How Hip Mobility Can Affect Your Golf Game

When swinging a golf club there are several different mobility demands not only required to perform a proper golf swing but also to improve your performance and hit the ball further. One of the most common areas of focus is hip mobility.

In the golf swing, it’s recommended that you have 120 degrees of hip internal and external rotation. Golf is unique in that it requires internal and external rotation in both hips. In the backswing, your trail hip has to internally rotate, while your lead hip has to externally rotate. At impact and the follow-through, your lead hip needs to internally rotate while your trail hip needs to externally rotate.

I know that’s a lot of technical biomechanics talk. Sometimes it’s easier to see it. Below is a picture of hip rotation in real life. Take a look at how each hip has to rotate into the backswing as well as through impact.

How do you know if you have enough hip rotation? One way is by seeing a golf professional. This person could be a golf chiropractor (like me), a golf fitness person, or a golf coach. As a TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) certified professional, I have specific functional tests that I can take you through to check your hip range of motion and give you exercises to help with it.

Another way to know is by looking at your swing. Two of the more common ways hip mobility restrictions can present themselves in the golf swing is by sway and slide.

A sway occurs in the backswing. Because of the limited range of motion, instead of rotating into the backswing, a player will sway their hips back away from the target.

Slide occurs on the downswing and into impact. A slide is similar to sway but in the opposite direction. On the downswing, if the player is limited in their hip rotation, they will slide their hips and body forward towards the target instead of rotating.

Now what do you do if you’re dealing with some limited hip mobility or you’re noticing a sway or slide in your swing? Well here are two of my favorite hip mobility exercises that can help with that.

This first exercise is called a 90/90 stretch and in this video, I go over how to perform it along with a couple of different versions you can try.

This next exercise is called a hip airplane. In the video, I go over how to perform the exercise as well as give you some modifications and progressions you can try.

Hopefully, this blog and exercises will be helpful in improving hip mobility as well as improving your performance out on the course.

If you found this helpful, please share this blog with anyone that you think needs to read this. And if you or anyone you know is struggling with pain while golfing, pain that’s keeping you off the course, or you want to improve your golf game, send me a message via any of my contacts below.

Talk soon,

Andrew

Email: Resiliencechiro@gmail.com

Phone: (704) 659-4249

Instagram: @resiliencechiro