A universal joint can be found on the transmission of a car
and it is designed to allow two parts of a drive shaft to rotate in unity whilst
held at different angles.
Maintaining the upper body angles throughout the complete golf swing is one of the most important
principles of the golf swing, so read this section and remember
the content.
At the address position the upper body is set at two particular
angles, from the back view the upper body must be set so that it is slightly tilted to the
right thus allowing the right hand to be comfortably placed on the
golf club and from the side view the upper body must adopt a forward leaning angle.
Therefore it is absolutely vital to the success of the golf
swing that once these angles has been created, they must be strictly
maintained throughout the golf swing.
However, the only way these angles can be maintained during the down swing movement, whilst the both parts
rotate simultaneously and at exactly the same speed, around their different axis, it to use the waist line as a universal
joint.
If you watch a professional golfer make a down swing movement, you will note that the hips rotate on a entirely different angle to that of the upper body.
This is where the universal joint principle comes into force, it allows the golfer to rotate the upper torso into the down swing movement whilst held at the same angle it was set at the address position - whilst simultaneously rotating the hips towards the target area at the same angle they were set at the address position.
As the down swing movement is initiated, the hips are forced to rotate towards the target area, but importantly it is vital that from the precise moment the hips begin to rotate towards the target area, the left leg begins to straighten.
This action ensures that the hips will be in the correct position at the moment the club head strikes the ball, i,e. partially facing the target area.
During the down swing and the follow through movement it is absolutely vital that the upper body angles are maintained throughout, so that as the hips rotate towards the target area, the upper body unit can correctly rotate around the central core of the spine thus allowing the upper body unit to be rotated into the perfect position, where the right shoulder has almost begun to rotate under the chin whilst the hips are almost fully facing the target area thus placing the upper body unit in the perfect position to allow you to force the right arm into the fully straightened position as the ball is struck, therefore the application of the waist line as a universal joint must be a continuous action to the absolute end of the golf swing movement.
