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Your golf swing is a rotary movement and as such it needs you to make a rotary or turning action throughout. Turning your shoulders is a key movement to making a great swing and this turning action should instigate your back swing.

Turning your shoulders allows you to generate the widest possible swing arc during your golf swing. Your swing arc is the “circle” or arc that the club head moves around you on. The bigger the arc is around you, the further you hit the golf ball.

The smaller the swing arc, the shorter the distance you will achieve with the shot. So turning your shoulders allows you to create a wide and therefore larger swing arc. This then means that you have move time to create speed in the club head as you swing down towards the golf ball. The faster that the club head is travelling, the more energy will be transferred from the club head as it strikes the golf ball and the further the ball will then travel.

Turning your shoulders to begin your golf swing is also crucial as it allows your body and arms to move as a unit and to remain connected throughout your swing. This connection is important for distance as you will now use the larger muscles in your body and torso rather than just the muscles in your arms as you swing and using bigger muscles generates more power and club head speed to be transferred in to the golf ball as it is struck.

To make a full shoulder turn you ultimately want to turn your shoulders 90 degrees to the right (for right handed golfers) of their start position to generate the most power. If you do not begin this turning action in your shoulders at the start of your swing, you will not create a full 90 degree rotation. The longer you wait before you turn your shoulders, the less rotation you will achieve when the club has reached the top of the back swing. To achieve your best golf shots, turn your shoulders at the start of your back swing to generate a full rotation in your upper body and maximum shot distance.

If you do not turn your shoulders at the start of your back swing, then your arms and body become disconnected and do not move together as one unit. This will cause you several swing issues and affect not only the distance that you can hit the golf ball, but also your directional control and the consistency of your strike.

If you do not turn your shoulders on your back swing, you will not hit the ball as far as you possibly could, you will not strike the ball consistently from the centre of the club face and you will struggle with directional control to your shots. To play your best golf shots, you need to turn your shoulders to start your back swing.

All the power that you create in your golf swing and therefore the speed that you create in the club head is due to the rotary action of your upper body rotating around your spine angle more than your hips rotate. Rotation is absolutely vital to hit the ball the maximum distance possible, with most accuracy and with most consistency.