Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Chubbs reduces golf to a single fact about the body, delivered like a koan, and the joke is that the great mentor's wisdom is a hip-swing mantra anybody can repeat. It works for any trade: technique is in the hips, so the line gets quoted by golfers and by anyone watching someone swing a bat. It is also a fond tribute to Weathers' deadpan authority.
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In context
Spoilers for Happy GilmoreShow the scene
In Happy Gilmore (1996), Chubbs Peterson, a one-handed former pro who lost his hand to an alligator, becomes the coach of ex-hockey player Happy Gilmore after seeing his 400-yard slapshot swing at a driving range. He keeps repeating that the power is in the hips: he says it when Happy is hustling golfers at the range, and again on the first tee of the Waterbury Open, coaching him as he swings. Carl Weathers plays Chubbs; his missing hand is an in-joke about Weathers' lost arm in Predator (1987).
Sources (2)
- Springfield! Springfield! transcript: happy gilmoreDriving-range passage ('Remember, it's in the hips') and the Waterbury Open tee passage ('It's all in the hips')Reference checked
- Wikipedia: Happy GilmorePlot, Cast and ProductionReference checked
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