Experience Better Golf
“Pelvic Rotation”
The Power Source and Space Creator
The Biomechanics: Why Your Hips Must Clear In the golf swing, the pelvis acts as the grand central station of power transfer. For your body to sequence correctly, your pelvis must be able to rotate cleanly around your hip joints (femurs) without dragging the rest of your body with it.
If your hip sockets are tight or your core lacks the ability to disassociate (separate) the lower body from the upper body, your pelvis gets "locked." When the pelvis cannot rotate, your body is forced to use lateral motion (sliding) or vertical motion (standing up) to move the club.
The Golf Connection: The Domino Effect A locked pelvis destroys the sequence of the swing. If your belt buckle cannot rotate independently of your chest, you are mathematically guaranteed to suffer from one of the following compensations:
[Link: Early Extension]: If your pelvis cannot rotate open in the downswing, your right hip will thrust straight forward into the golf ball, destroying your space.
[Link: The Sway]: If your trail hip cannot rotate internally during the backswing, your entire lower body will slide to the right to fake a weight shift.
[Link: Over the Top]: Without deep pelvic rotation in the backswing, you create no "pocket" of space for your arms to drop into, forcing the club outward.
[Link: The Chicken Wing]: When the hips stall through impact, the torso stalls. The arms have nowhere to go but to fold up like a chicken wing to avoid hitting the ground behind the ball.
The Self-Screen: The Pelvic Separation Test
Test your ability to disassociate your lower body from your upper body. You will need a golf club or an alignment stick.
The Setup: Get into your normal 5-iron golf posture. Cross your arms over your chest and hold a golf club horizontally against your shoulders.
The Posture: Keep your head perfectly still and your eyes looking at an imaginary golf ball.
The Test: Without moving your shoulders or the golf club across your chest, try to rotate your belt buckle to the right, and then to the left.
✅ PASS: You can smoothly rotate your hips back and forth without your shoulders moving, your posture rising, or your knees swaying side to side.
❌ FAIL: Your shoulders twist every time your hips move, the movement is extremely choppy/shaky, or you simply cannot move your hips at all without standing up.
The Protocol: Unlocking Your Pelvis
If you failed the screen, your hip capsules are glued shut and your nervous system doesn't know how to fire your core independently. Perform these two exercises to rebuild that connection.
1. The 90/90 Hip Opener This stretch directly targets the hip capsules (internal and external rotation), which dictate how well your pelvis can turn.
Setup: Sit on the floor. Bend your lead leg to 90 degrees in front of you (like a hurdle stretch) and your trail leg to 90 degrees out to the side. Keep your chest tall.
The Action: Slowly hinge your torso forward over your front knee until you feel a deep stretch in your front glute. Then, sit back up and try to actively press your back knee and ankle into the floor.
The Breathing Protocol: Hinge forward on a slow inhale. When you feel the restriction, stop. Exhale completely and heavily, actively letting your torso sink one inch deeper into the stretch as your lungs empty.
Reps: Spend 90 seconds per side, breathing into the tightness.
2. Supported Pelvic Twisters This is neuromuscular training to teach your brain how to move the hips while keeping the shoulders still.
Setup: Stand up straight and plant a golf club into the ground directly in front of you. Put both hands on top of the grip and lock your arms straight.
The Action: Keep your shoulders perfectly square to the club. Lift your right foot slightly off the ground and use your core to twist your right hip backward, then twist it forward.
The Breathing Protocol: Take sharp, rhythmic breaths. Exhale sharply every time you twist the hip forward.
Reps: 15 twists per side.