Cure Reverse Pivot In Your Golf Swing

A very common golf swing fault is the reverse pivot. That is where a golfer makes an incorrect backswing resulting in the weight "hanging" more towards the target, rather than in the inside of the right leg for a right handed golfer.

If you don't rotate back (pivot) correctly, you will not put yourself in the correct top of the backswing position to come down on plane, and with any power. What you will do instead is a term called "rock-and-block", where you tip over one way (towards the target), then on the way down you tip back the other way (away from the target), then make a weak slap at the ball with no forward shaft lean or compression.

The result of the improper body action can be many things. You can either hit thin or bladed shots that go to the right, or you can overcompensate with a big pull hook to the left. It all depends on what you do with your hands, or more importantly with the clubface at impact.

Focus On A Level Hip Turn

When you reverse pivot, golfers tend to get their back hip too high, and the front hip goes to low, resulting in an improper weight shift in your backswing. That would be like a baseball player trying to hit a hard line drive with most of his weight on his front foot. It's not going to happen!

Instead, focus on rotating into your right hip socket, and maintaining level hips during your backswing. You will feel more tension on the inside of your back knee, as well as pressure on the inside of your right foot. If you do this, you are on your way to a "loaded" backswing that can come down into the ball powerfully and on plane.

Keep Your Lead Shoulder Up

When you reverse pivot, you tend to drop the lead shoulder low, which promotes your weight again being on the front foot and not on the inside of the back foot. So when you take the club back, try to keep your left shoulder up during your backswing. Don't raise it any higher than it was at address, but keep it level, or in your mind UP.

This tip will also level our your hips, as well as your shoulder plane. A reverse pivot promotes a very steep angle with the shoulders, which then encourages a steep shaft plane, making it very difficult to come down into the ball on plane.

Use A Swing Aid To Fix Reverse Pivot

Sometimes it's very difficult to find a feeling of how to make a proper pivot as mentioned above. By using something like a reverse pivot golf aid you can train your muscles while you're hitting balls on the practice range. This will give you instead feedback as to if you are doing it right or not.

Another issue you might have alongside a reverse pivot is what is termed lateral sway, which is when you move off the ball too much, and your weight goes to the outside of your back foot. This faulty move makes it very difficult to come back down to the ball, as you have to laterally slide back towards the target to make up for the slide away from the target.

So you may also need to look into an aid the will fix golf sway. As these 2 faults are usually tied together. Once you get the proper feel, you'll be crushing your golf ball.