What is Sway in the Golf Swing?

This week we are talking about the swing characteristic sway. This is an important characteristic to look for considering the implications on power, ball contact, and swing path.

Understanding Sway:

Swaying in the golf swing is the movement of the trail hip away from the target between address and the top of the backswing. This sway, or lateral movement of the hips, impacts our posture between these two points and adds to the already long list of changing variables in the golf swing. By addressing sway and limiting changing variables, we can improve consistency, power, and performance in our golf game. Check out the video below on what swaying looks like…

Sway Video

Identifying the Causes:

As described in the video above, we need to first look at the hips to identify potential causes of sway in the golf swing. We need to access hip internal rotation in the back leg and hip external rotation on the lead side leg to go from address to the top of the backswing. If we lack either of these motions in sufficient supply, we will need to compensate to achieve our desired position. This can result in many, many different compensations, one of which is moving laterally with the hips (swaying backwards) instead of rotating.

Further, we want to make sure we can transfer weight onto the back leg while maintaining its position in the frontal (shifting side to side) plane. Again, we are trying to actually rotate through the hips and pelvis first, then we can focus on queuing where we keep the weight in the backswing. As I mentioned, the ribcage plays a role in getting us to achieve shoulder flexion. Let’s discuss the rib cage and the thoracic spine together.

The thoracic spine is the middle portion of the back where the rib cage extends out from. We need to make sure this part of the spine is mobile enough to allow for the scapula to move on it and create the upright spinal position. Therefore, we need this part of the spine to extend slightly from each segment. This is a commonly limited motion in people. If we cannot get full access to extension in the thoracic spine and full excursion of the rib cage to maintain its rounded shape in the back, then even with full range of motion in the shoulder joint, we may not be able to achieve a stable and compensation-free overhead position.

Practical Drills for Correction: Biomechanics

First, let’s address biomechanics and make sure we have full access to hip and pelvis range of motion. There are many places we can start to do this, let me walk you through some progressions.

1.        Addressing the pelvis. Here we want to allow for optimal ability to shift weight side to side by making sure we are in a relatively neutral pelvic tilt position. This drill in the video linked helps us learn to use the hamstrings to pull the pelvis back into a neutral tilt. (Exercise 1: 90/90 hamstring bridge).

2.        Addressing hip mobility. Here we are looking to create access to left hip external rotation and right hip internal rotation. As a bonus, we are getting the left glute to actively turn-on as the producer of hip external rotation. This bonus is no joke considering the importance of getting glute max activity in the golf swing. TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) considers the glute max the king of the golf swing! (Exercise 2: Side-lying 90/90 glute max (lay on right side!)).

3.        Putting it all together. Here we are back in the standing golf posture position. As we rotate the weight, we are again getting left hip external rotation with glute max activity and right hip internal rotation. Further, we are able to practice the weight shift into the right leg, maintaining golf posture, and actively working the trunk rotators! (Exercise 3: Med ball take backs).

Practical Drills for Correction: Swing

Here are a few swing drills that help take our new found mobility, muscle activation, and weight shifting and apply them in the golf swing.

1.        Braced Leg Backswing. For this drill, set up and address the ball with an iron or driver. Imagine there is a band circling your knees (or actually put a band around your knees). Do not let your knees cave and reflexively push your knees outward with force, preventing your feet from rotating out with it). Stay strong in this position as you go through your golf swing (especially the backswing). This muscle activity around the backside leg especially should stop you from swaying in the backswing.

2.        Foot Pressure Golf Ball. For this drill, place a golf ball under the middle and inside edge of the backside foot. As you rotate back for the backswing, make sure to maintain the pressure into the golf ball and inside edge of the foot. If you feel your foot pressure roll onto the outside edge of the foot, restart the drill.

The Road to Mastery:

There is almost an infinite number of considerations in the golf swing. Sway is an important consideration that almost every golfer can benefit from addressing and limiting. That being said, there are some golfers that incorporate a little sway into their golf swing without detrimental effects. It is important to address each swing characteristic, like sway, with full context of you, the golfer. A full and thorough swing analysis is best combined with a biomechanics evaluation to determine where the low hanging fruit truly is. We are always optimizing improvements in our golf game when we can improve the bodies mobility and strength in precise areas while supplementing these changes with the swing drills. By doing both, we are truly walking the road to mastering sway in the golf swing.

-Dr. Nick DC, TPI, CSCS

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