Symptoms Of A Laid Off Backswing Golf Position (Video) - by Pete Styles
Symptoms Of A Laid Off Backswing Golf Position (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if you’ve now established that you are laid off of the top of your backswing, let's have a look at what the symptoms might be in terms of how the golf ball flies with this laid off type of position. So firstly establishing again what laid off is my target line over the red sign here. Everything is pointing down towards that line. I swing nicely to the top. Ideally the club would point to the red sign as well, but it doesn’t. It points way over to this side. This is quite a laid off position. The issues from here is as I start my downswing, I rotate my upper body.

The club gets thrown out in front of me. So the laid off position now becomes an outside of the line position over the top and in front of me. And from here as the club travels into the back of the ball it’s generally going to travel from out to in swinging left across the back of the golf ball. So there’s mainly three shots that are going to happen here. If I swing from out to in and the face is left, left and pointing the same direction as the path or left of the path, it's probably just going to be a pull straight down the left-hand side, not a massive deal of curve or a pull and then a bit further left as well like a pull drill. And that’s if the face is down the left side. If I'm over the top here and the face is pointing more to the right of my path, I am going to hit across the back of a ball potentially creating some fade or even some slicing spin. So a ball that sets off straight or left and then cuts back out to the right-hand side. So that’s the laid off slice and the laid off pull. The other issue with being laid off and then throwing the club over the top is I might just shank the ball. The club has effectively gone from too far behind me to too far in front of me. The heel then runs into the back of the golf ball and that creates a shank. So let's just consider how that laid off position at the top can create the slice, the pull and the shank in your downswing. 2016-07-15

So if you’ve now established that you are laid off of the top of your backswing, let's have a look at what the symptoms might be in terms of how the golf ball flies with this laid off type of position. So firstly establishing again what laid off is my target line over the red sign here. Everything is pointing down towards that line. I swing nicely to the top. Ideally the club would point to the red sign as well, but it doesn’t. It points way over to this side. This is quite a laid off position. The issues from here is as I start my downswing, I rotate my upper body.

The club gets thrown out in front of me. So the laid off position now becomes an outside of the line position over the top and in front of me. And from here as the club travels into the back of the ball it’s generally going to travel from out to in swinging left across the back of the golf ball. So there’s mainly three shots that are going to happen here. If I swing from out to in and the face is left, left and pointing the same direction as the path or left of the path, it's probably just going to be a pull straight down the left-hand side, not a massive deal of curve or a pull and then a bit further left as well like a pull drill.

And that’s if the face is down the left side. If I'm over the top here and the face is pointing more to the right of my path, I am going to hit across the back of a ball potentially creating some fade or even some slicing spin. So a ball that sets off straight or left and then cuts back out to the right-hand side. So that’s the laid off slice and the laid off pull. The other issue with being laid off and then throwing the club over the top is I might just shank the ball. The club has effectively gone from too far behind me to too far in front of me. The heel then runs into the back of the golf ball and that creates a shank. So let's just consider how that laid off position at the top can create the slice, the pull and the shank in your downswing.