Where does the golf downswing start? With your arms and your shoulders, or your feet and legs? You will find disciples of both schools of thought, however more golfers will agree that the lower body begins the downswing. There have been enough studies done to verify that this is the best starting place for the swing. Now pay attention here. When we talk of the lower body, we are not necessarily talking about the legs and feet.
If you are like me, you have done everything from swinging the left knee outward, to kicking the right knee toward the target, to sliding both knees toward the target. It seems that all of these movements start the club swinging in a different direction but not necessarily in the right direction. Let me give you a word of advice here: When you concentrate on starting the swing with your legs, you will more than likely overdo or exaggerate the movement and end up with a big slide or bump that throws the body out of sync and destroys the downswing. When you focus on any one part of your body, the tendency will be to overdo the movement in that area. If you overdo the leg and hip action, you will ruin your swing.
Starting the downswing with the lower body is as simple as moving the center of gravity toward the left side. Your center of gravity is your belly button.
Here is the secret that helped me get it right. Imagine that twelve o’clock on the clock face is directly in front of you. As you are completing the back swing, the belly button is moving toward the right heel. Now while the club is still moving backward, begin pushing your belly button toward the ten o’clock position. You can do this rather forcefully and not overdo the legs and hips.
This forward pull while still completing the backswing will further extend the arms for a big arc and increase the X-factor you have heard so much about. The hips and legs will be moving in support of this move, but will stay in control. Simply allow the extended arms and club to sling forward in response to the pull of the belly button.
If you want to see a perfect example of this, go to the nearest baseball park where the six to eight year old kids are playing and watch those perfect swings as the belly leads. You will see lots of perfect little golf swings here. If these youngsters stay away from instructions about right and wrong positioning, they will maintain perfect forward swings.
You have a perfect golf downswing inside of you just begging to be set in motion.
Want more information about all things golf. Next, study the video swing of Ben Hogan at Your Pro Golf Swing.
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