It Takes Time In The Back Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
It Takes Time In The Back Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here’s a really interesting way to look at the idea of generating power in a golf swing. If we say to most club golfers, how do you hit the ball further? Their initial reaction would be to swing faster. But when we break that down and say what does swing faster mean, a lot of golfers will actually swing faster in the backswing which is often incorrect for lot of golfers. They swing really fast on the way back.

What actually means, they swing quite short on the way back. They then don’t have enough time to hit the ball as hard as they would like and they put more effort in and get less result out here. So this is an interesting way I’d like to look at it. Just go ahead and take a pitching wedge. Pick an easy pitching wedge distance target, maybe a 100 yards away. Line up four or five balls. When you start off with that first ball, just go ahead and make your normal easy full swing pitching wedge but commit to it you know, hit it as if you’re hitting it quite hard. Then in your next swing, I want you to deliberately swing back slower. A lot of golfers will think, well if I swing back slower, it won’t go as far. But actually lot of golfers would find that they’ll hit the ball equally the same distance if not further because generally speaking when we swing back slower, we actually allow more time for the club to fully wind up and create a more powerful top position, slightly longer top position to then enable to hit it harder and further on the way down. So ironically the slower the backswing, the further the full swing – oh sorry, the further the shot goes. So if we made a very fast short swing, it could look a bit snatchy and if we look at that specifically in the shoulder rotation, shoulder rotation isn’t achieving the 90 degrees shoulder under the chin that we’d like. But if we go ahead now make a slower speed backswing, the shoulder comes around under the chin to then be able to hit it harder on the downswing. So my slowest backswing could actually be a longer shot because I fully rotate my shoulder back. I loaded more power, released more power on my downswing and I actually get more distance. So practice that for me next time you’re on the range. Take a pitching wedge, pick out a target that’s 100 yards away, go ahead make your normal full swing and then start taking a little bit of speed out of your backswing, still committing to the downswing of course, but slower backswings might actually get you more distance. And if that works with the pitching wedge, implement that right away with a driver and the slower swings could be seeing more distance. 2015-08-11

Here’s a really interesting way to look at the idea of generating power in a golf swing. If we say to most club golfers, how do you hit the ball further? Their initial reaction would be to swing faster. But when we break that down and say what does swing faster mean, a lot of golfers will actually swing faster in the backswing which is often incorrect for lot of golfers. They swing really fast on the way back.

What actually means, they swing quite short on the way back. They then don’t have enough time to hit the ball as hard as they would like and they put more effort in and get less result out here. So this is an interesting way I’d like to look at it. Just go ahead and take a pitching wedge. Pick an easy pitching wedge distance target, maybe a 100 yards away. Line up four or five balls. When you start off with that first ball, just go ahead and make your normal easy full swing pitching wedge but commit to it you know, hit it as if you’re hitting it quite hard. Then in your next swing, I want you to deliberately swing back slower.

A lot of golfers will think, well if I swing back slower, it won’t go as far. But actually lot of golfers would find that they’ll hit the ball equally the same distance if not further because generally speaking when we swing back slower, we actually allow more time for the club to fully wind up and create a more powerful top position, slightly longer top position to then enable to hit it harder and further on the way down. So ironically the slower the backswing, the further the full swing – oh sorry, the further the shot goes.

So if we made a very fast short swing, it could look a bit snatchy and if we look at that specifically in the shoulder rotation, shoulder rotation isn’t achieving the 90 degrees shoulder under the chin that we’d like. But if we go ahead now make a slower speed backswing, the shoulder comes around under the chin to then be able to hit it harder on the downswing. So my slowest backswing could actually be a longer shot because I fully rotate my shoulder back. I loaded more power, released more power on my downswing and I actually get more distance. So practice that for me next time you’re on the range.

Take a pitching wedge, pick out a target that’s 100 yards away, go ahead make your normal full swing and then start taking a little bit of speed out of your backswing, still committing to the downswing of course, but slower backswings might actually get you more distance. And if that works with the pitching wedge, implement that right away with a driver and the slower swings could be seeing more distance.