How to Clear the Hips in a Golf Swing

Generating more power in your golf swing without swinging harder often comes down to one of the most important moves in the sequence: clearing your hips. Truly understanding and feeling this move can transform your ball-striking from inconsistent and weak to powerful and repeatable. This guide will break down precisely what hip clearing is, why it's a game-changer, and give you step-by-step instructions and simple drills to groove this essential lower-body action.

What Does "Clearing the Hips" Actually Mean?

First, let's address a common misunderstanding. "Clearing the hips" doesn't mean yanking or spinning your hips open as fast as you can from the top of the swing. If you think of it as just spinning, you’ll likely throw the club over the top, leading to weak slices and pulls. Instead, think of it as a smooth, powerful athletic sequence.

The best analogy is an infielder in baseball turning a double play. They don't just spin to throw to second base. First, their lower body shifts toward the target, and then their torso and hips open up, 'clearing' a path for their arm to fire the ball with speed and accuracy. The golf swing is no different. Clearing the hips is a combination of a slight lateral shift followed by a powerful rotation.

The “clearing” part quite literally means your hips rotate open and out of the way, creating a massive amount of space for your arms, hands, and the club to swing down freely from the inside. When the hips stall, that space vanishes, and your arms have nowhere to go but out and over the top. When the hips clear properly, everything has room to work in the correct sequence.

Why Is Clearing Your Hips So Important?

Getting your lower body to lead the downswing is not just fancy technique, it is the source of three of the most desired outcomes in golf: power, consistency, and an ideal swing path.

• Effortless Power: Your body's core and lower body are your true engine. As your hips start to unwind in the downswing while your upper body is still coiled, you create a separation - what golfers call the "X-Factor." This stretch and separation load the club with incredible energy. As your upper body follows your hips, a chain reaction effect is produced that multiplies speed down the whip, unleashing that energy right at the golf ball. Without your hips leading, you’re left to a weak, all-arms swing that offers almost zero potential for real power.
• Shot-to-Shot Consistency: Most major swing faults - like slicing, hooking, topping, and chunking - can be traced back to poor sequencing. When your hips stop rotating or spin too early, your hands and arms have to take over and make last-second compensations to try and save the shot. This is a recipe for inconsistency. A hip-led swing, on the other hand, creates a repeatable sequence. The "engine" (the body) does its job, and the hands and arms just follow its lead, delivering the club to the ball the same way time and time again.
• A Pure Swing Path: The holy grail for many golfers is consistently swinging "from the inside." The easiest way to achieve this is by clearing your hips. When your lead hip pulls back and out of the way, it forces the club to drop down into the "slot" - the perfect position on the inside track to the ball. From here, you can swing out toward the target, compressing the ball for that pure, flush feeling every golfer craves.

The Most Frequent Mistakes When Trying to Clear the Hips

Just knowing you need to clear your hips isn't enough, you also need to know what not to do. Many golfers misinterpret the feeling and end up with one of these common (and power-robbing) faults.

Spinning Out

This is probably the number one mistake. Golfers hear “rotate your hips” and immediately try to spin their hips open as quickly as possible from the top. But rotation without the initial weight shift forward will just throw your chest, shoulders, and arms out over the ball in an "over-the-top" motion. The result is almost always a weak slice or a sharp pull to the left. The a correct motion contains a lateral "bump" before the rotation begins.

The Sway

The opposite of a spin-out is the sway. This happens when a player slides their hips too far toward the target without rotating them. A lot of golfers make this lateral slide, but their belt buckle stays pointing at the ball their hips are no longer at the center of their turn. While a small lateral bump is needed, an excessive sway disconnects your lower body from the ground, robbing you of all leverage and power. You have to rotate around a firm lead leg, not slide past it.

Early Extension

Have you ever felt like you stand up through a shot, your pelvis thrusting toward the ball? That’s called early extension, and it's your body's survival instinct when your hips fail to clear properly. Without space for your arms to swing, your brain tells your body to get out of the way. You push your hips toward the ball and straighten your legs to create a different kind kind of room. But unfortunately this lifting motion robs you of your posture and makes it a near guess to time out a solid hit..

Your Step-by-Step Guide and Feel for Clearing Your Hips

Okay, let's put it all together into a progression you can feel and practice. Think of this as a dance - a simple 1-2-3 sequence that blends a shift with a turn.

Step 1: The Weight "Bump" to Initiate the Downswing

From the top of your backswing, the very first move of the downswing should not be with your hands or arms. It shouldn't yet be a rotation. It should be a small, subtle but very distinct feeling of shifting your weight forward. Feel your lead hip (your left hip for a righty) “bump” slightly toward the target, moving a few inches laterally. This transfers pressure into the inside of your lead foot. This simple move prevents spinning out, sets up a solid base to rotate against, and helps to guarantee a downward strike on the ball.

Step 2: The Unwind and Turn

Now it’s time to rotate. As soon as you feel that weight shift onto your front foot, let your lead hip start to pull backwards and open. Picture a string attached to your lead hip pocket, and someone behind you is gently pulling that string, causing your hip to "clear" open. This is the moment power is created. Your belt buckle, which may have pointed away from the target at the top of your backswing, should now be turning to point well left of the target (for a righty) through impact.

Step 3: A Full finish showing total commitment and balance

Don't stop the rotation at the ball! A great hip motion flows all the way through to a full finish. Let your hips and chest continue to rotate until they are almost fully facing your target. Your trail hip should end up where your lead hip started. All of your weight - roughly 90% of it - should be planted firmly on your lead foot, and your back heel will be up off the ground. A balanced, committed finish is the best sign that your hips did their job from start to finish.

Three Simple Drills to Master Hip Rotation

Knowing what to do is half the battle, the other half is teaching your body how it feels. Tthese drills are excellent for building the correct muscle memory.

Drill 1: The Back-to-the-Wall Drill

Set yourself up in your golf posture with your backside just a few inches from a wall or your golf bag. As you make your backswing, your trail glute (right glute, for a righty) should turn and make contact with the wall. Now, here's the important sequencing part. Tto kick offf the downswing correctly the lead glut should move laterally and then turn back and make contact with the wall before your trailside leaves the wall. This drill gives direct feedback that you have sequenced the bump and turn vs spinning away from the wall.

Drill 2: The Step-Through Swing

Get into a setup with your feet together. During your backswing, step forward with your lead foot toward the target, planting it about shoulder-width apart as you reach the top of your backswing. As soon as that foot is planted, initiate your downswing and hit the ball. You can even let your trail foot swing through, finishing as if you had just walked toward the target. It's next to impossible to do this drill improperly, as it forces to automatically move in the order of a natural weight shift and then turn.

Drill 3: The Split-Hand Feel Drill

Get into your standard set-up, but with your hands about four inches apart from one another on the your golf grip.Now, to get back to the pre impact postion by only moving your hips, start making small, slow practice swings,. This exaggerated setup will make it very apparent how the moving of your hips is the motion that moves the club. It gives you a strong feeling of your lower body ‘pulling’ your arms through the shot. When your hips stop, you’ll immediately feel the "stuck" sensation in your arms.

Final Thoughts

Clearing your hips correctly boils down to sequencing. It's about efficiently transferring energy from your powerful core to the clubhead. It’s a feeling of shifting your weight to your lead side before you begin a complete rotation of your lower body through to a graceful a balanced finish position. Practice these movements in slow motion, work through the drills, and you’ll soon find the source of consistency and speed you’ve been looking for.

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