Rotation From the Top
In Paul Wilson’s book Swing Machine Golf you find out that the uncomfortable feeling you may experience when swinging properly can be a good thing.
The proper golf swing starts with the proper take-away. If you begin your swing incorrectly you spend the remainder of it trying to correct the mistakes and making a poor shot. Chances are if you’re like me you start your back swing by rotating your whole body. Hips, shoulders, and legs, all moving to get the club to the top. Within Swing Machine Golf I found out this is completely wrong. You need to resist full body rotation and just use your shoulders to rotate the club around your body. Doing this creates torque within your back that is painful at first but makes a noticeably smoother and longer shot over time.
To practice and perfect the proper takeaway there are only two key points to think about:
Coil from the top
In order to create torque in your back you must think about only using your shoulders to take the club away. Resist any temptation to rotate your hips or legs. At first this will seem really strange and will make you notice how much you previously used your hips to perform this task. By the time you make it to the halfway point your hips will begin to turn even if you try to resist. When this happens, keep resisting. When you are almost to the top of your swing your knees will turn slightly, keep resisting. The whole time you should be thinking about just using your shoulders to take the club back.
During the last half of the back swing you should feel tension building in your lower back. This is a good thing and that tension is the torque which gives power to your shot. The more tension you build the faster your body tries to uncoil and the further your shot goes. The uncoiling is done with your hips and will be talked about in a later post.
Push the club with your left hand (right if you’re a lefty)
Now that you know to resist your hip rotation you can think about taking the club back. When you first start to take the club back use only your left hand. Push the club to 45 degrees off center without turning your shoulders or hips. Continue moving the club back until it is pointing directly back away from your target on a line parallel to your pre-shot target line. During this whole process you should only be moving your arms. Your shoulders will have to rotate slightly in order to allow the club to get to this position. Remember though, you don’t want to start the rotation until your arms and shoulders bring your club to this straight back point. Just think “push the club back with my left hand.”
You can practice this by only using your left hand and bringing the club back to the 45 degree point. Do it while watching TV and it will help build your muscle memory for a proper swing.
Thinking about these two simple things while starting your swing will quickly help you improve your game. You should feel stressed at first which will be a big turnoff to this method. Don’t worry, it took me a few months to really start feeling comfortable with the resistance. Give it time.
