Your Body’s Anatomy - Main Joints - And Your Golf Swing
Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA
Executive Summary
This article is designed to help a golfer “build a golf swing” by understanding how several significant joints in the bodywork in the golf swing. When a golfer learns how a golf swing works, they will have an understanding of the basic mechanics of the golf swing. I believe this understanding of the golf swing can be taught in terms of a concept that people readily understand – leadership.
When a golfer learn that the right shoulder joint leads the left shoulder joint on the backswing and the left shoulder joint leads the right shoulder joint on the downswing/follow-through, and the right hip joint leads the left hip joint on the backswing and left hip joint leads the right hip joint on the downswing/follow-through, a keen insight can be achieved by the golfer. That keen insight as described below is that the right side of the body is the leader on the backswing and the left side of the body is the leader on the downswing/follow through.
Also, this article gives the golfer a proper beginning point focusing on the shoulder joints and hip joints as they are the largest joints in the body and the ones where understanding what parts of the body lead other parts of the body in golf can pay a huge improvement dividend for golfers.
This article also talks about how the shoulders lead the hips on the backswing and how the hips lead the shoulders on the downswing/follow through. Further articles will discuss how some of the other joints in the body operate to guide the successful golf swing.
Note: This article is written with notations for “left and right” to be applicable for right-handed golfers. I apologize to left-handed golfers for this since they will have to reverse “left” and “right” throughout this article to make sense of what I have written.
Introduction
What does a leader or “leading joint” or “body part” do in a group do?
1. Moves first
2. Moves more quickly and farther than followers once they start to move in the direction the leader has moved
3. Stays ahead of the followers by “getting out of their way” to allow them to move as quickly as they can in the direction set out by the leader
What has this got to do with your golf swing?
1. Everything
2. And it applies at every tenth or hundredth of a second filling up the 1.6 seconds of your golf swing
What Body Parts Lead In Your Golf Swing and When?
What groups of parts of your body are most involved in your golf swing?
1. Shoulders
2. Hips
3. Legs
4. Arms
5. Knees
6. Ankles
7. Hands
8. Elbows
9. Wrists
10. Feet
11. Forearms
The good news is that right now we can ignore 9 of the 11 groups of joints involved with your golf swing:
1. Legs
2. Arms
3. Knees
4. Ankles
5. Hands
6. Elbows
7. Wrists
8. Feet
9. Forearms
As we begin to think about how our joints in our bodies work together when we have two of them that are independent and participating significantly in a golf swing, the good news is at the beginning of this thinking about our body and our golf swing, we only need to think about two sets of joints:
1. Shoulder joints
2. Hip joints
Why do we not have to think at the outset of our study of how our joints work in the golf swing about those groups of joints or body parts listed in the group we are supposed to ignore? There are three main reasons:
1. Because they do not actually lead anything in your golf swing, and they certainly do not lead the other part of their group (think of the “group” of legs, arms, ankles, etc. you have). Generally, the other joints are “followers” in the golf swing.
2. The right arm does not lead the left arm and the left arm does not lead the right arm in a golf swing. They both follow the movements of the “Shoulders and Hips” that are the leaders of the golf swing. The same is true for the legs. The right leg does not lead the left leg and the left leg does not lead the right leg. They just follow the shoulders and hips. The ankles and knees have a key role in the golf swing, but one ankle does not “lead the other ankle” nor does one “knee lead the other knee.” (More on the role ankles and knees play in the golf swing at the end of this article). One hand does not lead the other and. One elbow does not lead the other elbow. One wrist does not lead the other wrist. One foot does not lead the other foot. And one forearm does not lead the other forearm. Generally, all of those joints either work together, or work in tandem with and follow the shoulders and hips and the path of the golf club during the swing.
3. The more you think about these nine parts of your body I am asking you to ignore at this time, and the more you try to think about anyone of them during a golf swing, the more you are doomed to play golf poorly, or not as good as you could if you basically ignored them by and large. Now, you should think about these other “body joints” when you are doing golf swing “drills” to give you body awareness of what these parts of the body are supposed to do during your golf swing. In a separate short article, I explain what each of these other sets of joints do during the golf swing, but I can assure you they do very little in the way of “leading” a golf swing.
Why how think about the “Shoulders and Hips” in a golf swing. Because these groups of joints are THE LEADERS of the golf swing. Of course, you have to have before you ever swing a golf club:
• Good posture (called “address)
• Good grip
• Good ball position (front/back of stance and distance of body from ball)
• Good beginning hand position at address
• Good weight distribution at address
• Good equipment
And during the golf swing, you need
• Good balance
• Good footwork
• Good rhythm/tempo
• Good weight “movement” and distribution at all points during the golf swing
• Good release of the wrists
• Excellent control of the clubface at impact
• Good “swing plane”
• Good “attack angle”
• Good clubhead speed
For the six elements that all take place before you swing a golf club, you have to study how to do this in a way that is right for your body. And for the nine “key elements” that must be implemented properly during a golf swing, none of these elements are leaders in a golf swing. They are the results, primarily, of how you move your shoulders and your hips during the golf swing. These fourteen elements, from set up though clubhead speed above are all key elements to learn in the proper order in order to hit the ball a good distance (the right distance) and in the direction of our target?
But, if you want to begin to build an excellent golf swing, begin with analyzing the relationship between the independent right and left shoulder joint movements in the golf swing and the independent right and left hip joint movements in the golf swing. And in order for you to understand how, when, how fast and how far to move the bones in each of your shoulder joints, and each of the bones in your hip joints during a golf swing, start with learning which shoulder joint leads the other shoulder joint during the two key parts of the golf swing and the same for the hip joints.
The two key parts of the golf swing are the backswing and the downswing/follow through. Of course, the essential part of the golf swing is the moment of impact when the club “occupies the same space as the ball” for approximately 1/5000 or 1/10000 of a second. But, how and when your club gets to the golf ball is a “result” and this article is about teaching you what leads what in your golf swing so you can understand how to create the result you want with your golf swing.
Shoulders
If a golf instuctor ever tells you “turn your shoulders,” and almost every golf instructor has said this a million times to people learning how to play golf (OK, I exaggerate), the student should say:
What do you mean turn my shoulders? I have two shoulder joints. They are independent joints. I can turn the bones in each one many different ways, at different speeds, at different times, in different directions, and different distances. What do you want me to do? Treat my shoulder joints as if they were one joint, not two independent joints? Do you want me to try to “turn my shoulder joints [hip joints] together,” at exactly the same time, the same distances, and at the same speeds during all parts of a golf swing?
Now that should put your instructor on notice that you understand some anatomy. And if the instructor says “Yes, turn both of your shoulders [hips] together at exactly the same time, the same distances, and at the same speeds during your golf swing” then I suggest you get a different instructor, as soon as you end the lesson and pay this instructor for that lesson.
Here is the first leadership rule in a golf swing in dealing with your two key joints in the golf swing. On the backswing (where you move the club back away from the ball and coil your body) YOUR RIGHT SHOULDER JOINT LEADS YOUR LEFT SHOULDER JOINT. Now, let’s review what a leader (of a group, in this case a group of two shoulder joints, left and right) does:
1. Moves first
2. Moves more quickly and farther than followers once they start to move in the direction the leader has moved
3. Stays ahead of the followers by “getting out of their way” to allow them to move as quickly as they can in the direction set out by the leader
So, very simply, what I am saying is that your right shoulder joint moves first, by a split second, in the backswing, the initial part of the golf swing. During the backswing, the right shoulder joint, like any leader, also moves more quickly than the follower, and moves farther than your left shoulder joint on the backswing. And, also like any “leader,” the right shoulder joint “gets out of the way of the left shoulder joint” as it seeks to move around the neck and “up” so the right shoulder joint can move freely toward the chin and in a downward direction.
Am I saying that after your left shoulder joint stops moving on your backswing, right near your chin, that your right shoulder joint keeps moving along its circular path? Yes. Not only am I saying this, but David Leadbetter said it in the April, 2020 issue of Golf Digest. Now, sometimes David Leadbetter is wrong, but he is never wrong when I agree with him. (OK, a little joke there).
And, this makes sense. If the right shoulder joint moves faster than the left shoulder joint initially in the golf swing, and keeps moving a split second faster than the left shoulder joint to get out of the way so the right shoulder can turn as far as it can (for a full swing for most golfers), then the shoulder joints independently are working together to help give the golfer a “full backswing.” As Leaderbetter said, one difference between great golfers and not as good golfers is that for great golfers, their right shoulder joint will continue move on the backswing as the left shoulder joint stops moving and gets stuck at or near the chin on the backswing.
When it comes to the downswing/follow through, he left shoulder leads the right shoulder. It moves towards the target before the right shoulder moves on the downswing. In addition, it moves more quickly and farther than the right shoulder on the downswing/follow through, and it “gets out of the way” of the right shoulder by continuing to move to the left and up, as the right shoulder gets stuck, again at or near the chin (which rotates toward the target right after impact and before the completion of the follow through). Just watch good players at their finish. The belly button is pointing to the target and the left shoulder joint has continued to move long after the right shoulder is stopped, helping the hands finish often near the left ear of the right-handed golfer.
Now you can ask me – “How can the shoulders move independently where one shoulder “moves” more than the other?”
Think about your feet. One foot can move first, one foot can move more quickly and farther than the other foot, and the “leading” foot better get out of the way of the other foot when you are dancing or you will step on that foot or trip over your other foot. In golf and in life, your shoulders are independent of each other, and your hips are, too.
How to apply this “lesson” about moving the shoulders independently on the golf swing. Don’t start out trying to move your shoulders independently on the course. Not even on a driving range. Not even in a simulator. First, you need body awareness unless you really know how to move your shoulders INDEPENDENTLY and you know when and how you are moving your shoulders independently. You know how to move your feet independently, but maybe not your shoulders. The good news is you can learn how to move your shoulders independently and how to become aware you are doing this. Here are the steps.
1. Use a mirror or another person to watch you move your shoulders.
2. Wear clothes where you can see your shoulders in the mirror or the other person can see them.
3. Maybe take a video of what you are doing.
4. You can do this with a golf club, without a golf club or with a golf grip where you have cut off the shaft just two inches below the end of the grip and covered the rough edge of the shaft with tape.
5. Take a golf swing which lasts 5 or 10 second (with is three to six times SLOWER than a normal golf swing).
6. Focus on your right shoulder “leading” the backswing. Keep doing this until you can feel: your right shoulder LEADING your left shoulder. By this, I mean,
a. Your right shoulder moving a split second ahead of your left shoulder at the beginning of the backswing.
b. Your right shoulder moving a hair more quickly and farther than your left shoulder during the entire backswing
c. Your right shoulder actively getting out of the way of your left shoulder as it moves “around your neck” (the “fulcrum” of your golf swing) and moves upward a little to give some extra room for your left shoulder to move down. (Do not let your head move upward on your backswing)
7. Check the mirror and keep doing this until you see it, feel it.
8. Or, if you have another person watching you, keep doing this until your helper sees it.
9. Get the feel of the right shoulder leading the backswing.
10. Reverse everything on the downswing and make sure that your left shoulder leads your right shoulder on the downswing, and here is where your hips come in to really help you.
Hips
1. Your right hip joint leads your left hip joint in the backswing and your left hip joint leads your right hip joint in the downswing. It moves first, it moves faster, and it moves farther than the other hip, getting out of the way, of the other hip, by moving up slightly at the end of its movement. This is very similar to how the shoulder joints operate relative to each other.
2. Work on your hips independently in front of the mirror or another person or video and wear clothes where you can see your hips move.
Conclusion
Now that you have worked separately to learn and become aware of how one shoulder joint leads your golf swing on the backswing (the right one) and one shoulder joint leads your golf swing on the downswing/follow through (the left one) you have one small, but essential understand of how you can lead your shoulder joints to work properly in a golf swing. Similarly, you have worked separately to learn and become aware of how one hip joint leads your golf swing on the backswing (the right one) and one hip joint leads your golf swing on the downswing/follow through (the left one), you have one small, but essential understand of how you can lead your hip joints to work properly in a golf swing.
A golf swing, says Ernest Jones, is a one piece, fluid movement where the goal is “to swing the clubhead,” just as he says in his classic book, Swing the Clubhead Method. Mona Lisa is one painting, but it took a lot of (paint) strokes to make it one unified painting. A golf swing is much less complicated, but only knowing how to move your shoulder joints independently and how to move your hip joints independently, will not get you very far in perfecting your golf swing. But, it is an important part of the journey to having a good golf swing.
I close with one more question and one more answer. Do the shoulder joints lead the hip joints or do the hip joints lead the shoulder joints. In the backswing, the actions of the shoulder joints lead the hip joints. In the downswing/follow through the hip joints lead the shoulder joints. So, now with a 5 to 10 second golf swing (one fourth to one sixth speed) do a backswing, and when you get near the top or conclusion of your backswing), make your hip joints lead your shoulders in the transition and through your downswing/follow through. You don’t have to come to a full stop at the top of your backswing, and it is best, by far, that you not even wait until you have reached the top of your backswing, before you trigger your left hip to lead your hips toward the target.
Again use a mirror, video camera, or better yet, a person to watch you get your left hip moving toward the target BEFORE you even get to the top or finish of your backswing. If you have trouble getting your head around moving your hips before you move your shoulders on the downswing/follow through, just do the motion to throw a baseball or football very, very slowly. In both of these sports, as you continue to move your arm backward, and well before your arm is as far back as it is going to go, you will notice that you begin to turn your hips toward the target. No one can throw a baseball or football with any authority in terms of direction and a reasonable distance if they start to bring their arm forward before they move their hips in the direction of the target. If it is so natural for someone throwing a baseball or football to turn their hips toward their target while their arm is still going backwards, then it should be equally natural for a golfer to begin to turn their hips toward the target before the finish taking the club all the way back for the full shot.
This article is designed to help a golfer “build a golf swing” by understanding how each significant joint in the body works in the golf swing. When a golfer learns how a golf swing works, they will have an understanding of the basic mechanics of the golf swing. I believe this understanding of the golf swing can be taught in terms of a concept that people readily understand – leadership. When a golfer learn that and develops body awareness of how the right shoulder joint leads the left shoulder joint on the backswing and vice versa for the downswing/follow through, and the right hip joint leads the left hip joint, on the backswing and left hip joint leads the right hip joint on the downswing/follow through, a keen insight can be achieved by the golfer. That keen insight as described below is the right side is the leader on the backswing and the left side of the body is the leader on the downswing/follow through.
This article also talks about how the shoulders lead the hips on the backswing and the hips lead the shoulders on the downswing/follow through.