Practicing Backspin Control In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Practicing Backspin Control In Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Developing backspin control can seem like quite a refined skill that isn't necessarily applicable to a lot of golfers, but when you watch the guys on TV playing quite often you'll see them playing shots into a green and it’ll land and it’ll spin back quite a long way towards the hole, other times they hit a shot into a green that just releases lightly towards the hole. And that really understanding that backspin control and if you feel that you're playing at a decent standard of golfer where controlling your backspin is going to be an application you'd like to have on the golf course, then here's a little tip of how you can do that the simplest possible way. First thing is to take few shots to the practice ground where you can actually land the ball out on a fairway out on the green and you can watch how the ball reacts when it comes down. So I've got three balls here just to speed up this process, but what I’d like to do, is take five balls three times, so we’re going to hit 15 shots in total, I'm just going to hit one of each. The swing we’re going to make, I've got a pitching wedge here is a relatively relaxed pitching wedge. Not hitting that ball particularly hard, just a normal smooth slightly slower than average swing. Then I'm going to hit slightly faster swing, my average swing and then I'm going to hit a very hard shot.

And what we can see with those three swings, is the one element I changed was the power that I was putting into the shot, a softer swing, a medium swing and then a really hard swing. So I changed one element, what actually changed on the golf ball was quite a lot. The distance changed, so the softer swing went short to the hardest one went further, but also the height changed so the harder swing went a lot higher, the softer swing went a lot lower. But also the backspin changed, the softer swing had less backspin would have landed and released a few feet, the medium swing would have probably landed and stopped fairly quickly, but the hard swing had the potential to land and actually backspin. So coming down high with a lot more spin on it because I hit the ball a lot harder. So if was to take those shots out into the golf course, I know that if I want the ball to land and backspin, I need my most lofted club hit as hard as I can, generates loads of spin, but if I want a ball to land and release a little bit further off the green. I can take a less lofted club and hit it that little bit more gently and it’ll land and it’ll release a little bit more. And I think that’s a really good basis and a really good understanding to begin controlling your backspin when you're playing on the golf course. 2015-11-03

Developing backspin control can seem like quite a refined skill that isn't necessarily applicable to a lot of golfers, but when you watch the guys on TV playing quite often you'll see them playing shots into a green and it’ll land and it’ll spin back quite a long way towards the hole, other times they hit a shot into a green that just releases lightly towards the hole. And that really understanding that backspin control and if you feel that you're playing at a decent standard of golfer where controlling your backspin is going to be an application you'd like to have on the golf course, then here's a little tip of how you can do that the simplest possible way. First thing is to take few shots to the practice ground where you can actually land the ball out on a fairway out on the green and you can watch how the ball reacts when it comes down. So I've got three balls here just to speed up this process, but what I’d like to do, is take five balls three times, so we’re going to hit 15 shots in total, I'm just going to hit one of each. The swing we’re going to make, I've got a pitching wedge here is a relatively relaxed pitching wedge. Not hitting that ball particularly hard, just a normal smooth slightly slower than average swing. Then I'm going to hit slightly faster swing, my average swing and then I'm going to hit a very hard shot.

And what we can see with those three swings, is the one element I changed was the power that I was putting into the shot, a softer swing, a medium swing and then a really hard swing. So I changed one element, what actually changed on the golf ball was quite a lot. The distance changed, so the softer swing went short to the hardest one went further, but also the height changed so the harder swing went a lot higher, the softer swing went a lot lower. But also the backspin changed, the softer swing had less backspin would have landed and released a few feet, the medium swing would have probably landed and stopped fairly quickly, but the hard swing had the potential to land and actually backspin. So coming down high with a lot more spin on it because I hit the ball a lot harder. So if was to take those shots out into the golf course, I know that if I want the ball to land and backspin, I need my most lofted club hit as hard as I can, generates loads of spin, but if I want a ball to land and release a little bit further off the green. I can take a less lofted club and hit it that little bit more gently and it’ll land and it’ll release a little bit more. And I think that’s a really good basis and a really good understanding to begin controlling your backspin when you're playing on the golf course.