Jessica Korda admires this move in Nelly Korda’s swing. Here’s why it matters

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For the first time in nearly three years, Jessica Korda is playing in an LPGA Tour event. Which means Nelly Korda has her practice round playing partner back. The sisters did a press conference together this week at the Ford Championship. The pair was asked what they admire about each other’s games. Nelly spoke about Jessica’s ability to make clutch putts. Jessica said she admires everything Nelly does on the golf course.

“I don’t think there is one thing I don’t admire about her game,” Jessica said. She talked about Nelly’s touch around the greens, and her tenacity. And she also talked about something granular about Nelly’s swing.

“I’m super jealous how she rotates to the ball right now. I think that’s something I strive for. I’m always watching videos like, I just need that. I need that,” Jessica said.

We sent videos of both players’ swings to Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher Erika Larkin and asked her what exactly Jessica was looking at, and why it matters.

Larkin says that both women have great swings. But she does see the difference that Jessica is talking about.

“The biggest difference I see is the timing of when Nelly starts to open her hips,” Larkin said. “She’s got a bit more separation and segmentation of the lower in the upper body than Jessica does earlier in the downswing.”

Jessica’s looking at this part of Nelly’s swing because it’s responsible for more power and distance.

“The separation is referred to as X factor and if it grows larger at the right moments, it creates a stretch coil that uncoils and snaps through for more power,” Larkin says.

To be able to do this, a player has to move their upper body and lower body separately, letting the hips begin the turn while the upper body waits, creating torque, building tension that can be released into the ball. If the hips and upper body turn towards the ball more together than separately, there is less tension and less power.

Jessica left the tour three years ago because of a back injury. During her time away, she gave birth to her first child. Her back pain was so bad, she didn’t think she’d ever play on the LPGA Tour again. She says that she’s still in pain when she plays, but it’s more manageable than it was. That pain could be part of the reason why her turn isn’t where she wants it to be.

“I played injured for so long that I created some bad habits, so it was just going backwards to like watching Nelly’s hips rotate so nicely and that’s exactly what I strive to do, but it’s a very slow process,” Jessica said.

Though Jessica did not say the postpartum recovery process had anything to do with the work she’s doing on her turn, it’s something that Larkin said she personally struggled with after having children. The move requires a lot of core strength. Rebuilding the core and timing to properly sequence the turn through the ball takes time and reps – two things that aren’t in abundance for new moms.

Jessica has been watching videos of Nelly’s swing to prepare for her return to the tour. She’s working on her turn, but more than anything she’s thankful to be playing again.

“I didn’t think this would be part of my story, so I’m just grateful to be able to be in this position to do it,” Jessica said.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com