Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
Players often ask how they can practice getting that long backswing position and without work on flexibility it may not be totally achievable. The fact is when you are trying to increase backswing length you need more body rotation, you need the shoulders to turn more and if you can do that then fantastic, but if not the chances are they are just bashing away, technique alone will not be enough, you will need to do some flexibility work all at the same time. Now fortunately there are drills that you can do at the driving range and you don’t have to immediately get yourself down the gym. Now a very, very simple one to use is an alignment stick which you thread through the first couple of loops of your trousers or your shorts depending on how hot the weather is where you are or your waterproof bottoms depending on how cold the weather is where you are. But looping it through those first two belt loops, now what this does, it gives a rough approximation of where your hips are throughout the golf swing.
Now if you take your golf club and lay this across your shoulder line here what this now does is give an approximation of where your shoulder alignment is. Now to increase your flexibility and increase the amount of turn within your backswing, you need to practice this. If you get yourself set up turn away with the shoulders and always try and keep the shoulders turning more than the hips, keeping that right knee nice and stable try and turn up to the largest extent you can. Now this amount of shoulder turn here is more than you need, this is a full arm long driver type of shoulder turn length. You’re not going to need this on the golf course but by getting on to the top of the swing and just holding it there and then just moving it back and practicing that again, so turning the shoulders always more than the hips, keeping that right knee nice and stable what you can do is then work on this position and work on your flexibility. The fact is if you can work on that position and you can do that turn maybe 10, 15 times in between maybe 20 shots what you will see is your backswing length and your flexibility increasing every single time. Flexibility is one of those things which is a pain to work on however if you do work on it and you are consistent with what you do then you will be able to increase that backswing length. 2016-10-06Players often ask how they can practice getting that long backswing position and without work on flexibility it may not be totally achievable. The fact is when you are trying to increase backswing length you need more body rotation, you need the shoulders to turn more and if you can do that then fantastic, but if not the chances are they are just bashing away, technique alone will not be enough, you will need to do some flexibility work all at the same time. Now fortunately there are drills that you can do at the driving range and you don’t have to immediately get yourself down the gym. Now a very, very simple one to use is an alignment stick which you thread through the first couple of loops of your trousers or your shorts depending on how hot the weather is where you are or your waterproof bottoms depending on how cold the weather is where you are. But looping it through those first two belt loops, now what this does, it gives a rough approximation of where your hips are throughout the golf swing.
Now if you take your golf club and lay this across your shoulder line here what this now does is give an approximation of where your shoulder alignment is. Now to increase your flexibility and increase the amount of turn within your backswing, you need to practice this. If you get yourself set up turn away with the shoulders and always try and keep the shoulders turning more than the hips, keeping that right knee nice and stable try and turn up to the largest extent you can. Now this amount of shoulder turn here is more than you need, this is a full arm long driver type of shoulder turn length. You’re not going to need this on the golf course but by getting on to the top of the swing and just holding it there and then just moving it back and practicing that again, so turning the shoulders always more than the hips, keeping that right knee nice and stable what you can do is then work on this position and work on your flexibility.
The fact is if you can work on that position and you can do that turn maybe 10, 15 times in between maybe 20 shots what you will see is your backswing length and your flexibility increasing every single time. Flexibility is one of those things which is a pain to work on however if you do work on it and you are consistent with what you do then you will be able to increase that backswing length.
