[Jeff]

Phew!

We sure disagree about this point.

I believe that a golfer should adopt a certain degree of rightwards spinal tilt at address. One can acquire that small degree of rightwards spinal tilt by keeping the head in the center of the stance (or minimally right-of-center) and then shifting the pelvis left-laterally.

Then during the backswing, one rotates the torso around that small degree of rightwards spinal tilt in a neutral manner - with no swaying or tilting or movement of the head. That results in no change of the degree of rightwards spinal tilt at the end-backswing position (compared to the address position). I personally believe that Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods do that.

However, the issue is complex because of the spiraling of the spine. When the pelvis rotates 45 degrees, that shifts the lumbar spine to the left and reorients the front of the lumbar vertebrae to the right (by about 45 degrees) as shown in this next diagram.



The reorientation of the lumbar vertebrae affects the thoracic spine (because the lumbar vertebrae are incapable of much rotary movement due to the anatomical structure of their pedicles) and this causes the upper torso to rotate around a thoracic spine whose vertebrae are also reoriented (face) to the right, and this thoracic vertebral reorientation allows the upper torso to rotate freely around the rightwards tilted/spiraled spine. When the lumbar vertebra are moved left-laterally (due to the 45 degree pelvic rotation) and the head remains stationary, then theoretically the degree of rightwards spinal tilt should increase. However, the rotation of the upper torso is greater than the lower torso and it torques the spine in a clockwise manner. That torquing action has a verticalising effect on the spiraling thoracic spine and gives the mid-upper spine a more vertical appearance - although the overall spinal tilt is rightwards. The overall rightwards spinal tilt causes the right upper torso to slant rightwards - and that rightwards torso tilt is not due to swaying.

Here is Brian Manzella demonstrating his Guardsman drill.



That significant degree of rightwards torso tilt (away from the target) is not a sway - it is secondary to rotating the pelvis 45 back while allowing his head to freely move with his tilting upper torso into a reverse K posture. If he kept his head rigidly stationary while performing this pelvic maneuver, then he would "feel" a tightening in the mid-upper thoracic spine area as the spine becomes verticalised. When one keeps the head stationary it forces the mid-upper thoracic spine to become more vertical and prevents such an exaggerated degree of rightwards torso tilt. However, there will still be a small degree of rightwards torso tilt away fom the target, and that can be seen in Hogan's end-backswing reverse K posture (despite a verticalised mid-upper thoracic spine).



That MacDonald exercise 4 is a distortion because she is standing erect. If the she performed that same pivot maneuver while bending over 40 degrees, she would develop a reverse K posture - because the degree of rightwards torso tilt increases slightly more with each degree of forward bending.


Jeff.