If you look at any Tour players’ swing today you will notice the unique way in which their torso moves back and through- the pivot- it’s a powerful motion, and one that only the best players in the world possess. Exclude the motions of the arms, hands, and club and just focus on the torso, it will be easy to see the pivot and just what I’m talking about if you do so. (Watch Doug, Loren, and Vance’s actions they exemplify the proper pivot motion!) What most people fail to realize is that this “pivot” controls the whole infra-structure of the golf swing itself, in ways that most do not understand. It’s with this in mind I want to point out two things: 1) Just what the Pivot is, and 2) What factors within the swing are controlled by it. Unfortunately, you will see that most people go to the range and work on these “reactions” as the root of their swing flaws; but in reality, these are the effects derived from a faulty pivot motion as the cause. The solution as always is to cure your pivot and these “reactions” will fall into place- guaranteed. . .by the Laws of Physics, Sir Issac Newton, and Homer Kelley.

Zone One, the Pivot Motion, is described fully in section 9-1 of The Golfing Machine book- it includes 1) The Pivot itself, 2) Shoulder Turn, 3) Hip Turn, 4) Hip Action, 5) Knee Action, and 6) Foot Action. The book also states that it (Zone One) includes “all the elements of bodily movement and balance, and defines the geometrical alignments and relationships of all the bodily components.” Zone One does not include arm and club motions, but influences them greatly during the whole swing. What does this mean to you and I? It simply states that your Pivot controls things like your weight shift, balance, the interaction between your hips and shoulders, motions of your feet etc. Finally, the pivot controls all the relationships of all your bodily actions; therefore, with a proper pivot motion your torso is left to power and positively influence the actions of your arms, hands and club throughout the swing.

There are six factors of Zone One’s Pivot Motion, and I want to briefly touch on each one of them so you too will understand how it all works together. . .

1) The Pivot- the circular motion of the shoulders, hips, knees, and feet which produce Centrifugal Force and in turn, transport the Arms and Club throughout the swing. It provides and maintains balance thorough the displacing of the weight and the turning and bending of the body during the swing. Remember “. . .A Pivot is only superficially correct that fails to maintain alignments or allows the player to get out of position 7-12.” Therefore, everyone has some type of pivot motion, but if it is unmanageable: when the hips are spinning or sliding out of control, when the shoulders are making an unlevel turn to the top, or your feet are flopping around independently of your hips then it’s only partially correct and your swing will suffer.

2) Shoulder Turn- the five planes of motion that the right shoulder can utilize throughout the swing. The most common example of this is whether the shoulders make a “Rotated” (90 degrees to the spine) shoulder turn or not. Within Zone One’s Pivot motion you have the control of the shoulder turn; this component transmits pivot motion to the Arms and Club so you can see how important it is.

3) Hip Turn- how the hips move (slide or turn) plus the displacing of the weight between the feet. The pivot controls the shifting of your weight naturally! You could try to shift your weight from one foot to the other, but if your hip turn is out of wack you will never do so- your pivot is faulty; thus, your weight shift too is also faulty. Fix the motion of the hip turn and the displacing of the weight will occur naturally. This is the one area that I see many players on the range trying to fix, sadly their attention is on the physical action of shifting their weight and not their pivot so all they end up is doing is promoting a big slide on the backswing. They will not fix this problem because their focus is on the effect, not the cause of their poor weight shift. Hopefully, by now, you see that your weight shift is a reaction of your pivot, more specifically your hip turn; but, you will hear players and see various instructional articles talking about shifting your weight by doing this or that- nothing about the pivot motion which controls this whole entity. The key to fixing this problem is understanding what the true cause really is.

4) Hip Action- how the shoulders and the hips interact during the swing. Do the hips lead the shoulders, do the shoulders lead the hips, or does it switch from backswing to downswing? Are you having trouble with a backswing that’s too long- have you tried everything you can think of to “stop” the club at the top? Nothing seems to work, huh. When you overswing, usually, your hips are move slightly before your shoulders during the takeaway and much too fast causing everything to over-rotate at the top of your backswing- the club then droops past parallel. The key (in this example only) lies in fixing your Pivot’s Hip Action: here we need to allow the shoulders to begin and lead the backstroke- pulling the hips along with them on the way back, so the hips won’t over-rotate at the top; thus, your swing will be tighter due to this restriction in the hip’s motion to the top. Once again, fix the root of your problem Hip Action, and the reaction (over-swinging) will be a thing of the past.

5) Knee Action- what are your knees doing during different stages of the swing (bent or straight) and what this does this do to your hips. The Pivot’s Knee Action heavily impacts your hip’s motions during the swing. It controls how level your hips turn to the top, the degree amount of hip turn to the top, your pelvic girdle etc. The only thing you need to know about knee action is that your pelvis will slant up in the direction of the straight knee. If at the top of your backswing you “lock out” your right knee, the right side of your pelvis will be higher than your left, so your body will have the tendency to lean to the left. Look at the person who has a reverse weight shift, most of the time you will see a locked right knee and a lean of the body towards the target at the top. Faulty Knee Action is to blame, don’t waist your time trying to get over your right side, as long as your right knee is locked physiologically you are deemed to lean left- fix your pivot’s knee action and you’ll float to your right side naturally!

6) Foot Action- are your feet Flat, Lifted, or Rolled at a particular point during the swing- this is foot action. Your foot action accommodates your knee action and accepts the motions of your hip turn and its weight displacement. If your hips move freely on the way through the ball your right heel will be lifted off the ground and your weight will be on your left foot, this is an example of how your foot action accommodates the motions of your hips. But, if you physically keep your right heel down during impact and the follow-through you will stall out the motion of the turning hips. Usually foot action is a reaction of the hip motions, but sometimes it can be used in itself to control other factors of the pivot, use foot action to your advantage and always look to understand why your feet do what they do.

I have taken you on a journey through the inner-workings of your Pivot Motion which entails the above six components, pretty deep stuff. I hope by now you realize that most of the things people work on at the range are simple reactions of their pivot’s actions, this is the reason why most people never seem to get better. If you do not understand that a thing like shifting the weight is a reaction of the hip turn, then your forced motion will usually cause a sway. If you spend your practice time spinning out through the ball, and you focus on “slowing down” your hips during the downswing without understanding that this spin-out is a result of poor knee action, you will fight this forever. If you come “over the top” and you’ve been working on some drill to train your arms to do something different on the way down, you are only band-aiding your situation- fix your hip action and the hips will forever lead the downstroke. Just knowing and understanding the basics of the pivot and its components will save you countless hours of unproductive lessons and practice time- don’t get caught working on reactions of improper pivot motions- this time fix the causes NOT the effects. Special thanks once again to The Golfing Machine and the late Homer Kelley, without him none of this information would be possible!