How to Stop Swaying in the Golf Swing

What it does

• Inconsistent contact: the center of your swing moves, so the low point moves with it.
• Fat shots when you do not get back, and thin shots when you over-slide.
• Lost power, because you swing with the arms instead of coiling the body.

Why it happens

• Trying to load weight into the trail side by pushing the hips out.
• Limited hip rotation, so the hips slide to find more turn.
• Weight on the outside of the trail foot, which pushes the knee and hip outward.
• A tall setup with little knee flex.

How to see it

On face-on video, draw a vertical line on your screen against the outside of your trail hip at address. At the top of the backswing, your hip should still be close to that line. If it has moved well past it, you have swayed.

Stick outside the trail hip

1. Push an alignment stick into the ground just outside your trail hip.
2. Make slow backswings and turn without pushing the stick away from you.
3. Keep your trail knee flexed and let the hip rotate behind you.

What you should feel: You turn in a barrel rather than sliding along a track.

Trail knee hold

1. Hold your trail knee at the same bend you had at address through the backswing.
2. Turn your chest as far as you can in that stable base.
3. Make half swings with that feel and then build up.

What you should feel: The turn comes from the hips and chest, not from a lateral shift.