More Consistent Contact: The Magic of Side Bend in the Golf Swing

Struggling with a flat shoulder plane and poor contact? You don’t need to worry about it anymore. We are here to help with advice on how to add a side bend in the golf swing.

If you are one of those golfers that takes the club shaft too far back on the inside plane making it nearly impossible to rotate properly and swing from the inside, this article is for you.

From discussing how you can fix this issue to recommending you the best training aids for the same, we will cover it all.

What is a Side Bend in a Golf Swing

A side bend is needed during the swing to make solid contact consistency. Here’s how you can achieve one:

1. Stand upright with your arms at your sides.

2. Then, move your left arm down past your left hip to reach your left knee without moving the hip forward. (Avoid moving your hips laterally and moving your chest forward.)

3. Finally, rotate your body so your left hand touches your right knee: representing a side bend.

Side Bend is a Backswing Killer

As Eric Cogorno Golf in a YouTube video, the number one backswing killer move is a lack of left side bend. So, if you don’t like your ball striking – side bend might be to blame.

Let’s say you start in the golf posture with your back bent over the golf ball. Although most golfers prefer to have a huge spine tilt, good contact comes from minimizing the spine movement during the swing.

When you rotate your body, you are more likely to make the correct weight transfer, load up on your backside, and hit the ball flush.

But make sure you don’t move your spine angle during a backswing or downswing. This can lead to some serious issues like thinning or topping shots.

Left Side Bend vs. Right Side Bend

Eric and the other coach said in the YouTube video mentioned above, “For you to have good right side bend, which is so key during the downswing, you have to have left side bend during the downswing,”

This is the key to making consistent contact and finding the sweet spot.

From my 20 years of experience playing golf, I must admit that the backswing sets up the downswing. When you fix something about your backswing, you hit it better on drives, approaches, and even chip shots.

The backswing takes about 3x as long as the downswing (in terms of perfect tempo and timing). Yet, golfers try to fix their downswing when it happens in a flash. In the book Tour Tempo, it’s mentioned how most professional golfers have a swing that takes a second or less!

Hence, it’s nearly impossible to change something that’s happening that fast. So you must address the backswing that takes comparatively more time to change your downswing.

Incorrect Side Bend

Most golfers tend to have a bad side bend which happens from the left high shoulder on the takeaway, as Eric mentioned in the same video.

This leads to no side bend and can move the head off the starting position which requires perfect time during the downswing to get it back.

This position makes it almost inevitable to get steep, over the top, or drop the head leading to thin and fat shots that don’t have much distance.

Proper Side Bend

You feel the opposite when you have a good side bend throughout the swing. This starts with feeling a left-side bend on the backswing (feeling almost a left-side crunch).

The best way to see if you’re in this position is to record your swing with a face in view. In this, your left shoulder moves toward your belt line so you’re rotating around your body instead of swaying.

To avoid moving your head back and away from your target, draw a circle around your head and watch it during the swing. This will make you spot beforehand if you’re losing side bend on the backswing.

Shift Your Lower Body First

Luke Kerr-Dineen pointed out in Golf Digest that most golfers suffer from a pesky slice from incorrect sequencing He said, “Pros generally shift their weight toward the target during their transition and begin rotating around their lead leg, but many amateur golfers start their downswing not with a shift, but simply by turning too soon.

With their weight still on their trail leg, turning too soon with their upper body drags the club over the top, and when paired with an open clubface, carves the ball out of the right.”

So, when you start downsizing by rotating your hips, make sure you transfer your weight at the same time. If you lose out on the latter, you will spin out of the shot and lose out on tons of power.

Try These Training Aids

For proper right shoulder and left shoulder movement, make sure you try these training aids:

Pressure Plate

• As you balance on the board, press down the right side on the backswing.
• To start downsizing, push down with your lead foot to transfer your weight properly.

Learn more about this training aid here.

Planemate Swing Trainer

The Planemate can help with side bends the most. It makes it easier to take the club back and more on an outside plane which makes it easier to get steeper on the backswing so that you can shallow with the right side bend on the downswing.

Platemate is easy to use and works when hitting golf balls, or a practice swing session at home.

Here’s What The Correct Sequence Looks Like

• Minimal head movement in the swing.
• The lead arm helps more of an outside takeaway to keep the left side bend leading to more right side bend on the downswing.
• Weight off the trail foot and into the left foot to start the downsizing for better compression and better rotation at impact.

Final Thoughts

During the backswing, make sure you get steep with the golf club so that you can get shallow. You must shift your weight forward and rotate your lower body like a PGA Tour player. Once you follow the guidelines, you can benefit from better posture and maintain it throughout the swing right away.

Soon enough, you’ll be able to create a reliable and great golf swing.