The shoulder turn is a crucial element of a successful swing, but it is also one of the simple parts that you can think about while making a swing. Most golfers find their best success when they only have one swing thought at a time – and thinking about making a perfect golf swing through a good shoulder turn is a great plan. You won’t be overloading your brain with information, and you also will be remembering to focus on one of the key elements to a good swing.

It might be helpful to think of your shoulder turn as the engine of your golf swing. By nature, golf is a rotational game – you build up speed by rotating your body toward the target as fast as possible while remaining in control and on balance. Too much side to side movement is a disaster for your swing, which is what makes the shoulder turn such a vital element. If you are able to make a big shoulder turn during your backswing, it will ‘load up’ your swing with energy that can be unleashed down toward the ball. A bad shoulder turn leads to a weak arm-only hit at the ball, and disappointing results are sure to follow. To make sure you understand the importance of the shoulder turn, pay close attention the next time you watch professional golf in TV. While you will see a variety of different mechanics and techniques used to hit good shots, you won’t find any players on Tour without a good shoulder turn. It is simply a prerequisite to playing good golf.

The shoulder turn is the engine of the golf swing. If you want to hit powerful shots, and you want to hit those shots in a predictable direction, you should be working to optimize your shoulder turn. This is a piece of the golf puzzle that is unfortunately overlooked by many players, and those players struggle to reach their potential as a result. There are plenty of different components to work on when addressing the quality of your golf swing, but few are as important as the shoulder turn.

This article is going to focus on a variety of subjects related to the shoulder turn. We’ll talk about why the shoulder turn is so important, how you can improve yours, and common issues that give golfers trouble. Also, we are going to discuss how the shoulder turn can go wrong once you get onto the course, even if you have it working pretty well on the driving range. By the end of the article, we hope you have a clear understanding of this topic and are ready to head out for some productive practice sessions.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.

— The Value of a Great Shoulder Turn

What’s the big deal about the shoulder turn, anyway? When you watch golf on TV, or you read golf instruction, you are sure to hear plenty about this part of the game. But why? What is it about the shoulder turn that makes it such a key component of your technique?

Basically, you can think of your shoulder turn as the engine of your golf swing. If your swing was a car, your shoulder turn would be what makes the car go. Now, is an engine the only thing a car needs to work? Of course not – you’ll need tires, brakes, a transmission, lights, seats, and on and on. However, you aren’t going anywhere without that engine, and the same can be said of your golf swing. Sure, there are plenty of other fundamentals which are important, but they’ll all be wasted if you don’t have a good turn at the center of it all.

Making a quality shoulder turn can help your game in a number of ways, including the following –

• Build speed. Perhaps the number one improvement that most golfers would like to make in their games is picking up swing speed. Adding swing speed, of course, is closely related to hitting the ball farther – and who wouldn’t want to do that? With a big shoulder turn, you’ll create the space you need to accelerate the club nicely before making contact with the ball. Sure, there is more to hitting powerful shots than just a good shoulder turn, but this is a huge step in the right direction. It’s important to note that you don’t have to make the biggest shoulder turn in the world to pick up some speed and add distance to your shots. Even if you aren’t physically flexible enough to make as big of a turn as some other players, you can still work toward optimizing what you do in your game. Not only can you improve by making a bigger shoulder turn, but you can also make progress through refining the quality of your technique. In other words, eliminating small technical mistakes during the shoulder turn phase of the swing should help you achieve better results.
• Instill consistent timing. There is a lot of timing in golf and getting your timing wrong is a major issue that can lead to poor performance on the course. It’s generally easier to time your swing properly on the range than it is on the course, which is why so many players struggle as they go from practice to actual rounds of golf. A good shoulder turn is one of the key ingredients in establishing reliable, repeatable timing. Since it is easier to time the movements of your big muscles than the small muscles in your hands and wrists, using your shoulder turn to drive the swing makes a lot of sense. With practice, you should be able to roughly repeat the timing of your turn over and over again – making it far easier to hit targets and strike the ball cleanly.

• Find the right path. The slice is a common issue in golf, and it affects millions of players around the world. When a player hits a slice, the club is almost certainly coming across the ball from outside-in. Rather than swinging directly down the line toward the target, the player is swinging across the ball and pulling the club back in closer to their body as they turn left. This is an easy mistake to make when you don’t perform a proper shoulder turn in the backswing. Without a good turn, the club will be outside of the desired plane, and it will be forced to move across the ball through impact just to make contact. Golfers tend to look at all sorts of potential fixes for their slice when the main underlying issue is a poor shoulder turn. If you are currently struggling with the slice in your game, work on improving your shoulder turn and you might find that the slice is quickly reduced or even eliminated.

There are few areas of your game where significant improvements can be made relatively quickly, but the shoulder turn is one of those places. There will be plenty of hard work to do if you hope to improve in this area, of course, but it’s possible to make great strides if you put in some effort. Rather than resigning to the same weak, inaccurate shots you have been hitting for years, get down to work on your shoulder turn and set yourself up for a brighter golf future.

— Making Improvements to your Golf Shoulder Turn

On the surface, improving your shoulder turn seems pretty easy. You just start your swing with the intention of making a big turn, and you don’t allow the downswing to begin until you have completed your mission of turning your shoulders as far away from the target as possible. That’s it, right? Not so fast. If you head out onto the range with that plan in mind, you may be disappointed in the results.

Ultimately, if you want to improve your shoulder turn, you are going to need to pay attention to some of the other parts of your technique. Everything is connected in the golf swing, so a mistake in one area is going to have a negative impact on many other areas. If you are struggling with your shoulder turn it’s likely that other technical mistakes are actually to blame. Creating a strong foundation of reliable fundamentals is going to make everything in your game easier, including the shoulder turn.

So, which swing fundamentals are most important with regard to mastering the shoulder turn? The three points listed below are a great starting point for your practice efforts.

• A solid lower body stance. Believe it or not, using your legs properly is hugely important as you strive for an improved shoulder turn. If you don’t use your legs correctly, you won’t have the support you need for your shoulders to turn freely. Without that support, your shoulder turn will always be lacking, as your balance is likely to suffer. A good lower body stance will help you stay nicely balanced throughout the swing, and that balance is going to make it much easier to turn your shoulders with confidence.
• Maintaining upper body posture. At address, you are going to establish what is known in the golf world as a ‘spine angle’. This is the angle that your back forms as compared to the ground when you take your stance. You can’t see this angle when taking your stance, so it might be helpful to have your swing recorded on video from the ‘down the line’ angle so you can get a look at it for yourself. During the backswing, you should be trying to roughly maintain that spine angle as you turn. A common mistake during the backswing is for the player to come up out of the swing, losing spine angle and standing more upright at the top of the swing than they were at address. Not only does this mistake make it harder to hit solid shots, it also interferes with the shoulder turn. By maintaining your spine angle nicely all the way through the backswing and into the downswing, you can make a better turn and set yourself up for a quality strike.
• Keep your chin up. The position of your chin is one of the key elements to making a good shoulder turn. If you allow you chin to be placed too far down at address, it is going to physically interfere with the turn you are trying to make. In other words, as your left shoulder turns away from the target, it is going to run into your chin, and something will have to give. At that point, either your shoulder turn will stop – which is not good news – or you will need to lift your head up and out of the way, which can cause its own problems. To avoid this problem, you’ll need to pay attention to how your chin is positioned before the swing starts. At address, you should have your chin up, with plenty of space between the chin and your chest. At the same time, you need to be in a position where you can see the ball clearly throughout the swing. If you think about putting your neck in a position that has it straight in line with the rest of your back, you should be in good shape. Practice this kind of stance in front of a mirror until you are able to settle on a comfortable, repeatable position.

As you may have noticed, the tips above for improving your shoulder turn don’t actually have anything to do with your shoulders. You will likely find that turning your shoulders in the backswing is a pretty easy task when everything else is in place. Work on fundamentals like a stable lower body, proper upper body posture, and the position of your chin. If you get those points right, you should find that you are suddenly able to turn your shoulders better than ever before.

— How the Shoulder Turn Goes Wrong

As with most things in golf, there are plenty of ways for the shoulder turn to go wrong. This is a hard game, and you have to watch out for a variety of mistakes if you are going to keep your ball striking on the right track. In this section, we would like to touch on some common errors which give golfers trouble as it relates to the shoulder turn. If you feel like your current shoulder turn is not getting the job done, one of these mistakes might be to blame.

• Rushing through the backswing. This is the big one. Simply too, too many golfers rush through the backswing phase of the golf swing and being in a hurry doesn’t allow them to finish the shoulder turn properly. The cause of this rush could be many things – nerves about the shot, uncertainty regarding technique, and on and on. But in the end, the result is that the shoulder turn is cut short and the result of the shot is disappointing. If you are going to improve your turn, you’ll need to find a way to give yourself enough time to finish the backswing properly. One idea is to count out loud during practice sessions to improve the timing of your swing. Try counting to three during the backswing – say the number ‘one’ at takeaway, ‘two’ when you are halfway back, and ‘three’ at the top. Try to keep the counting at an even tempo without any sense of rushing or forcing it. This simple drill can help you find some rhythm and promote the kind of even backswing that allows a good shoulder turn to occur.
• Giving up your spine angle. Setting your spine at an appropriate angle at address is a good start to your swing, but that effort will be wasted if you don’t manage to maintain the angle throughout the backswing and into the downswing. Most commonly, players will give up this angle by standing up out of the shot on the way back. In other words, their back will become more upright, and they will lift up away from the ball. This is a common move among those who fight a slice. Not only will this mistake put you out of position in the backswing, but it will also give you problems with your shoulder turn. It’ll be tough to get all the way turned while you are simultaneously standing up out of your stance. In the end, you’ll be left with limited rotation and a swing that lacks power (among other issues).
• Forcing it. Most of the focus when working on your shoulder rotation is directed at maximizing how far you can turn. And, to be sure, making a big shoulder turn is important for building power and striking solid shots. But there is the possibility of trying to get too much of a good thing. If you force yourself to turn back as far as possible, you might overdo it and wind up losing your balance. Some people are naturally more flexible than others, so it’s important to know your own limits and make a turn that is controlled, comfortable, and balanced. You don’t want to do anything in your golf swing that puts your balance at risk.

Your success on the golf course is largely determined by the mistakes you don’t make. If you can manage to get through your swing while avoiding any serious errors, you’ll be well on your way toward quality ball striking. And, if you make a good shoulder turn while staying away from those mistakes, there’s no telling what you’ll be able to accomplish.

— Issues on the Course

So, you’ve done a lot of good work on the driving range, and you have managed to significantly improve the way your shoulder turn works within the swing. Congratulations! It’s never easy to make a meaningful improvement to your technique, so you have certainly worked hard to make this happen. Unfortunately, those range improvements won’t automatically equate to better results on the course. In this last section of the article, we are going to talk about how you can get over the hurdle of taking your range progress out onto the course to shoot lower scores.

• Trying to do too much. It’s easy to overcomplicate the game of golf. When you get out on the course, you see everything that is included in the design of most layouts – bunkers, slopes, hazards, rough, etc. With so much visual stimulation, it’s easy to get distracted and feel like you have to do more than you normally do on the range. That just isn’t the case. In fact, your best results are going to come when you stick to the basics and repeat the same kinds of shots you hit on the range. During practice, you just look out at the range, pick a target, and make a swing. You should do your best to take that some kind of approach out to the course. Try to block out the presence of the obstacles and just focus on the target you pick for each shot. When you do so successfully, you’ll be able to make better swings and more closely replicate your ball striking from the driving range.
• Rushing under the pressure. We mentioned in the previous section that rushing your swing is going to mean bad things for your shoulder turn. This problem can become particularly troublesome when you are on the course and feeling a bit of pressure. Different players feel pressure for different reasons, so you need to get to know yourself and understand how you can deal with those feelings effectively. For instance, some players get nervous when others are watching them swing, while some players are more affected by a challenging shot over a hazard. Either way, slowing down for a moment before the shot and taking a deep breath can go a long way. Regardless of the circumstances, all you can do is execute the swing to the best of your ability. As you gain experience and pay more attention to your response under pressure, you should get better and better at performing when the nerves set in.
• Getting distracted. Do you like to chat with your playing partners during a round of golf? Most players do, and there is nothing at all wrong with it. However, you do need to make sure you refocus before each shot so you can remember the fundamentals that you are trying to execute during the swing. If you are standing over the ball while still thinking about the conversation you were having with your playing partner, it’s going to be tough to perform at your best level. There is a rhythm to a round of golf where you can move in and out of conversation while still focusing intently on each shot when the time comes. Consider adding a pre-shot routine to your game as a trigger that will remind you to engage your mind and focus on the task at hand.

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the shoulder turn in the golf swing. Making a good turn with your shoulders isn’t the only thing you have to do to hit good shots, but it certainly is a big step in the right direction. Thank you for taking the time to read this discussion on the shoulder turn, and we hope it will help lead you to lower scores in the near future.