The Pivot....by Brian Manzella
How much should you pivot?
As little as possible.
How much is that?
Depends.
On what?
The shot.
OK, What about a chip shot?
What about it?
How much should you pivot on a chip shot you land 5 feet in front of you?
None going back below the waist, some above the waist, and barely going through.
What about a little pitch shot you land 45 feet in front of you?
As much as you need to.
I don't get it?
Get what?
Why are you being so coy? I have "Flipper," don't you preach using a lot of pivot in that video?
The message in "Flipper" is simple: In my opinion, it is easier to LEARN not to flip, if you use a motion where "impact hands" are pulled through by a rotating, tilted axis, instead of just standing there hoping that the hand motion will create enough pivot not to flip.
Don't you teach a big ole pivot?
To who?
To a golfer who comes to you for lessons?
Like Kevin Shields? Tom Bartlett? Micheal Finney? Derek Sanders?
That's four guys with VERY different pivots.
Don't you teach a big ole pivot to some folks?
Like a Slicer that comes to me with a nasty reverse pivot?
Yeah. Don't you get them to move way "off the ball"?
Slicers need flatter shoulder turns in general. Some folks will have a "look of lean" at the top that they didn't have before.
But, last week, I just made "VJ Singer" move his hips more to the right and steepened his shoulder turn with LESS head movement.
Yeah, but I thought you hated "centered pivots."
I dislike golfers using a pivot that doesn't generate enough power.
These pivots are often left leaning or head centered pivots. They are great for a very small percentage of golfers, and a death move for others.
You have to use the pivot to generate speed, and you have to get some "line" help from it.
To do this, basically, you have to wind up and away, move back down and left, and unwind up and back.
But every golfer will look different doing this.
Some folks will over do it, but just as many I've seen UNDER do it.
My pivot will NEVER look like Mike Finney's.
But the important part is, I would play worse, and hit it worse TRYING to "look" simple and quiet.
No offense, but give me Nicklaus, Snead, and Palmer's pivots, over so-called Simple and quiet.
What about the shot Tiger hit a shot at the Barclay's that was a knockdown, and his left hip did not move back AT ALL on the backswing and dramatically moved forward on the downswing?
Sounds like a knockdown to me.
If his left hip doesn't move back on a full driver, call 911, because when he tries to get up to 125 mph, and get to the inside of the ball from that kind of PIVOTLESS backswing, he'll need hip surgery.
When does the weight begin to transfer to the front foot from the back foot?
On a typical full shot, for an orthodox pivot, it moves right fairly early, but just a bit.
How much weight is on the back foot at the top of the swing?
Not so much that you could HOLD your backswing position there.
How much weight is left at impact?
Not that much.The hips are WAY FURTHER LEFT, but the upper body is tilted and going back and around, so there is just a little more weight left at impact.
When a golfer performs the "squat," is that the point where weight is equally distributed between the feet?
No.
That's when the weight gets as LEFT as it is going to before the follow-through.
