It has always struck me as strange that the best golfers in the world talk about the extensive work that goes into making changes in their golf swing, up to 18 months in some cases, while amateurs are inundated with “quick fixes” for a slice, hook, or some other swing fault. The golf swing is a sophisticated marvel of whole-body coordination and timing. How many times have you been lured into taking the bait on another sure-fire cure that works for six holes and disappears? Swing keys and quick fixes are fun to experiment with on the range, but to integrate changes into a large movement program like a golf swing requires retraining the brain and body.

An example of a quick fix is the popular swing key known as a “full shoulder turn.” The lack of a full shoulder turn leads to multiple problems in the swing. Whether you call it a quick fix, swing key, or message from a burning bush, the shoulder turn idea—along with keeping the left arm straight and the head down, constitute the first three commandments of golf instruction and are older than Methuselah.

But like so much mythology, the kernel of truth in the “full shoulder turn” is not reality. The reality is there is no such thing as a shoulder. If you look it up in Gray’s Anatomy, there is no designation for a shoulder, instead there’s a picture of a clavicle, (collarbone), and a scapula, (shoulder blade). The so-called shoulder joint, (gleno-humeral) is not on top of the arm but lower than most people think. Note too that the only place that the clavicle and scapula make contact with the rest of the body is at the sternoclavicular joint, where the clavicle meets the sternum. The scapula “floats” on the back in a sea of muscles that extend from the base of the skull to the lower back.

Try this: Stand erect, not in a golf stance, and extend the left arm in front of you at the height of the upper arm. Without moving the torso, move the arm in front of the chest as you would in a golf swing, across your body. You will see that the so-called shoulder does not turn much! (It stops at about 45 degrees in the horizontal plane.) Trying to get your shoulders to turn is a fool’s errand. The reality of the shoulder turn is the torso, which includes the spine and pelvis turn at the hip joint. Golfers desperately need to know where the pelvic bone meets the thighbone (femur), and how it turns when the right foot is rooted in the backswing of right-handed golfers. Most importantly, golfers need to learn how to improve the rotation of the spine through standing exercises or on the floor. Better rotation of the spine immediately improves the application of power and reduces back pain.

Tai Chi and other exercises teach improved rotation of the torso around the hip by increasing the pliability of the muscles and connective tissue of the pelvis and lower back. When the maximum turn of the torso around the hip socket is achieved, the spine continues the turn because it is a structure with 24 separate joints designed to rotate. Rotation is the bedrock of all sports, but most golfers do not perform it well. When the spine and torso turn around a rooted right leg, the arms move slightly up and across the body on a plane in the backswing.

It may already be obvious that it is pointless to speak about improving the action of a specific part or region of the body, like the shoulders, without including the entire kinematic chain from the feet to the head. The upper arm structure—consisting of the clavicle, scapula, and numerous muscles—does not turn much in the plane of the golf swing. The head-to-foot kinematic chain does turn when conditions in the chain allow the body to coil, creating potential energy in the body to be released at impact.

Speaking of the head, it is the most important part of the chain. If the body has unnecessary tension at setup or during the swing, it will pull the head down and back off the atlanto-occipital joint (at the top of the spine), raising red flags in the vestibular apparatus in the middle ear that helps regulate balance. The brain will signal the body to tighten more so that you don’t fall, restricting the movement further.

A full turn that includes the upper body requires time, practice, and the easeful coordination of the entire kinematic chain, but it is not a “shoulder turn.” With practice at home and on the range, more turn is available. Full turns are a major component of building potential energy in the backswing, increasing speed in the downswing, leading to the increased distance that all golfers want. With patience and accurate instruction, it is doable.