The part of the swing I’m going to be covering in this tip is the first half of the back swing known as the take away. It’s the movement from the set to where the club shaft is parallel to the ground.
For years this part of the swing has been taught by coaches as a straight movement, well unfortunately if your trying to push the club back ‘straight’ your heading for a disaster.
My suggestion is a simple one, move your hands around your body not straight.
The swing is described as a circular motion, most would agree with that, so my question is which part of a circle is straight? The answer is of course none of it.
The hands should move in and up constantly in the golf swing staying connected with the torso, if the hands and club are moved back straight you are probably disconnecting your arms from your body. Not a great thing for your consistency.
The feeling would be of your hands moving into your right pocket (right handed golfer). What I’m not saying is to take the club head around your body, this is a fault and one I see a lot of. However if the hands move in more, the club head will likely stay in front of the hands reducing this problem.
So the position I would be looking for at the end of the take away (shaft parallel to the ground) is for the hands and club to be over the top of the centre line of your feet and the club shaft to be parallel to the feet line.
If this is done correctly the arms shouldn’t move off of or away from the body (rib-cage), maintaining constant pressure underneath the arms.
To explain the power concept in a more practical example take a rugby player kicking a penalty. Does he run straight or from a side angle? The answer is from the side, the reason is for power. So if the side run gives the player power, the same should be said for a golf club. A golf club swung from around the body will always hit the ball more powerfully than a club swung from straight up and straight down.
So move your hands and swing around your body not up or straight back and watch your power and consistency increase!
