[12 piece bucket]

GG,

It is always a hand controlled pivot. Awareness of the hands is vital to a good golf swing and Homer gave us many ways to educate them.

That said, the hands will have a heck of time staying on plane if the pivot is not trained correctly. Fortunately it is not hard to understand the role of the pivot outside of accomodating the motion of the hands. There is really just one major function; weight shift.

The proper weight shift makes the start down automatic. For example, as the hands and club reach the "end" of the backstroke the weight is shifted laterally targetward by movement of the lower body, namely the hips. The hip bump is just a couple of inches targetward (assuming you haven't swayed). This does several good things. It "clears" the hips so there isn't any roundhousing, it fully loads most of the power accumulators, it provides axis tilt, and gets the hands in their on-plane downstroke alignments. Once the hands and right shoulder are put on plane by the weight shift, all thats left is taking the hands and right shoulder down and out. Some golfers like to drop the hands to a flatter plane at that point, but it's an option. Aim the butt of the club at the inside quadrant of the ball and take them down that line. The pivot will respond to the aiming of the hands by pulling them downplane through hip rotation. The key is that the hand alignments and speed are controlling the body turn. The straightening right arm helps and extensor action provides a constant speed. Mind in the hands. Awareness in the hands. The body responds.

It sounds like a lot, but it's all automatic once the weight is shifted and the hands are released on their assigned downstroke path by the turning hips.

So setting up for the weight shift is really important. I like Hogans model and so does Lynn. He showed me how to set up the pivot last November and it's made a huge difference.

Bagger

Bagger,

Could you please expand on "how to set up the pivot"? Thanks man!

Richard