Three separations fuel a powerful impact

Once you have coiled correctly, you are poised to release your pent-up power. This release at impact is related to three separations that occur as you start back to the ball:

1. Your hands must separate from your back shoulder and move directly down toward the ground. This is an essential power lever, and it is not released until impact.

2. Your front shoulder must separate from your chin, a move that aids in dropping the arms and club into the slot.

3. Your front hip should shuttle forward, then turn away from the target, creating a separation between your legs.

In the accompanying photos, PGA Tour pro John Callahan is demonstrating all three of these separations, highlighted by the separation of the legs using a beach ball. Failure to make this separation usually leads to the club being pulled across the golf ball, resulting in a weak slice.

In the first photo, John is fully coiled. His shoulders have turned twice as much as his hips over a braced right leg. Swinging in this manner, he can easily hold the beach ball between his knees.

In the second photo, he has achieved the so-called “sit-down” position caused by his knees separating. Note that he has maintained the 90-degree angle between the shaft and his left arm.

The stop-action photo allows us to check out this sit-down action with regard to his hips, too. A club shaft placed across his thighs would point parallel left of the target, indicating that while there has been a shift of weight to his front hip, the hips have only slightly rotated, with most of the motion being a shuttle toward the target. From here he is ready to rotate through the hitting area and deliver a powerful blow from inside the target line.