Answers to Your Golf Questions

Question from Stephen: Hips & Legs

I noticed you told someone that the second most common mistake is trying to strike the ball with energy created by hands and arms, not hips and legs. Forgive me if this seems infantile, but what exactly does that mean? After all, one must draw the club back for the backswing and then foward to strike the ball. I'm just trying to understand how you use your hips and legs to generate the proper swing/power.

Dear Stephen:

Ideally the backswing starts with the feet, then a forward press with teh right foot in the direction fo teh target. Howerever even if the backswing is not started with the feet. it is started with by turning the shoulders. if the backswing is started with the hands, the probable action is an early wrist cock, which is the worst method of starting the swing. The downswing must be started with the lower body (the arms and hands responding) or there will be no power.