Driver vs Irons: Does the HIP BUMP Work for Both?

Alright, so a common question that we get is, is the hip bump relevant for just irons or is that just the driver? And you know, today I'm here to clear the misconceptions of, you know, is it just isolated to irons? Is it isolated to driver? Does it cause us to hit up on the golf ball? Does it help us hit down on the golf ball? There's a lot of misconceptions and misunderstanding about what the hip bump actually does, okay? So let's start with the irons. First off, let's start with this. It's relevant to every golf club in your bag. Now, understand, our goal is to always have the upper body or the chest rotating from instep to instep, okay? Now that's what properly transfers the weight. Contrary to popular belief, lateral movement with the lower body is not what's shifting pressure or transferring weight efficiently in our swing. Building a golf swing requiring the least amount of manipulation is really built through setting up in a way that allows us, when we're staying very centered, to turn and see our chest right over the inside of our back foot, rotate and then cover the golf ball with the chest getting over the instep. And now here's this, here's the important thing to understand here. When my upper body is on top of my lower body here, that's why the pressure's built into the inside of this leg, inside of the foot. And then when I rotate around my spine angle, that weight is being transferred to the lead foot, and that's the covering of the golf ball. So let's talk about this hip bump and what it does. When I bump my hips, okay, your spine and your pelvis or your belt line are perpendicular to one another. So with the irons, I leave my sternum still, and I simply shift my hips forward one inch. My checkpoint there is for the outside of my trail hip to get to the inside of my trail foot. Now that creates a brace. It creates what I call more of a post. But if you watch, if I leave my sternum still while keeping my hips square and simply shift the hips an inch forward, it creates a slight secondary tilt that allows us to make a turn behind the golf ball over the inside of our back foot without ever having to sway off the ball to do that. Now here's the thing. When I leave my sternum still, I'm not changing my shoulder plane. I'm not backing up while I'm doing that. That's very important to understand. My mentor Todd Soans always told me the reverse K we call it, the backwards K for a right handed golfer, it's more of an illusion. Here's why. When I leave my sternum still and bump my hips forward, I'm only getting a couple degrees of spine angle here. It's just that when my trail hand reaches lower on the grip, this right shoulder drops a little bit more and therefore it looks like I have more of the reverse K than actually is existing, right? So it's not necessarily promoting hitting up on the golf ball with an iron. In fact, what it's allowing you to do, it's allowing you to get over the inside of your back foot without swaying. But here's the most important thing. Rotate and get on top of your lower body and cover it, which actually helps you hit down on the golf ball, ball first, divot later. And it helps you get your upper body more on top of your lower body. So two great drills, instep to instep, ready? Boom. This club matches that line there. Now watch this. I put the club face matching my spine angle, I hold on to the grip, I can go to that same position at the top of my swing. Now the goal is when that left hip comes back, that right shoulder fires through for the right handed golfer and there you go. I want to match that line right there and that's impact. Now really important to understand, this doesn't move. It doesn't move forward with your hips. It doesn't move backward away from your hips. With an iron, I just like to keep it dead still as I bump my hips forward. That keeps me on top of the golf ball but allows me to turn behind it and rotate and cover it and get over my lead leg. Here's what happens a lot of times. We see people try to transfer their weight. They shift this way and a lot of times they reverse pivot because their spine follows their hips. This hip drops, the spine goes forward and then their lower body shoots out and leaves their upper body behind or they just move off the golf ball together and when the lower body shoots forward, the upper body falls behind as well, not allowing you to cover the golf ball and get over your lead side so creating a little bit of that lead leg post. We saw Tiger have that in his prime. I can show many pictures of that. Ludwig actively looks like he's doing it every time. Scotty talks about doing it with the driver but a lot of these guys, if you look at them, they're going to have that trail leg brace here. They're going to have that outside of the hip to the inside of the trail foot here and they're going to turn right into that and that's where all the powers build up for me to push off around the post but if I have that post identified, it allows me to get my upper body on top of my lead leg and I think that's incredibly important to understand. We grab the driver. Here's the thing. The only thing that changes with the driver, width of stance and ball position, right? Now width of stance and ball position, I get insides of my feet to the outsides of my shoulders and I have the ball up off the inside of my foot, outside my shoulder. Now here's the big thing about this. With the driver, I do feel if there was a midpoint running up the middle of my body, my belt buckle would go one inch left and I would feel my sternum shift a little bit to the right. So you're going to see the belt buckle is just going to be left of that, sternum is just going to be right. So Todd calls it the bump and shift, right? It's just basically I'm bumping and I'm slightly dropping that spine angle back. Now what this is doing, this is helping me not only turn behind it and load over the inside of my back foot but it is helping me if I stay centered, hit more up through the golf ball. So what's really cool to understand here, keeping the sternum still with the irons while bumping will help you still turn behind the ball without swaying but will help you cover it and get over that lead leg. What's great about the way the driver is set up, if we do a little bit of a bump and shift, very slight, we're now in a position to still make that good turn behind the golf ball and then rotate and really keep that head in the picture frame behind the golf ball, still hitting up on it or more level through it and getting over our lead side. So very important to help you understand the hip bump, the slight reverse K for a right handed golfer, the K for a lefty. It's helping you make an efficient weight transfer. It's minimizing lateral movement and I think that's incredibly important. So let's talk about that lateral movement. Back to Todd's zones who really taught me the hip bump and taught me the art of it. It's important to understand, you know, this was something that really helped me become a great ball striker. You look at all of our players swinging so simply. They have the perfect amount of lateral movement that keeps the bottom of their swing consistent. Most people who are laterally moving are cutting their rotation short. So every inch of sway is taking away 10 degrees of rotation, therefore the arms and hands are getting themselves to the top. Most people who make the big shift back through are not doing that while rotating. They're cutting their rotation short and then therefore, because they're facing the ball too long, have to actively use their hands and flip the club to square the face. So this is allowing, through rotation, for there to be a proper pressure shift or weight transfer as we call it. But what's really important to understand when doing this, when I make that inch hip bump forward, my femur is lined up right on the inside of my front foot there. So it's right in this position here. Now when I turn to the top of the swing, as my mentor always told me, this is the anchor point of the swing. I'm not moving very far off my left. So the proper amount that that femur moves is right over the top of my lead foot as I rotate through the golf ball, and that's half a hip width over. I watch to make sure my players are always moving from the top of their swing. I'll draw a line right here, and I want to see them move half a hip width over. That's it. But that happens naturally. Naturally. It shouldn't be actively worked on. The coaches and the players who are actively working on that do not set up in a way that's requiring the least amount of manipulation. Understand that. I'm concerned what's going to get you hitting the ball more consistently more often. Therefore we're taking away unnecessary sway and unnecessary sliding. That really is debilitating to most people's golf swings. So important to understand once again, great checkpoint. If we were to turn and load that pressure right here efficiently, just through rotation and getting over our lead leg, this leg is going to post up, and that's not something that actively is worked on. You see a lot of people working on this bump this way, bump this way. Well, guess what, guys? That bump that way a lot of times, 99% of the time, is completely unnecessary and killing your rotation. The only reason it would be necessary is because you were set up so far back behind it and so far off of it. The coach or you know that you need to get your leg posted up. Well, then you're actively trying to work on that, and a lot of times that drifts away too far or it doesn't get there to be enough and the person spins out. So, hopefully this clears a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about the hip bump and if it's relevant to the driver and the irons. At Forzac Golf, we take a lot of pride in having developed some of the best and most consistent golf swings on the planet. We do this through simplicity. Our Full Swing Masterclass will take you on a step-by-step, easy-to-understand process on how to get your golf swing better than ever. Join the many before you who've utilized our Full Swing Masterclass to take their games to the next level and beyond.