How long should my backswing be? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How long should my backswing be? (Video) - by Pete Styles

When you watch the best players on the PGA Tour you’ll often see that there’s no one set perfect position for the top of the back swing. And if there’s no one perfect position at the top of the back swing for the pros, it’s a fair bet that there’s no perfect position for the amateurs in the game as well. What we want to try and do is create the longest swing we can possibly do maintaining good key fundamentals. And this is often different for different people, different sizes, different flexibilities, different injuries. So the way we set up to the golf ball here, we’ve got a nice strong set up position and now I’m going to wind up as far as I can. And I wind up, and I turn, and I find my restriction is about here which for me is around about two o’clock with a bit if momentum probably gets the club to three o’clock about horizontal. Now I can swing the ball further than that. I’ll show you I can swing it right away down, set point almost back towards the golf ball. So why don’t I do the big long swing in my swing normally? Well the problem is I’ve lost my fundamentals that I mentioned right at the start. So as I turn back here, there’re certain things that have gone wrong, for example, my legs are far too active in the long swing. My left elbow bends far too much in the long swing, my wrist collapsed in the long swing. And those are three things, three key things really that would start to reduce my accuracy and my consistency of my shots.

So we want to try and make the longest back turn we can without the left knee collapsing too much. Without the left arm bending at all, and without the left wrist collapsing more than 90 degrees. So as we turn back now, left knee is still, left arm is still, left wrist goes to 90, then we get back to that sort of three o’clock and just shy of three o’clock position. So when you’re practicing, when you’re playing, and you’re trying to work out how far back your swing should go, go as far back as you can, without breaking the fundamentals. Left knee, left elbow and left wrist they are a problem. If we can get those three in good positions you can turn back as far as you like. And I would suggest as long as you get the club passed to one o’clock you’re going to generate enough power to be able to play the game to a descent standard. So if your swing is a bit restricted you to a bad back or injury, one o’clock is going to be okay. Anything less than one o’clock, you probably not going to be able to hit the ball far enough then we might allow you to break one of the fundamentals we’d lose consistency, we’d gain a bit of extra distance. But if you can keep your left knee, your left arm, and your wrist, good positions, two o’clock, that’s going to be perfect. And that’s how far back you should swing your club. 2015-03-31

When you watch the best players on the PGA Tour you’ll often see that there’s no one set perfect position for the top of the back swing. And if there’s no one perfect position at the top of the back swing for the pros, it’s a fair bet that there’s no perfect position for the amateurs in the game as well. What we want to try and do is create the longest swing we can possibly do maintaining good key fundamentals. And this is often different for different people, different sizes, different flexibilities, different injuries. So the way we set up to the golf ball here, we’ve got a nice strong set up position and now I’m going to wind up as far as I can. And I wind up, and I turn, and I find my restriction is about here which for me is around about two o’clock with a bit if momentum probably gets the club to three o’clock about horizontal. Now I can swing the ball further than that. I’ll show you I can swing it right away down, set point almost back towards the golf ball. So why don’t I do the big long swing in my swing normally? Well the problem is I’ve lost my fundamentals that I mentioned right at the start. So as I turn back here, there’re certain things that have gone wrong, for example, my legs are far too active in the long swing. My left elbow bends far too much in the long swing, my wrist collapsed in the long swing. And those are three things, three key things really that would start to reduce my accuracy and my consistency of my shots.

So we want to try and make the longest back turn we can without the left knee collapsing too much. Without the left arm bending at all, and without the left wrist collapsing more than 90 degrees. So as we turn back now, left knee is still, left arm is still, left wrist goes to 90, then we get back to that sort of three o’clock and just shy of three o’clock position. So when you’re practicing, when you’re playing, and you’re trying to work out how far back your swing should go, go as far back as you can, without breaking the fundamentals. Left knee, left elbow and left wrist they are a problem. If we can get those three in good positions you can turn back as far as you like. And I would suggest as long as you get the club passed to one o’clock you’re going to generate enough power to be able to play the game to a descent standard. So if your swing is a bit restricted you to a bad back or injury, one o’clock is going to be okay. Anything less than one o’clock, you probably not going to be able to hit the ball far enough then we might allow you to break one of the fundamentals we’d lose consistency, we’d gain a bit of extra distance. But if you can keep your left knee, your left arm, and your wrist, good positions, two o’clock, that’s going to be perfect. And that’s how far back you should swing your club.