How Should Hips Turn in the Golf Swing?
The backswing: roughly 45° of hip turn vs. 90° of shoulder turn
The benchmark David Leadbetter gives in The Golf Swing for a full swing is shoulders near 90° and hips near 45°, roughly a 2:1 ratio between torso turn and pelvis turn. That gap is what creates elastic tension between the upper and lower body: if the hips turn as much as the shoulders, there's nothing to "load"; if they don't turn at all, the golfer usually compensates by lifting the arms or tilting.
Ben Hogan, in Five Lessons, describes the order on the backswing: the hands, arms, and shoulders start the motion and the hips get pulled along by the shoulder turn, not the other way around. The hips rotate — they don't shift. The right knee (for a right-hander) keeps its flex and acts as a brace: the weight loads onto the inside of the right foot without the pelvis sliding past it.
Not everyone gets to 45°. Jack Nicklaus, in Golf My Way, advocated letting the left heel come up to allow for a fuller turn. TPI specifically measures the pelvis's ability to rotate independently from the torso; if that mobility is limited, forcing the number doesn't make sense, and if there's discomfort, it's worth checking with a physical therapist or doctor.
The downswing: the hips lead
Hogan is blunt: the downswing is started by the hips, turning toward the target, and that turn pulls the torso, which pulls the arms, which pull the club. This is what TPI and Dr. Young-Hoo Kwon's biomechanics research call the kinematic sequence: peak speeds occur in order — pelvis, then chest, then arms, then club, proximal to distal. When the order flips (shoulders or hands first), you get the classic over-the-top move and lose clubhead speed.
Key point: turning isn't pushing. The pelvis can make a small lateral shift toward the target at the start of transition, but the dominant motion is rotational. At impact, the hips are already open relative to the target line while the shoulders are more square — that's the tell that the hips led.
The three most common hip faults
- Sway on the backswing: the pelvis slides back instead of turning. Check: the right hip shouldn't slide past the outside of the right foot.
- Slide on the downswing: the hips shift toward the target without rotating, the club gets stuck behind, and you get rescue pushes or hooks.
- Reversed sequence: the shoulders fire before the pelvis from the top. Useful drill: pause for a second at the top and start the downswing by turning only your belt buckle toward the target before letting the arms drop.
Birdia detects swing phases on-device from your phone video and flags whether your shoulders beat your hips in transition, or whether your pelvis slides more than it turns, so you can work on the pattern using data from your own swings instead of guessing.
Sources
- Ben Hogan — Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.
- David Leadbetter — The Golf Swing.
- Jack Nicklaus — Golf My Way.
- TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) — secuencia cinemática y screening de rotación pélvica.
- Dr. Young-Hoo Kwon — biomecánica del swing.
Frequently asked questions
Do the hips start the backswing?
No. According to Hogan, the backswing is started by the hands, arms, and shoulders, with the hips getting pulled along. If the pelvis starts first, the hip-shoulder differential usually gets lost and a sway creeps in.
How open should the hips be at impact?
More open than the shoulders, which arrive nearly square to the line. There's no single universal number in these sources; what matters, per Hogan and TPI, is that the pelvis turned first and leads the sequence.
What if I can't turn my hips 45°?
Turn as much as your mobility allows and don't force it. Nicklaus recommended letting the left heel rise to help the turn; TPI assesses pelvic rotation to adapt the swing accordingly. If you feel pain, check with a physical therapist or doctor.
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