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Golf

2011-11-17 13:22:50

Ask the pro - series

A: Thus far in this series, we have talked about the things that one must do to first to get in the position to begin the swing. They have been the grip, the alignment and the stance. The swing is broken down into two parts. The backswing…and the downswing. This month, we talk about the backswing. The backswing receives a huge amount of attention as far as golf swing tips and instruction is concerned. In one sense, this makes sense as it is the beginning of the swing however if you stop to think about it you don’t hit the ball on your backswing, so is all the fuss justified? My answer will consider this question and provide a few golf backswing tips. In general, golfers pay too much attention to their backswing and not enough on the ultimate objective, which is to get back to the ball in a good impact position. Of course, to arrive at the proper impact position requires a downswing that occurs in the proper sequence. So really the purpose of the backswing is simply to give yourself the best chance of making a good downswing. A popular piece of advice for the backswing in golf is “low and slow.” This may do more harm than good. First, the low part. If you try to force the club to stay very close to the ground for the first 12 to 18 inches of your backswing you will almost certainly sway backward from the ball, which will make it difficult to have consistent ball contact. Now for the slow part. This thought will be helpful for some golfers; those with fast herky-jerky swings, but in general an artificially slow backswing will encourage over-swinging and also a tendency to swing from the top on the downswing. Many golfers also try to examine their backswing at various stages: a foot or two off the ball, shaft parallel to the ground, nine o’clock position, etc. It is easy to see how paralysis by analysis can occur. Try thinking of only these two golf backswing thoughts the next time you hit the range. First, accept your physical limitations and swing within yourself. Most of us do not have the flexibility nor golf specific strength of the pros, so why try to swing like them? While it is admirable to try to achieve a 90 degree turn on your backswing and end up with your back facing the target, for most people it is just not realistic and in fact can be very detrimental. Any number of swing compensations will have to be made, such as losing your spine angle, which in turn will require more swing compensations to get back to the ball with any chance of hitting the ball well. The second thought, which is actually related to the first is to try to keep your arms, shoulders and chest moving in basically one piece. In practice, this will not really happen but if you try to key in on the idea that you should stop swinging your arms when your shoulders and chest have stopped rotating around your spine then you will be in a well-balanced position from which to initiate the downswing. In order to keep this connected feeling, you will likely find that your full backswing is closer to what you think of as a three-quarter or possibly even half swing. A good drill to help ingrain this feeling and avoid what is called a “flying right elbow” is to tuck a golf glove under your right (trailing) armpit and make sure it does not come out on the backswing. Try these golf tips for a more repeatable golf backswing with fewer moving parts. Next month, we will talk about the downswing.