Backswing Drill – Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
Backswing Drill – Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the process of making a better back swing, by giving you some drills to check the key positions within your golf swing. Simply using a mirror positioned behind you facing down your golf ball to target line you can use a simple halfway back checkpoint drill should have a profound impact on your game.

So when I walk down the line at the driving range Matt I often spend a bit of time walking down the range you have maybe 10, 15, 20 golfers lined up. You often see them working on their swings and looking at certain things and one of the best things we've got on the driver and you've got mirrors down the back of the range. So golfers can see themselves and I think that really gives them an insight into what's happening in their back swing, but I do sometimes wonder what they're looking for in that back swings. So I've got some really key positions I'd like to see golfers get into and hopefully you can help us understand what are your key check point positions for a perfect on plane back swings. Yeah definitely myself included there are for me one of my big things I love on plane swings. I think they are so much more functional there's not so much change in direction through out them so if we can get closer to playing all the time I think we're going to be hitting a lot more consistent. Just very briefly then give me an idea of plane give me an idea of steep and flat. So plane basically is the angle the club is moving around our body on as we set the club down each one has built a different angle here so that's going to dictate the plane that club moves around. Generally what we will seem most common practice is someone who gets a little bit steep on the way down into the golf swing so they would be somewhere where all of a sudden this chap is getting quite vertical on the way down here. We also might see it sometimes on the way back as well where the picking up with the arms here in the shaft is getting pretty vertical. Now the opposite to that we might get someone who is a little bit shallow a little bit flatter somewhere where we see the club is a little bit more around the body and the club is looking a bit more flat in this sorts of manner and they're getting here like to say if we can get closer to the plane that was designed to swing on we should see some more consistency. From there largely looking for the club to move back and down on a similar plane.

Yes similar I don't think we'll ever get a one plane swing you know we're human beings it's very hard to move in the same direction up and down so if we can get close to those to you know being similar or spine angle down it's going to be good. From that to take your address position for me and if we imagine that the camera is going to be a mirror on the back wall of a driving range or maybe someone has got a phone set up with a camera on it what's a great checkpoint for halfway back. OK so what I'm going to think to here is a minute trying to swing the club to a round about my belt height so it's horizontal to the floor so what I'm going to be looking for now is getting that club number one where is the face and the head going to be in line with my hand and then where is the leading edge going to be aligned with my spine. So what we're going to see the first one here I like to see now is we get into this position we can see directly that that club head its spine angle in line with my hands. Also another point just sits on the toes it's on my toe and they're really good want to look for so as I've gone back here it's not that it's gone around me and we see it took too much out in front of me we find that people get trapped into this position. Another one we would see some challenges that they just tend to pick it up and we see this sort of position and that would be club head outside the line and inside the line exactly and so I want to got it to that point where it's nicely on plane here now what we're looking for is some leading edge now so we see that that leading edge of the goal is actually mirroring my spine angle it's not something where we tend to see a lot of roll the club open and get the face looking totally different to the spine angle will see the picked up a bit too much with the wrist where the base is looking down. Now so very close and the previous one very open and you would say this one is square to spine angle. Exactly are we going to get it looking mirroring that spine angle and that face is going to be nice in neutral there. Now it's interesting actually at the open recently watching Justin Thomas followed him for 18 holes with Tiger and this is all he worked on.

Every single time that one part of his golf swing from there he got it great up to the top so if we're going to take it a little bit further what would you look for that is something from here. If we were then going to get the lead arm horizontal so the floor what we'd look for now is something hence my wrists and in this mirror that would have behind us. We see that the club sort of dissecting with pretty much half my torso is in half here and what also happens is you can see the bottom of the club is pointing back down on an extension to my ball to target line. It's not something where I'm here to speak or I've gone out here to early we're seeing now into this position it's on my ball to target line, and then finally as I top it off with a nice turn here. We will see something where the corners just looking back at my ball to target line I've got a good shoulder turn and that's my on plane, back swing similar to the move but Justin Thomas was making a first move in the back swing. So it's like if you get that bit right the other bits follow it? It tends to be if you're going to see something that one of the common ones I've seen a lot of my lessons is we will get started with the arms so it gets inside and then from here it goes around and then over the top it seems to be that motion is going to be over the top for in the downswing. So the first you see to the back swing really set the tone for the rest of the motion and yet we can get into a good position in this 1st initial rehearsal spot. There see that it's a lot more the chances are once I now enjoy my wrist a little bit more and carry on with my turn it can't really go what's wrong from that because I'm working in this direction and all that shouldn't just going to swing my arms around my body or just pick them straight up because I'm starting to work everything is one from here I'm going to get into some good positions and see that I'm more on playing more often. So the guys are on the driving range they're working on the positions in their back swings they're working on the right things or they're trying to get that swing position right, and if you follow Matt's technique there it gets the club in a good position. Coming half way back turning to the top should stay on a good line coming back down to the golf ball should all work better if we can get that back swing right using the video camera using a mirror on the range to check that back swing could be a real good secret for you to get a club on plane and a good secret for you to play the best golf for your life.

2018-11-15

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the process of making a better back swing, by giving you some drills to check the key positions within your golf swing. Simply using a mirror positioned behind you facing down your golf ball to target line you can use a simple halfway back checkpoint drill should have a profound impact on your game.

So when I walk down the line at the driving range Matt I often spend a bit of time walking down the range you have maybe 10, 15, 20 golfers lined up. You often see them working on their swings and looking at certain things and one of the best things we've got on the driver and you've got mirrors down the back of the range. So golfers can see themselves and I think that really gives them an insight into what's happening in their back swing, but I do sometimes wonder what they're looking for in that back swings. So I've got some really key positions I'd like to see golfers get into and hopefully you can help us understand what are your key check point positions for a perfect on plane back swings. Yeah definitely myself included there are for me one of my big things I love on plane swings. I think they are so much more functional there's not so much change in direction through out them so if we can get closer to playing all the time I think we're going to be hitting a lot more consistent. Just very briefly then give me an idea of plane give me an idea of steep and flat. So plane basically is the angle the club is moving around our body on as we set the club down each one has built a different angle here so that's going to dictate the plane that club moves around. Generally what we will seem most common practice is someone who gets a little bit steep on the way down into the golf swing so they would be somewhere where all of a sudden this chap is getting quite vertical on the way down here. We also might see it sometimes on the way back as well where the picking up with the arms here in the shaft is getting pretty vertical. Now the opposite to that we might get someone who is a little bit shallow a little bit flatter somewhere where we see the club is a little bit more around the body and the club is looking a bit more flat in this sorts of manner and they're getting here like to say if we can get closer to the plane that was designed to swing on we should see some more consistency. From there largely looking for the club to move back and down on a similar plane.

Yes similar I don't think we'll ever get a one plane swing you know we're human beings it's very hard to move in the same direction up and down so if we can get close to those to you know being similar or spine angle down it's going to be good. From that to take your address position for me and if we imagine that the camera is going to be a mirror on the back wall of a driving range or maybe someone has got a phone set up with a camera on it what's a great checkpoint for halfway back. OK so what I'm going to think to here is a minute trying to swing the club to a round about my belt height so it's horizontal to the floor so what I'm going to be looking for now is getting that club number one where is the face and the head going to be in line with my hand and then where is the leading edge going to be aligned with my spine. So what we're going to see the first one here I like to see now is we get into this position we can see directly that that club head its spine angle in line with my hands. Also another point just sits on the toes it's on my toe and they're really good want to look for so as I've gone back here it's not that it's gone around me and we see it took too much out in front of me we find that people get trapped into this position. Another one we would see some challenges that they just tend to pick it up and we see this sort of position and that would be club head outside the line and inside the line exactly and so I want to got it to that point where it's nicely on plane here now what we're looking for is some leading edge now so we see that that leading edge of the goal is actually mirroring my spine angle it's not something where we tend to see a lot of roll the club open and get the face looking totally different to the spine angle will see the picked up a bit too much with the wrist where the base is looking down. Now so very close and the previous one very open and you would say this one is square to spine angle. Exactly are we going to get it looking mirroring that spine angle and that face is going to be nice in neutral there. Now it's interesting actually at the open recently watching Justin Thomas followed him for 18 holes with Tiger and this is all he worked on.

Every single time that one part of his golf swing from there he got it great up to the top so if we're going to take it a little bit further what would you look for that is something from here. If we were then going to get the lead arm horizontal so the floor what we'd look for now is something hence my wrists and in this mirror that would have behind us. We see that the club sort of dissecting with pretty much half my torso is in half here and what also happens is you can see the bottom of the club is pointing back down on an extension to my ball to target line. It's not something where I'm here to speak or I've gone out here to early we're seeing now into this position it's on my ball to target line, and then finally as I top it off with a nice turn here. We will see something where the corners just looking back at my ball to target line I've got a good shoulder turn and that's my on plane, back swing similar to the move but Justin Thomas was making a first move in the back swing. So it's like if you get that bit right the other bits follow it? It tends to be if you're going to see something that one of the common ones I've seen a lot of my lessons is we will get started with the arms so it gets inside and then from here it goes around and then over the top it seems to be that motion is going to be over the top for in the downswing. So the first you see to the back swing really set the tone for the rest of the motion and yet we can get into a good position in this 1st initial rehearsal spot. There see that it's a lot more the chances are once I now enjoy my wrist a little bit more and carry on with my turn it can't really go what's wrong from that because I'm working in this direction and all that shouldn't just going to swing my arms around my body or just pick them straight up because I'm starting to work everything is one from here I'm going to get into some good positions and see that I'm more on playing more often. So the guys are on the driving range they're working on the positions in their back swings they're working on the right things or they're trying to get that swing position right, and if you follow Matt's technique there it gets the club in a good position. Coming half way back turning to the top should stay on a good line coming back down to the golf ball should all work better if we can get that back swing right using the video camera using a mirror on the range to check that back swing could be a real good secret for you to get a club on plane and a good secret for you to play the best golf for your life.