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In the image above on the left, I've drawn two lines that represent the center of Greg's hip sockets (roughly) at the top of his backswing.

At impact, you can see that his right hip has replaced where his left hip was at the top of the backswing almost exactly. In other words, Greg has shifted laterally toward the target an amount equivalent to the entire width of his pelvis.

Most amateurs get nowhere near this amount of shift because they focus on bringing the club down first from the top.

Let's take a look at another professional golfer's shift:

In this sequence of Tiger Woods, you can see the exact same shift.

How to Shift Without Sliding

Watching videos of these two golfers, you would never accuse either one of them of "sliding" in their downswings. However, if you do not have a proper shift in your downswing right now and you move this much, you will likely feel exactly that.

When I teach my students how much lateral movement is necessary to get into a proper impact position, they almost always say they feel like they're sliding. But, if you make this lateral move and then engage the left glute by driving the left ankle into the ground, your lateral move will stop before impact, and you will be stacked and braced over the left side to deliver a solid strike to the ball.

In order to feel this movement properly for the first time, I have my students use the RotaryConnect between the knees.

A Training Aid That Actually Works!

In the image below, you can see how the RotaryConnect helps Greg keep the spacing in his knees. Moving the right knee in toward the left creates unnecesary excess rotation in the hips that leads to an unstable impact position with too much secondary axis tilt.

The RotaryConnect also encourages a proper weight shift because it won't allow you to spin your hips. So, in order to bring the club back to the ball and not hit it fat, you must make enough of a lateral movement to ensure the divot is forward of the ball.

The "Tiger Squat" Helps, too

Apart from using the RotaryConnect, I had Greg feel the moves I describe in the recent "Tiger Woods Squat" video. These two things coupled together led to Greg significantly lowering his ball flight to a much more penetrating one with better compression.

To see this move in action, check out these videos of Greg's swing and watch for him on the EuroPro Tour in 2011! You can also download these two videos (click for instructions) for your own swing study; enjoy!