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 by the lack of distance and inconsistent contact for years.
For Dan, the biggest reason for his struggles was a reverse pivot. He had been told many times that this was a problem – 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 rotation problem. As with most swing problems, the fix wasn’t just finding the right range drill. It was to help Dan understand why his body was doing what it was doing and to give him ways to work on his new movement pattern whether he was on the course, in the gym or standing in front of his bathroom mirror.
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How to fix a reverse pivot
A backspin occurs when a golfer incorrectly loads their weight during the backswing. Instead of loading on the track side and then moving to the lead side, the sequence is reversed. The golfer may turn on the tee, but as they do, their weight actually shifts toward the target. And once they hit the drop, the weight shifts back to the trail side, leading to unstable contact and a lack of power.
Dan’s move was a classic case of this reverse spin move. His instinct was to stay behind the ball by sliding his hips back in an attempt to charge to the side of the track. But that sideslip was actually destabilizing the lower body, which caused the upper body to lean back toward the target.
The first thing we did was put Dan in one balance disk. These are cheap, easy to use anywhere, and (most importantly) they make slipping almost impossible. When you’re standing on it, your lower body needs to be stabilized just to keep you standing.
From there, we had Dan focus on twisting and turning his ribcage and upper body towards his leg. The disc takes the lateral option off the table, so you have no choice but to feel what a real spin motion is like.
The second exercise was something Dan could do anywhere, with nothing but a mirror and a bandage. We had him hold a stick across his chest with his hands on his shoulders and tape a bandage to the mirror at head height. His only task then was to keep his eyes on that bandage and turn his chest behind her, keeping his lower body still and steady. Having a fixed visual reference point makes scrolling clickable for many players. It gives your brain a target and your body figures out how to get there.
A reverse spin is common because most players have the same instinct to move sideways. When the lower body slips, it becomes unstable and the upper body leans back toward the target to compensate. If you can stabilize the lower body, the upper body takes care of itself.
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 up the feeling and gradually bring it into your actual movement.
If you struggle with a reverse rotation, give some of these exercises a shot. If you can stabilize your lower body and learn how to do it charge properly, the swing error will disappear and you will be able to hit consistent and powerful shots.
