This Ask Malaska Golf comes from Casey Granatus, who has a question about lead hip action and mentions experiencing hip pain. Billy, why don’t you explain how that works and what might be causing his issue?

Casey, the first thing we need to ensure is that you’re moving correctly. More often than not, when a student tells me they’re trying to get their lead hip "out of the way," I observe them swinging down and notice that their leg locks, but their hip doesn’t actually move. There’s a big difference between simply straightening the leg and actively using the ground and your foot to push the hip socket back.

The difference lies in the muscles being used. If you’re just swinging with your arms or flipping the club and then suddenly start applying force into your lead foot to push the hip back, you might be engaging muscles you haven’t used in a while. This could cause some soreness.

It could be that you’re straightening your leg without properly moving your hip, which puts excessive pressure on the hip joint because it’s static. Alternatively, you might be correctly engaging your lead foot, pushing back, and moving your hip out of the way, but this activates muscles that aren’t accustomed to the motion, leading to soreness.

Soreness in this case isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it could just mean you’re using muscles that need to develop. The key is to ensure that when you use the ground, your hip is actually moving rather than just your leg straightening.