Golf Instruction: The Worst Swing Tip Ever.
By Sam Adams
Trying to take the club straight back is the worst swing tip ever. If, Heaven forbid, a golf professional, or anybody else has ever suggested this it is the one of the worst pieces of advice ever.
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To begin with, it is impossible to do this and not have some serious issues to overcome. The only way to start the club straight back is by moving laterally, which means your body and head must slide out of position and that is never good. I don’t believe that there is any one swing for everybody or any method that will help everybody, but one thing I have learned over the years is that the club swings in an arc or semi-circle around the body. Trying to swing straight will cause the arms to separate from the body and is almost impossible to fix or compensate for on the way down. To see what I mean try standing and placing the club head against the base of a wall and then starting your back swing without moving your head. The club comes away from the wall immediately in a gentle curve to the inside.
A problem I see frequently with women especially is trying to take the club back while holding the club face square. Many women that take up golf as an adult will instinctively try to hold the club face square to the line of flight and the only way to do this is by swinging the club straight back and up so that the swing plane is perpendicular to the line of flight. If you have ever seen anyone with a golf swing that looked like a human windmill this is what the cause is.
“Have you ever tried to take the club straight back from the ball? It’s impossible!” Greg Norman
The club should swing back on a plane or direction that will end up behind your head around shoulder height. This is why it is called a back swing and not an upswing. The club should end up behind you – not above you.
Do not
try to start the club back with the hands alone. Try to start the back swing with the entire body turning in an arc.
From there you simply reverse the turn and let your body face the target. The golf swing is basically two turns and a swish.
The bottom line of this is to never force the club to do anything. Just relax and let it go where it wants to. One of my favorite drills is to have a student swing the club all the way back with just their right hand. Ninety-nine percent of the time the club ends up in a great position. The reason for this is that people are generally weaker with only one hand on the club and therefore it is more difficult to manipulate it into a bad or unnatural position.
If you take nothing else away from this article I want it to be this: Too many golfers look to YouTube, Golf Digest, and Golf Channel for the next best tip that will unlock their games. As a result, many golfers end up with swings that are awkward,slower, less athletic, too technically oriented, and lacking in any freedom at all. Swing as if you were a child excited to be playing the game.