Screening

What's Stopping You?

Tight Pelvic and Hip Muscles

Pro says:

Try lying on your back and bring one knee to your chest.

Can you keep the other knee on the surface? If not you probably have a lack flexibility in your pelvic floor or bottom muscles. This can be caused by prolonged sitting or standing and in the older golfers osteo-arthritis of the hips.

I also find it can be a problem with young golfers going through a growth spurt where their bones are growing faster then their muscles.

It's also a common problem in lady golfers post pregnancy or even caused by swaying hips. Don't try this if you have had a hip replacement.

To stretch, kneel on the ground, step your left foot
forward to produce a right angle with your knee (the knee joint should be in line with your ankle
not over your toes).

Keep the torso upright and maintain good posture.

Repeat on the other side.

Physio says:

The pelvic and hip muscles are a key link in the transfer of power during the golf swing and a key factor in posture-controlled rotation.

Also affecting set up posture, pelvic flexibility is vital in any athletic movement. The most common example here would be poor spine angle at address.

This spine angle (approximately 15 degrees) is vital for an efficient rotation (coil) of the hips and the shoulders.

Usually this leads to a tilting action in the swing with poor power transfer to the downswing and off-plane (over plane) steep angle of club.

This could lead to reverse pivoting (weight shift) and the common garden variety slice and associated lack of distance.

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