Hip Slide
What is actually happening
Your lower body knows the downswing starts with it, and it's doing the right thing in the wrong direction: sideways instead of around. Starting down, your hips surge toward the target and keep going, sliding past your lead foot instead of turning over it. It's the mirror image of the sway. That one leaks your backswing. This one leaks your downswing.
What it costs you
A hip that's still sliding can't rotate, and rotation is what squares the face and delivers your speed. The club gets left behind with the face open, and everything arrives late. That's the block, and then the flip-hook once your hands learn to expect it. A small bump toward the target is a tour move. A slide that never turns is a miss factory.
Bump, then turn. Your lead hip gets one inch toward the target, then it clears behind you, like stepping on a bug with your lead heel and grinding it out.
Lead-Hip Wall Check
Set up with your lead hip about a hand-width from a wall, or plant an alignment stick just outside your lead foot. The gap is your allowance: one small bump toward the target fits inside it, and a slide doesn't. Swing down in slow motion. Your lead hip may drift toward the wall early, and then it has to turn away from it, clearing behind you as your chest comes through. If you're pressed against the wall past impact, the slide just outed itself, and you know it's a slide and not a bump because it never turned into rotation. Do ten slow reps of bump-then-turn, feeling the lead heel take the pressure and the hip pull back and around. Then hit five balls at speed. Film one face-on and freeze P7: lead leg posted straight, belt buckle already turning to face the target.
Is this the one costing you shots?
Film one swing and the analysis checks for it at every position, on your video.
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