Shake Hands To Start Your Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Shake Hands To Start Your Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here is a couple of really nice drills to encourage you to feel the correct backswing motion as you coming back away from the golf ball to make sure your shoulders are working to bring the club back nicely on line. The first thing is a fairly simple action and something hopefully people do on a fairly regular basis is shaking hands. So we are going to pretend we are left handed, we are going to use our left hand, we are going to set up to the golf ball using our left hand here, and we are going to turn back and shake hands with somebody that’s behind us, pretty much where that camera is if you like. So I am going to turn from here, I am going to turn and shake hands. And what you would notice though is I wouldn’t just do this with my hand and arm, you know that would be quite a weak position. I’d actually want to turn my body to face the person here so I could shake hands with them. I also wouldn’t turn my hand to the side or turn my hand the other way. I would from here align my hand to turn with the rest of my body to be in a good position. So if you are struggling with the, do I bring it here, do I take it outside feeling, turn to the camera and shake hands with the camera. And I feel that’s quite a good way of getting that shoulder turn to be happening, remember that movement doesn’t come from the hand and the arm, it comes from the body to let those shoulders turn around. Another nice little checkpoint that you could use, and this does involve a club and a spare tee peg, so we take a tee here, I am going to drop it between the thumb and the fore finger on the left hand as we make the grip.

So I am setting up here, and I grip that tee there. And its going to point out in front of me here as I set up to the ball. And then as I swing back I can also look at where that tee peg points and I want to make sure that that tee peg doesn’t start pointing behind me. If that tee peg starts pointing behind me there, I’ve got a problems and you need to just keep pointing towards the target line side of things not inside the target line or behind me. So a good set up here and turn back and if I take my right hand off you can see the tee peg pointing this way. If I am at a bad takeaway and got my hands and arms involved too much that tee peg points way out behind me. Its just a good little pointer to help encourage you to take that club away in the right fashion. And one last checkpoint in terms of how you can take that club away is do with good tempo; don’t be doing anything that feels rushed. If you are standing over the golf ball one, two, three and its gone then you way too fast, it should one, two, three, now we can start to wind up and then the power comes into the gold ball, so its quite a slow takeaway action. So from a good address position here we’ve got a nice, smooth takeaway one, two, three, to a good position and then we can start to wind up and generate the power in the downswing. But the takeaway should be from the left shoulder dominating the motion. 2015-10-16

Here is a couple of really nice drills to encourage you to feel the correct backswing motion as you coming back away from the golf ball to make sure your shoulders are working to bring the club back nicely on line. The first thing is a fairly simple action and something hopefully people do on a fairly regular basis is shaking hands. So we are going to pretend we are left handed, we are going to use our left hand, we are going to set up to the golf ball using our left hand here, and we are going to turn back and shake hands with somebody that’s behind us, pretty much where that camera is if you like. So I am going to turn from here, I am going to turn and shake hands. And what you would notice though is I wouldn’t just do this with my hand and arm, you know that would be quite a weak position. I’d actually want to turn my body to face the person here so I could shake hands with them. I also wouldn’t turn my hand to the side or turn my hand the other way. I would from here align my hand to turn with the rest of my body to be in a good position. So if you are struggling with the, do I bring it here, do I take it outside feeling, turn to the camera and shake hands with the camera. And I feel that’s quite a good way of getting that shoulder turn to be happening, remember that movement doesn’t come from the hand and the arm, it comes from the body to let those shoulders turn around. Another nice little checkpoint that you could use, and this does involve a club and a spare tee peg, so we take a tee here, I am going to drop it between the thumb and the fore finger on the left hand as we make the grip.

So I am setting up here, and I grip that tee there. And its going to point out in front of me here as I set up to the ball. And then as I swing back I can also look at where that tee peg points and I want to make sure that that tee peg doesn’t start pointing behind me. If that tee peg starts pointing behind me there, I’ve got a problems and you need to just keep pointing towards the target line side of things not inside the target line or behind me. So a good set up here and turn back and if I take my right hand off you can see the tee peg pointing this way. If I am at a bad takeaway and got my hands and arms involved too much that tee peg points way out behind me. Its just a good little pointer to help encourage you to take that club away in the right fashion. And one last checkpoint in terms of how you can take that club away is do with good tempo; don’t be doing anything that feels rushed. If you are standing over the golf ball one, two, three and its gone then you way too fast, it should one, two, three, now we can start to wind up and then the power comes into the gold ball, so its quite a slow takeaway action. So from a good address position here we’ve got a nice, smooth takeaway one, two, three, to a good position and then we can start to wind up and generate the power in the downswing. But the takeaway should be from the left shoulder dominating the motion.