Supporting Your Golf Back Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Supporting Your Golf Back Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

If we've now established the correct position for the legs to be in the addressed position, we've established the importance of that position, it is now really key that we focus on what the legs are actually going to do during the backswing and how they can play a pivotal role in a good backswing position. So from a good set up position, we are wide, slightly wider than the shoulders; we are flexed, but we are not bent in the knees. Now, as we start to maintain the good turn into the backswing, I want to maintain a decent amount of flex in this knee. I’m not suggesting it needs to stay perfectly still. It can slightly straighten out as I rotate my right hip back, but I desperately want to avoid a locking. If it locks out into this position, my personal feeling is you get a lot too much bodyweight on the outside of the right foot and it's very difficult now to break that right knee back in again. I'd much rather see some stability through that right side. It can straighten slightly, but try not to get it actually into its locked position. So from front on, we’ll see that right knee just start to rotate away, but it doesn't lock out too much bodyweight in the back foot, back of the right heel. Turning, I’m going to press down on the inside of my right foot and my right knee. Now, also in this position, I’m not swaying. So a sway to the right is going to be quite a big problem as well for the right-handed golfer anyway. Swaying back this way is going to be a big issue, too much bodyweight again on the little toe and on the outside. So it's a nice stable turn and press on the instep and the legs are working quite hard to maintain that position.

One of the considerations for the backswing is if you at all can, we want to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground. I don't like to see too much raising of the feet, particularly the left foot in the backswing. So if we were swinging back and seeing a lot of this left foot rising up, I would question whether that's required, particularly for a relatively young golfer with decent amounts of flexibility, that doesn't need to happen. 70, 75, 80 plus or somebody with a hip or back injury, we might allow that left foot to start to just come in and the knee comes in a little bit. But for anybody that's got good levels of flexibility and is relatively fit, we’d like to feel like both feet stay planted to the floor as we make our rotation. But we don't let this left side come up into here. Follow those three key points with your swing and hopefully that will improve your leg stability during your golf swing.
2016-04-21

If we've now established the correct position for the legs to be in the addressed position, we've established the importance of that position, it is now really key that we focus on what the legs are actually going to do during the backswing and how they can play a pivotal role in a good backswing position. So from a good set up position, we are wide, slightly wider than the shoulders; we are flexed, but we are not bent in the knees. Now, as we start to maintain the good turn into the backswing, I want to maintain a decent amount of flex in this knee. I’m not suggesting it needs to stay perfectly still. It can slightly straighten out as I rotate my right hip back, but I desperately want to avoid a locking. If it locks out into this position, my personal feeling is you get a lot too much bodyweight on the outside of the right foot and it's very difficult now to break that right knee back in again. I'd much rather see some stability through that right side. It can straighten slightly, but try not to get it actually into its locked position. So from front on, we’ll see that right knee just start to rotate away, but it doesn't lock out too much bodyweight in the back foot, back of the right heel. Turning, I’m going to press down on the inside of my right foot and my right knee. Now, also in this position, I’m not swaying. So a sway to the right is going to be quite a big problem as well for the right-handed golfer anyway. Swaying back this way is going to be a big issue, too much bodyweight again on the little toe and on the outside. So it's a nice stable turn and press on the instep and the legs are working quite hard to maintain that position.

One of the considerations for the backswing is if you at all can, we want to keep both feet firmly planted on the ground. I don't like to see too much raising of the feet, particularly the left foot in the backswing. So if we were swinging back and seeing a lot of this left foot rising up, I would question whether that's required, particularly for a relatively young golfer with decent amounts of flexibility, that doesn't need to happen. 70, 75, 80 plus or somebody with a hip or back injury, we might allow that left foot to start to just come in and the knee comes in a little bit. But for anybody that's got good levels of flexibility and is relatively fit, we’d like to feel like both feet stay planted to the floor as we make our rotation. But we don't let this left side come up into here. Follow those three key points with your swing and hopefully that will improve your leg stability during your golf swing.