Ready to perfect your golf backswing? You’ve come to the right place.
When it comes to your takeaway phase of the swing, there is no reason for it to be complicated or difficult. The backswing is usually the slowest part, but it determines the rest of your swing and your shot. As a player, you have to understand that even a slight error can lead to an unsuccessful hit.
We’ve compiled the most helpful golf backswing tips; the ones that target the most important aspects and can be put into action right now. Let’s get into it.
Ball Position
Among the many, many golf backswing tips you will hear and read about, here is the most crucial one. To hit a successful shot, you have to play the ball correctly and complement your stance. When you look carefully, every successful shot has a proper ball position. Once you get an idea of what it is and how to execute it, remember and learn it as soon as possible.
On top of ball position, a squared stance to address the ball and the swing is important. Before a swing, check for squared feet, hips, and shoulders — this increases the chances of proper ball position.
Proper Grip
When you take your stance, make sure that your hands are gripping the club properly. Most new players have a tight grip, while experienced golfers use a neutral grip. A tight grip will restrict your overall body movements and its flow. On the other side of the spectrum, a loose grip will lead to a wobbling club head as you go through your swing.
Neutral refers to, neither too weak nor too strong. The goal is to strive for a firm grip, and do not be mistaken, this does not mean choke the club tightly.
Hip Turn
Another important golf backswing tip is to apply a little flex in your knees. This flex refers to sustaining the bent angle from the stance all the way until your swing. By incorporating this flex, this allows for the right amount of power to execute your shot.
More specifically, such power comes from your hips turning fully and is evoked by the knee flex. It shows that an adjustment at the lower half influences the middle, and eventually, engaging the upper half of the body. Additionally, this complete hip turn should be gradual, and not forced with exaggerated speed.
Arms and Hands
As you bring the club back for a swing, you must keep both arms straight. Straight arms promote a constant distance between the club head and your hands. When you bend your arms too early in the swing, the distance will shorten and will need to hastily correct right before the impact. This can all be prevented by maintaining two straight arms during the first part of the takeaway.
Deviating from both arms, most players forget about their left arm and elbow as a right-handed golfer. During your backswing, it is very important to resist the bending of your left elbow.
Once the club and your hands are about waist high, your right arm must bend at the elbow for right-handed players. As you initiate your takeaway motion, it is best to try and resist the rotation of your hands. This leads to achieving a wide arc as you bring the club back.
Coiling Body
When your hands reach waist level, you should also turn and twist your upper body and shoulders. Until the club is at the top of your backswing, continue this specific motion. This coiling body motion generates the necessary energy at club-to-ball impact.
Regardless of being experienced or not, many players have trouble mastering the skill of completely turning the hips until the top is reached. And if this is the case for you, you can try some flexibility exercises for the hips, legs, and shoulders.
Finding Your Top
Apart from the tips above, another effective golf backswing tip is to know where your “top” is as a golfer — the top of the swing differs from player to player. Some players have the capability to bring the club well past parallel at the top, while others cannot make it all the way up.
Regardless of your position on that scale, it is crucial to reach your maximum height. With just this effort, it will greatly increase the club head’s speed on the way down.
If you’re having trouble picturing it, take yourself back to your Math class when you made perfect circles with a compass. Think of your arms to be the arms of the compass, your hands as the center point, and the drawn circle as the path of your swing.
Transition
The first part of the overall swing is one of the most vital parts because it sets up all the subsequent movements of your swing.
A smooth transition translates into sustaining a smooth tempo. Now, be sure to not mistaken smooth with a light swing. Keep it smooth, whilst hitting the ball with solid energy and power with your club head.
To finish it off, the last tip involves the transition that leads into your downswing. It is important to avoid jerking the club and maintain smooth movements. On top of this, you must initiate the downward swing with your hips, and not your hands.
Takeaway
If you start noticing that you are missing a significant number of shots, start keeping these golf backswing tips in mind.
More often than not, a missed shot is caused by an aspect that went wrong in the first part of the swing. With that, you can have an experienced golfer observe you as you do a few slow motion swings. A combination of these tips and a proper outer-perspective is the fastest and more effective way to pinpoint and resolve the problem.
Keep your head up and apply these tips one by one to see how they affect your swing and your shots. Soon enough, you’ll be hitting with the correct backswing!
Leave a Reply