By Craig Roberts

In this feature, I would like to talk about the word "TURN" and what it means when referring to turn in a golf swing. For those who have not read my first article titled "Body Angles and Body Shape," I suggest to read it first, followed by this article to help you understand the basics of the Reverse K set up. 

So many students I meet for the first time consider turn to be an important source of power in their golf swing. It is, but the word "Turn" itself is a word I use very carefully when teaching. I would rather talk about the shape of the body when it begins to turn, what turns, and in what direction? Most students will answer the above questions with "my shoulders should turn 90 degrees and my hips half that amount". This is all good in theory but if the body angles are wrong at the start, the direction of the turn from one swing to another will be different. 

A lot of the instruction you read in golf magazines and books talks about turning the shoulders and clearing your hips, or your left side (if you are right-handed). It certainly can be confusing. Most people think and have been taught that from the top of the backswing, your left hip turns and clears out of the way early helping you stay behind the ball. But this can cause you to lose your good body angles coming into impact. Plus your follow-through and balance can easily be affected. Basically, your right side should be turning your left side out of the way. There is not a great deal of unwinding of the hips in the downswing. However I think that so many people get themselves into a reverse pivot type look at the top of the swing, that coming back to the ball the lower body has to get back across and clear out of the way to allow the clubhead to find the ball again.

So what turns? The body turns around or inside a good body angle. 

Looking again at the top 2 photos you will notice that the "amount of shoulder turn" in picture 2 looks like more than picture 1. Remember in picture 1 I was trying to turn as much as possible while in picture 2 the model is not so much thinking about turning but letting his arms pull the body. I like to think that the arms will pull the body into a "good turn". 

So next time you are thinking you need to turn more or turn less, think about the angles or your posture and how it can affect the direction in which you turn. 

I hope this article helps you to understand more fully the importance of "Turning " in the right directions rather than how much you turn. In the next article I will talk on the subject of "Weight Shift" ···as I have more of it lately!!