Golf swing
The secret behind more powerful golf swing and the ability to hit a long drive is all in the hips.
While you may know this 'secret', especially if you’ve had any training from a pro, for the first time there’s scientific evidence as to why it really is the answer to a better golf swing.
Researchers at the Northumbria University were aware that coaches often advise golfers to 'load their hips', but the coaches' advice was based on personal experience rather than science. They set out to discover why this positioning might in fact help your ball travel further than if you don’t load your hips.
Doing it correctly means keeping your hip (right if right-handed, left if left-handed) still as you twist your body round. This creates even greater stretch when your pelvis rotates. Like a wound-up spring, this tension appears to give your body more power to hit the ball. And, say the researchers, this extra tension is directly related to velocity at the club head.
They asked eight male golfers, with handicaps below five, to perform golf swings in a laboratory, using motion-capture cameras and reflective markers both on the study participants and on the club, to ascertain exactly how the hip movement, or lack of, affected the swing.
After analysing the data the researchers discovered a clear link between angular velocity at the club head when it actually hit the ball and left/right hip movement. They also found that right-hip torque was directly related to swing power at the top of the backswing and at mid-downswing. Amping up the power at these stages is what enables golfers to send the ball furthest.