A reverse pivot is a golf-swing killer - but it's easier to fix than you think

A reverse pivot can cause contact and power issues.Tony Ruggiero

I recently started teaching a new student named Dan, and he reminds me of a lot of golfers I’ve seen over the years. He loves the game and plays as much as he can, but has been frustrated for years by a lack of distance and inconsistent contact.

For Dan, the biggest reason for his struggles was a reverse pivot. He’d been told plenty of times that this was an issue — but knowing you have a swing problem and actually fixing it are two very different things.

In the video below, you can see how my team and I tackled Dan’s reverse pivot issue. Like with most swing problems, the fix wasn’t just about finding the right drill on the range. It was about helping Dan understand why his body was doing what it was doing and giving him ways to work on the new movement pattern, whether he was at the course, at the gym or standing in front of his bathroom mirror.

How to fix a reverse pivot

A reverse pivot occurs when a golfer incorrectly loads their weight during the backswing. Instead of loading into the trail side and then shifting into the lead side, the sequence is reversed. The golfer may turn to the top, but as they do, their weight actually shifts toward the target. And once they reach the downswing, the weight shifts back to the trail side, leading to inconsistent contact and a lack of power.

Dan’s swing was a classic case of this reverse pivot move. His instinct was to get behind the ball by sliding his hips backward in an attempt to load into the trail side. But that lateral slide was actually destabilizing his lower body, which caused his upper body to tilt back toward the target.

The first thing we did was get Dan on a balance disc. These are cheap, easy to use anywhere and (most importantly) they make it nearly impossible to slide. When you’re standing on it, your lower body has to stabilize just to keep you upright.

From there, we had Dan focus on winding and rotating his rib cage and upper body back toward his trail leg. The disc takes the lateral option off the table, so you have no choice but to feel what a real rotary backswing feels like.

The second drill was something Dan could do anywhere with nothing but a mirror and a Band-Aid. We had him hold a club across his chest with his hands on his shoulders and stick a Band-Aid on the mirror at head height. His only job then was to keep his eyes on that Band-Aid and turn his chest behind it while keeping his lower body quiet and stable. Having a fixed visual reference point makes the rotary feel click for a lot of players. It gives your brain a target, and your body figures out how to get there.

A reverse pivot is common because most players have the same instinct to move laterally. When the lower body slides, it becomes unstable, and the upper body tilts back toward the target to compensate. If you can stabilize the lower body, the upper body sorts itself out.

If you’re willing to do the work away from the golf course, you can train a new movement pattern. You can go slow, build the feel, and gradually bring it into your real swing.

If you struggle with a reverse pivot, give some of these drills a shot. If you can stabilize your lower body and learn how to load properly, the swing fault will disappear, and you’ll be able to hit consistent and powerful shots.

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