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Spinning The Shoulders Vs The Core

When working through the pivot and its sequencing, golfers will often struggle to separate the shoulders from the torso. This is especially true when it comes time to generate power and speed. That is, players who struggle with steep body angles will often "spin" the core AND the shoulders through impact. In reality, we need the ability to disassociate the shoulders from the spine. Or in other words, they need to compliment one another, but work independently. Hopefully, understanding this differentation can help you train more effectively while mitigating any issues with contact or start-line.

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Impact, Follow Through, Concept

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This concept video is spinning the shoulders of

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or spinning the core.

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So when we're trying to use our body for power,

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there's a tendency to kind of get caught up in some terminology.

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What I mean by that is often times golfers will say,

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hey, I'm doing X with my shoulders and you might not translate it correctly to your body.

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So in this video, we're going to dissect or discuss the shoulders and the shoulder blades

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versus the body.

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So one thing that you'll want to avoid,

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especially if you tend to get steeper over the top with your body,

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is having your shoulders or your shoulder blades get really open like this down in impact.

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So what you'll see is at impact,

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even though golfers get their chest and their body open,

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their shoulders will tend to be closer to parallel.

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Their shoulders or shoulder blades will tend to be closer to the start line,

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or they'll have a big impact on the path of the club.

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So in order to turn your spine, turn your chest,

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but not turn your shoulders,

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you have to build a little disassociation with your shoulder blades.

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So one way that I'll do it is I will grab onto a golfer's left hand,

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so you can hold onto a golf cart or something like that,

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or a wall or so if you're at home,

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and then I'll have them lean away.

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And what you'll see,

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if I turn face this way,

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we'll be able to get from this face on camera.

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If I pull this way,

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you'll see that that left shoulder gets pulled away from my body a little bit just like this.

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Well, when I pull my shoulder away from my body like this,

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if it was across my body, it would look more like this.

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And that's going to allow me to turn my hips and turn my spine,

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but not get my shoulders too open.

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Many golfers who get really steep and over the top,

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get to the top of the swing and then that left shoulder actually pulls back,

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and their shoulders end up pointing way left or getting steep very early.

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And so when they get that,

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those shoulders pulling left like this,

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they'll tend to have to stand up and to shallow,

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and they'll tend to have to throw or scoop the wrist

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in order to shallow kind of like that.

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It produces weak toe shots that usually have a fade or a pull.

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So when you're working on your pivot and you're going through some of these sequencing drills,

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see if you can disconnect your shoulder blades by going like this without moving your chest.

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So you'd face a mirror and just try to move your shoulders.

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And then you'd try to turn your belly button or your core.

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So now I'm going to try to move this part of my body without letting my shoulders move.

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So this one here is going to be the one that I want where I'm turning my hips.

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I'm turning my spine, but my shoulder actually turned in the opposite direction.

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It sounds a little tricky, but what it ends up feeling like is it feels like I'm just building up some tension

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that I can then unload when I start getting into the release.

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So early in that downswing you're going to turn your hips,

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you're going to turn your core,

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but you're not going to let that left shoulder pull out of the way or retract on the body

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unless you're specifically trying to get steep.

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Which there are some shots where that could be helpful, but they're better ways.

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So it's better to train this disconnection between the chest and the shoulder

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as your baseline for your stock pivot.

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So this is moving the shoulder blades.

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And then this is my body turning and my shoulder blades moving the opposite direction.

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So this is shoulder blades without spine.

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And then this would be moving my body and my shoulders going in the opposite direction.