The pathpal Hip Rotation Drill

Set the pathpal to 90 degrees — fully vertical — and position it just outside the lead leg, approximately four to five fingers' width from the knee at about knee-to-hip height. The rod acts as a lateral boundary: the correct swing allows a slight lateral shift at the start of the downswing, but the lead leg must then rotate back away from the rod rather than continuing to slide into it. If the hips slide excessively, the rod is contacted immediately and unmistakably.

A lateral shift is a controlled, brief movement of the lower body pressure toward the target at the start of the downswing — it's what initiates the kinetic chain and loads the lead leg. A hip slide is what happens when that lateral movement continues past the correct conversion point and the hips keep moving toward the target rather than rotating around the lead leg. The shift is a few inches of lateral pressure transfer. The slide is an uncontrolled continuation of that movement that repositions the entire lower body toward the ball — triggering the flip, the handle pull, and the loss of lag that characterizes the fault. Brent's drill catches the slide specifically because the rod is placed just far enough to allow the correct shift while blocking anything beyond it.

When the hips slide excessively toward the target, the body gets too far in front of the ball — the same sway gap fault Janean Murphy identifies in her Brick Wall Impact Drill. From that position, the club is approaching the ball with the handle already past impact, leaving the clubface open. The hands have to flip through impact to square the face, producing inconsistent contact, thin strikes, and a loss of lag. The flip is not a hand fault — it's the body's last-resort correction for a lower body that moved too far, too fast, in the wrong direction.

"Lead leg going back" refers to the lead hip clearing — rotating away from the ball rather than continuing toward it. After the initial lateral pressure shift loads the lead leg, the lead hip begins to externally rotate back and away from the target line, clearing space for the arms and club to swing through impact on the correct path. This is the braking mechanism Brent references: the lead leg loads from the shift and then brakes — stopping lateral movement and redirecting it into rotational speed. The pathpal rod placed outside the lead knee makes the brake point physical: the hip must start going back before it reaches the rod.

Both drills target lower body sequencing in the downswing — but they address different dimensions of the same fault chain. Brad's Heel Stomp Drill uses the TrueStrike under the lead heel to trigger the correct lateral shift initiation and prevent the hips from thrusting toward the ball (early extension). Brent's Hip Rotation Drill uses the pathpal barrier outside the lead knee to cap the lateral movement and force the conversion from shift to rotation. Together they define the complete correct lower body sequence: Brad's drill initiates the shift correctly, and Brent's drill ensures the shift converts to rotation at the right moment rather than continuing as a slide.