Henrik Stenson – “Keep Fighting and Keep Believing”

What a year for Henrik Stenson! 

I just finished watching him win the “Race to Dubai” money title on the golf channel. That tops off a tour championship win on the PGA tour and the tour championship win in dubai.

One thing really stood out to me watching his interview afterwards. He mentioned how he has “kept fighting and kept believing” through his slumps in the official world golf ranking over the years. Now he’s pretty much the hottest player on the planet. What a great mentality and one we can all learn from.

A real standout signature move he makes, is ‘loading’ the weight into his right leg before he starts moving the club away in the takeaway.

There’s going to be a lot of people around the world now trying to copy Stenson’s signature move. If you are one of these people, please please remember one critical thing before trying it. Your hips do NOT move laterally in the backswing!

Although Henrik clearly loads some weight into his right leg before initiating the swing, his right hip is still moving back behind him and up.

Whether you choose to focus your attention on your left leg or right leg going back the movement of the machine (your body) cannot differ.

The tailbone should move towards the target, the right hip moves back and up, the left hip moves down and in. You can either choose to load and push off with the right leg or gradually load into the left leg. My preference is loading into the left (forward) leg. 

Why?.. Because when loading into the right leg you are more likely to move (shift) your hips laterally in the backswing. 

This is a killer move, and should be avoided at all costs. If you watch Stenson’s hip movement, it’s on a tilted axis, because we have to bend forward with our spine to assume a good posture and his right hip moves back and around his body – not shifting laterally to the right, away from the target.

Make sure, if you’re going to use Stenson’s swing as a model. That you load the weight into the inside of your right leg and push off the inside of your right foot. A great drill for this would be to place a golf ball under the outside of your right foot, and make slow deliberate practice swings to generate the correct feel.

Another important point would be just how much the feet have to stay ‘rooted’ or ‘grounded’ in the backswing. As soon as you feel the weight ‘roll’ onto the outside of your right foot, it’s all over! Say goodbye to your proper hip turn and stability going back.

I’ve really enjoyed watching Stenson swing the club this year I must say. It’s powerful, athletic and now he’s collecting all these titles around the world, he’s got to be many peoples pick for a few major’s next year.

Have you noticed Stenson’s loading into his right leg before he starts his swing? Let me know your thoughts.