shoulder tilt vs turn

Question
I tend to tilt my shoulders back and through rather than turning/rotating them. Causes a push or flip pull/hook. Please tell me how to properly do this. Thanks

Answer
Hi Ken,

Not exactly sure what you mean by tilting the shoulders. You can't really move your arms back and thus the club without rotating the shoulders somewhat. I'll assume you mean that your shoulder rotation is not great and that the tilt means you sway off the ball (your head position and spine angle change).

Here's a couple of drills you can do to improve and get the feel of proper shoulder rotation.

1. Do this in front of a mirror. Take a golf club and put it in the crook of your arms while holding it behind your back. Take your golf stance. The club should be horizontal to the ground and parallel to your target line. Now, rotate the club (by rotating your shoulders and hips) until it has rotated about 90 degrees or more and is pointing towards the ball position. This is what good shoulder rotation feels like. Your head should remain in the same position. If you turn sideways and look into the mirror, you should see that your spine angle doesn't change. All there is a rotation.

2. Make sure you have room to swing the club. Take your address position. Without moving any part of your body except your hands, lift the club vertically upwards as far as you can by cocking the wrists. The clubhead should end up close to or above your eye height. Now, you wrists are fully cocked. Rotate your shoulders the same way as you did in the first drill. By doing this, the club should end up in its backswing position at the top of the swing. Again, your head position and spine angle should remain the same as they were at address.

Continue to repeat these drills to learn the feeling of your shoulders and club position.

Hope this helps.

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Best regards,
Ken Tannar