drawn on the ground that extends from the ball to between one's legs at address (i.e., a line perpendicular to the target line). A correct backswing hip movement has the right hip rotating back and around towards that line while the left shoulder turns to point at or just behind the ball; the right hip should not move further away from that line. This is a key distinction. And when you first do it correctly--when you've been swaying away--it will feel wrong...until you actually hit the ball and feel what happens.

A sway usually involves a straightening right knee due to (or as a result of) active hip rotation, while the correct, passive hip pivot in the backswing--with the hips initially resisting and remaining stable during the takeaway--allows the right knee to stay bent in order to keep the hips level and prevent the upper body from leaning to the left. During the takeaway, you should strive for the feeling that the hips and knees stay parallel to the target line initially and only pivot back due to the shoulders continued turn; this creates tension in the body that can be used to add power to your swing, while the stable lower body contributes to more consistent contact.

Examine a professional golfer in their address and backswing positions and you'll see that their rear leg at the top of the backswing appears to keep the same angle it had in relation to the body at address: The rear leg appears--from the foot to the hip--to be angled towards the target throughout the swing, while a swayer's rear leg goes from the correct angled appearance at address to an upright or vertical appearance at the top of the backswing. Heck, a severe sway can even have the rear leg angled entirely in the other direction at the top!

It's that centralized pelvic motion brought about by the proper rear hip rotation that allows for an easy weight shift to the front leg, dynamic front hip rotation (that mirrors the rear hip rotation in the other direction), and powerful, compressive impact. This is what Shawn Clement refers to when he talks about the correct weight shift and hip pivoting action--his "braced tilt." As a matter of fact, the left hip in the downswing nearly mirrors the motion of the right hip's backswing movement. At the completion of the backswing, there's a subtle, small shift of pressure into the left foot (many call this shift a "hip bump"); following that subtle move, the left hip simply turns behind the golfer and away from the target, while the upper body and arms stay passive! In reality, the left hip pivots both away from the target and upwards, due to the straightening left leg. The upper body shortly follows, and this makes it easy to keep one's head behind the ball, swing inside-out, and hit a push-draw. Performed correctly, you will notice a distinct stretched feeling all along the left side of the rib cage; a line running along the side of the left leg and left torso will resemble a crescent shape at impact.

Also, keep this in mind: The correct sequence of the aforementioned rear hip movement for the takeaway and backswing always follows the turning of the shoulders. The shoulders, arms, and club make a centralized turn first while the lower body remains still, and the shoulders eventually reach a point where they can't turn further; it's here that the rear hip turns back and behind the golfer to allow a 90-degree shoulder turn. Don't turn the hips before the shoulders. The correct sequence is that the shoulders turn the hips going back, and the hips turn the shoulders on the way down.

Left hip and crescent shape.

You see, the term “shift” is all wrong for the backswing. “Pivot” is a better term. The right hip will pivot back like sitting back in a chair and then around – actually coiling back toward the target slightly, not drifting sideways to the right. The right foot will stay braced on the instep, and the leg will remain leaning inward like a ball player braced to push off for a throw.

Weight Shift in Golf Swing – Herman Williams Golf

Have you ever hit balls at the range next to someone who made an awesome sound when they hit the ball? That sound is compression. It makes other players turn and watch because obviously this is a great ball striker. The player has made his divot past the ball and transferred the energy efficiently from the clubhead to the ball. Distance control is one of the keys to scoring. Great golfers don’t always hit the ball accurately but they often hit the ball pin high which means they are making solid contact. Proper hip action on the backswing plays a major role in compressing the ball. A common swing thought is to transfer your weight to your right side on the backswing. Unfortunately, most players sway their hips back to do this causing fat and thin contact. The key is to allow your hips to truly turn, not sway.

Hip Turn | MySmartGolf.com Blog

 

Preset Open Hips

Open hips/open stance.

If you're struggling with solid contact, it's always best to try something different in your setup. The swing itself is best when the setup, posture, grip, and alignment (GASP) create a somewhat automatic backswing and downswing. Trying to control small muscles in the arms in an attempt to provide power and club face control (i.e., steering) is a recipe for disaster. A good setup should help you "automatize" the swing.

Here's something I've found that really helps me create consistent, solid contact. Please note that, depending on your body type and swing mistakes, trying this may cause you more problems than it solves. Try it as a drill (at the very least) before you determine whether this is of any help. Of course, I can only theorize why it's helpful, and I will get to that shortly.

First, let's get to the heart of it: Setup like you normally would with feet, knees, hips, and shoulders aligned square to the target line, as the fundamentals tell us to do. You can even setup with slightly closed feet, and the correct shoulder position should feel somewhat closed, although in reality it's square (shoulders pointing left is a major no-no). Now, before swinging back, preset your hips into a slightly open position. Yes, you can do this even though your feet are square/closed and the shoulders are square, due to the mobility available in the hips (assuming you have no restrictions in the movement of your hips). In essence, you're starting from a correct preset impact position, and your hips are "out of alignment" with the target line compared to your shoulders.

Starting my swing from this position created very powerful near-center-face hits on all clubs, so I decided to analyze potential reasons why this apparent break from the fundamentals is helpful to me, especially given that open hips are supposed to contribute to slices and pulls.

First, I think simulating the impact position before starting the swing pre-programs the brain on what the impact position should be for a particular club and lie. You're giving your brain a "pass-through" point in the swing; instead of trapping the ball between backswing and followthrough, you've added a middle waypoint to connect those dots.

Next, you'll notice that opening the hips while keeping everything else square automatically puts a little more weight on the front leg and positions the remaining weight into the right instep where it should be. In reality, your knees will move slightly to the left when opening the hips, so you should let them (don't think about moving the knees consciously); the right knee will automatically tick inward a bit, which is a solid setup tip unto itself.

Next, when you swing back and rotate your shoulders to 90 degrees, you'll notice now that your hip turn is VERY restricted and that it's difficult to stay in a fully rotated position. The shoulders instantly want to release the tension, which means more power for your downswing. You're basically presetting a greater "X-Factor" or differential between the shoulder line and hip line at the top, which is what the X-Factor calls for. This tension is a good thing because it's going to provide automatic unwinding power from your body down to your arms and club.

You'll also notice that your weight automatically concentrates into your right instep where it should be at the the top of the backswing and thus you can't really sway to the right off the ball with the hips or shoulders.

The hands and end of the club handle also move fractionally more forward of the ball, which is where they should be at impact.

Finally, when you let that automated unwinding happen, your weight gets instantly back to your left leg as it was at address, because there was no sway off the ball. You're moving left well before impact without even thinking about it.

There may be other reasons, but I believe these are probably the main reasons why presetting open hips assists me in making reliable, solid contact.

I believe that there are other versions of this same line of thinking out there. Opening the left foot while keeping the right foot perpendicular to the target line (espoused by Hogan) or using a slightly open stance with closed shoulders (like Trevino or Couples) are really designed to do the same thing. It's important to note that all of these golfers favored a fade, and open body lines at impact are associated with a left-to-right ball flight. However, you can still hit a draw using this technique; experiment with different grips, ball position, turning the club, swinging more right, concentrate on hitting the inside of the ball, etc. Trevino stated that he used the same setup for draws and fades; he pictured a row of four balls, and for fades he would try to hit all four in a row, while he would only pick off the first ball without hititng the others for a draw.

You can preset open hips for all shots, especially including the short game and even for putting (it locks the knees into place and prevents swaying), and for full shots, you may choose to use it merely as a drill.

Speaking of Hogan, I believe DTL views of his swing show that he also preset his hips slightly open, because you will notice his right knee ticked in slightly and his left foot flared out with the right foot perpendicular.

Last but not least, all three main horizontal planes, i.e. feet, hips and shoulders should never be parallel to one another. Hence the idea of increasing the diagonality of the stance in three planes - hips open in relation to feet, shoulders closed in relation to hips. Of course shoulders are used for visual aiming while feet seeks for ultimate balance and ultimate benefitting from ground forces.

Biokinetic Golf Swing Theory: Setting the Swing Motion

Pre-Set Drill: A great drill to properly train the feel of Key #2: Weight Forward is to pre-set your impact position before making a golf swing. Here's how:

1. Set up over the ball as you normally would.

2. Move your left knee and hip towards the target and open them slightly. Let your hands shift towards your left thigh as you do this. You'll feel more weight on your forward leg.

3. Make a half to three-quarter backswing leaving your left knee and hip forward.

4. From there, bump the hips even farther forward, hit the ball, and swing to an abbreviated finish.

Doing this drill properly will set you on the path to achieving Tour-quality impact.

5 Keys | GolfTipsMag.com

A common error of golfers of all levels is lining up too far to the right of the target. This forces you to come over the top on the downswing to reroute the club on line, then release the hands quickly to prevent a slice and send the ball toward the target. These corrections put too much pressure on the small muscles of the hands to release the club at precisely the right time. You may be powerful, but you'll find yourself missing the target in every direction.

If you're going to make mistakes in alignment, make them to the left of the target. An open stance presets your hips in a cleared position, as they begin slightly rotated toward the target. You don't need a quick release of the hands; instead, you can square the club with the big muscles of the shoulders and back and approach the ball from an inside path. Keep your stance square to slightly open to develop a repeating swing. Don't let yourself drift to the right.

Set up for straight shots | Golf Features | IntoTheRough.co.uk

For pitch shots and chip shots, there is a much less aggressive turning of the body through impact. This is especially true for chip shots, as the chipping motion more closely mirrors a putting stroke. To overcome the less aggressive hip turning through impact, ideally we want to set up with an open stance to the target line with our body lines. This ensures open hips through impact, and the result is our arms can swing freely without manipulation to the follow-through position.

Believe it or not, this also comes into play with putting. Although it is common for teachers to tell students that their entire body alignment should be parallel to the target line, most tour professionals set up with open feet, knees, and hips (with the shoulders remaining square to allow a proper putter path). Again, this open alignment of the lower body allows the arms to swing down the target line in a free manner.

Golf Teaching Pros: Why the Open Stance?

If that sounds familiar, here's a drill to help you start the club back straighter and shallow out your downswing. Set up in a dramatically open stance, with your feet aimed 30 or 40 degrees left of the target. Then swing back along your stance line. This will prevent you from pulling the club to the inside and will create a wider arc. You'll get into a lower, flatter position at the top (below).

Jim McLean: Open Up To Fix Your Slice: Golf Digest

Spine Angle Required

I've briefly touched on this in a few other posts but wanted to give some more time to discussing the topic of maintaining--throughout the swing--the spine angle that was established at address. The golfing world has bestowed several different clever phrases to discuss this subject. It's been called "covering the ball with your chest," "keeping the head down," "staying over the ball," "keeping the upper body still," "staying in your posture," and, of course, "maintaining the spine angle." The opposite of this--the mistake--also has many names, like "standing up," "coming out of the shot," "losing the spine angle," "early extension," "losing the posture," "raising the head," etc.
For the purpose of this post, I'm referring to the primary spine angle, which refers to the angle of the upper body to the legs when viewed down the line. The secondary spine angle refers to the axis tilt to the right when viewed from the front, primarily caused by the right hand being lower than the left hand on the grip.
The mysterious "spine angle" really isn't solely about the spine, as the S&T creators have eloquently argued, because the spine bends all over the place during a golf swing. It's not really about keeping the head down either, because you can still change the head position vertically from the neck while maintaining spine angle. I like "covering the ball" best as a description, because it drives home the point for me that the overall angle of the upper body established at address (i.e., posture created by bending over from the hips) should be maintained at least through impact; I would argue that amateur golfers should work to maintain it well after impact, as they risk coming up too early otherwise. This is that "head on a pillow" look in the followthrough and finish position, or looking at your initial ball flight through slanted eyes.
In other words, the "tush line" should be maintained through impact; if the pelvis begins to move forward (i.e., the upper body comes up)--even a little--at any point before or during impact, the radius required for the swing gets longer, making it harder to hold lag through impact when it's needed. As a matter of fact, losing the spine angle is a major factor in many mishits and bad results, to include inconsistent, short, fat, thin, pulled, and sliced shots. Most expert golfers may come up a little well after impact, but you'll notice that they are still bent over towards the target line, even in their finish positions. Some professional golfers have upper body positions that actually sink even lower than their address positions before impact!
An additional, related aspect of spine angle is shoulder plane. The left shoulder should point down towards the ground (in the direction of the ball) at the top of the backswing (right shoulder rotated up and behind the head), maintaining a perpendicular relationship to the spine angle. The left shoulder should be touching or very close to touching your chin at the top. On the downswing, the right shoulder should replace the left shoulder's previous position, and vice versa. Keeping the shoulder plane more "vertical" allows the arms to hang more from the shoulders as they should through the shot. The correct shoulder plane is actually a side bend; stand up and bend fully sideways to the left from the waist. Now simply rotate to the right (pointing in between both feet) and the shoulder plane should be in the correct position to maintain the backswing spine angle.
Believe it or not, the right knee can affect your spine angle. Notwithstanding Stack and Tilt, you should strive to keep a bend in your right knee at the top of your backswing.
Maintaining one's spine angle or covering the ball is important for EVERY shot in the book, to include putting, chipping, pitching, and bunker shots. It encourages movements that make drives long, powerful, and accurate. It encourages you to keep lag through the shot, because otherwise you will hit fat. It helps prevent fat shots due to an an early release or cast (usually a direct, autonomic, and unconscious manipulation as a result of "standing up"). "Standing up" and "casting" are directly related to each other. Staying over the ball frees you up to swing faster while still feeling in control; you can really pop the driver when covering the ball.
Actually, the only way you can really deliver lag to the ball is to maintain the spine angle. Now you'll have to learn how to lag the club by keeping the wrist angle late into the ball to keep from hitting fat. You will have to learn to keep the wrist cocked late and make contact with the ball with the right wrist still feeling bent back or dorsiflexed. If you lose the spine angle or stand up then you must cast or straighten the wrists to have any hope of contacting the ball; the result in this case is a powerless poot shot, duff shot, or skull across the ground!

Here's how to diagnose that "coming out of the shot" is a problem causing some of your mishits. First, take your address position (ground the club if you usually hover it), execute your takeaway, and stop when the club is parallel to the ground. Now, immediately rotate back to the front without bending from the hips and see if your club re-grounds itself in the same position behind the ball. If your club comes back above the ball then the distance from the club to the ball represents how much you stood up on the takeaway! In all cases, make sure your arms are fully extended and knee flex remains unchanged.
If the takeaway isn't your problem (or even if it is), do the same procedure above with the only exception being to stop at the top of your backswing. Again, any distance between the ball and club represents how much you came out of your spine angle. Now, slowly rotate to your usual impact position and do the same procedure. In each case, you will learn exactly how much your spine angle is changing throughout the swing. Do the same procedure again for takeaway, backswing, and downswing and pay attention to your pelvis; it's very easy to see when you're standing up when you pay attention to it. Video analysis also works, or you can have a friend touch a club to your head while you work through these exercises.
You may only be standing up in one part of the swing, or if you're like me you could be doing it some throughout the entire swing. It's possible to do well at first but start losing the spine angle late into a round as one begins to get tired. The tendency is always to stand up, because it requires strength and endurance in the core muscles to keep covering the ball as one must to execute good shots.
Now, it's important to drill the correct feeling, which is literally a feeling of covering the ball with your chest through impact. If you've been standing up, you'll notice a distinctly new feeling of the right should coming down and through the shot and replace the position of the left shoulder as the upper body rotates through.

The whole idea of keeping your spine angle consistent is that it will help you to keep the “shape” of your swing consistent. When the shape of your swing is consistent, it is much easier to deliver the club face in a square position at impact.
Newsletter: The 3rd Key To Consistency: Spine Angle | Target Centered Golf
There are two main ways to lose the spine angle. A dive and a loss of “tush line.” A dive is what Tiger does and to see if you have this problem, put your finger on the end of your nose on a video from behind and down the line. If your nose moves out or down toward the ball, that is not good. If it happens a little, it’s nothing to worry about, so don’t go out and ruin your swing by trying to keep you head still.
To see if you are losing the tush line, you need a vertical line (same camera angle as above) like an imaginary wall your behind is up against and your body pulls away from that line during the swing. This is also known as standing up or pulling out of it…not to be confused with keeping your head down.
Maintaining spine angle | Monte Scheinblum's Blog

One crucial element for good iron play is to maintain a constant spine angle throughout the swing. This enables you to hit down at impact, correctly taking a divot after the ball. Many amateurs tend to rise up as they swing the club down in a mistaken attempt to help lift the ball into the air. Lifting leads to poor contact such as fat or thin shots. To correct this tendency, swing to a finish position and then hold it for a moment. Then bring the club back down as if someone hit the rewind button. You should be able to get right back into your address position. That's maintaining your spine angle.
How to play consistent golf: Golf Digest