The First Six Inches Of Your Golf Back Swing Are Crucial (Video) - by Pete Styles
The First Six Inches Of Your Golf Back Swing Are Crucial (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we’re going to try and create a swing path that comes down to the golf ball on a nice straight line, so it comes slightly in square to slightly in and travelling straight through the impact area, the hitting zone. It’s kind of imperative that we actually take the club back along the right line. It will be very awkward if we took the club way outside of the line, or way inside of the line, and then try to re-root the club to get it back on line. So, it could be said that the first six inches of your takeaway are actually the most important six inches within the whole swing. Because if we take the club back along the wrong line, we’re going to have to undo a lot of mistakes later on in the swing. So what I’ve done here is taken a cane or a club and laid it down on my target line so it’s pointing behind the golf ball, straight down towards the target. Now I can actually go ahead and hit shots during this exercise, but I’m just going to make a few practice swings and try to get a feeling of taking the club along the right line. So now I'm going to set my driver behind the ball hovering it on top of the grip end of the club and setting up here hovering the club. And I'm just going to work on taking the club back along that line for the first six inches and feeling what I use to take that club on line.

Its important that I'm not lifting the club up here, I'm not swinging the club back inside here, I'm letting the club follow the cane over shaft that’s laid on the ground to make sure my takeaway, certainly first six or 12 inches is straight back on line. And as you are making the motion, you can actually go ahead now and feel what you’re using to keep the club on line. I notice now that if I lift my hands and arms up, the club pops up outside the line, that would be a mistake, I would have to re-root that club. I also noticed if I rotate my forearms and hips too much, I bring the club inside too early, and I fling the club inside the line. That’s going to need re-rooting later on in the swing. But if I let my backswing be dominated by my shoulder turn, my hands and arms squeezing together and taking the club back on line using my shoulders and actually being fairly passive with my hands and arms. As I do that the club comes back on a better line and I can feel a more solid one piece takeaway. So utilizing my chest and my shoulders in the first six or 12 inches of the backswing is helping me bring the club back on a better path which should encourage a better downswing path which should in the longer term resulting back to golf shots. 2015-10-08

So if we’re going to try and create a swing path that comes down to the golf ball on a nice straight line, so it comes slightly in square to slightly in and travelling straight through the impact area, the hitting zone. It’s kind of imperative that we actually take the club back along the right line. It will be very awkward if we took the club way outside of the line, or way inside of the line, and then try to re-root the club to get it back on line. So, it could be said that the first six inches of your takeaway are actually the most important six inches within the whole swing. Because if we take the club back along the wrong line, we’re going to have to undo a lot of mistakes later on in the swing. So what I’ve done here is taken a cane or a club and laid it down on my target line so it’s pointing behind the golf ball, straight down towards the target. Now I can actually go ahead and hit shots during this exercise, but I’m just going to make a few practice swings and try to get a feeling of taking the club along the right line. So now I'm going to set my driver behind the ball hovering it on top of the grip end of the club and setting up here hovering the club. And I'm just going to work on taking the club back along that line for the first six inches and feeling what I use to take that club on line.

Its important that I'm not lifting the club up here, I'm not swinging the club back inside here, I'm letting the club follow the cane over shaft that’s laid on the ground to make sure my takeaway, certainly first six or 12 inches is straight back on line. And as you are making the motion, you can actually go ahead now and feel what you’re using to keep the club on line. I notice now that if I lift my hands and arms up, the club pops up outside the line, that would be a mistake, I would have to re-root that club. I also noticed if I rotate my forearms and hips too much, I bring the club inside too early, and I fling the club inside the line. That’s going to need re-rooting later on in the swing. But if I let my backswing be dominated by my shoulder turn, my hands and arms squeezing together and taking the club back on line using my shoulders and actually being fairly passive with my hands and arms. As I do that the club comes back on a better line and I can feel a more solid one piece takeaway. So utilizing my chest and my shoulders in the first six or 12 inches of the backswing is helping me bring the club back on a better path which should encourage a better downswing path which should in the longer term resulting back to golf shots.