The Proper Golf Takeaway (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Proper Golf Takeaway (Video) - by Pete Styles

And the whole purpose and benefit of a good backswing and a good takeaway is actually to get you into a position at the top of the backswing where we can then start to make a good downswing towards the golf ball, a good downswing has to be at the right speed, nice and consistent and on the right line. So the takeaway is an important part of getting ourselves into the correct position at the top. So we want to make sure that from a good address position we’re holding a nice posture, you’re effectively loading the club into the right position to then bring it down again. Think about drawing the bow on an arrow, you’re pulling that bow back with the arrow to kind of create the power and then you let that go and that’s when you generate the power into the arrow, so the backswing is all about getting that generation of power stored up ready to swing down and to hit the golf ball. But we know that some golfers aren’t necessarily as flexible as other golfers in that backswing, and during that backswing phase you can start to feel a bit tight and a bit tense and some golfers I feel give up a little bit too easily in that backswing and they don’t necessarily generate the coil that they should, so during the backswing phase as you come across this way you’re hearing in my voice, it starts to get a bit tighter as I wind up towards the top of my backswing, but I can keep going and get the club in a good position.

A lot of golfers I feel as soon as they get a bit of that tension, remember pulling the bow back? Tension is good, it generates the power, as soon as they get a little bit of that tension during the backswing it gets a bit tight and they stop and they bend their arm or they stop rotating their shoulders or they unwind with the hips and start their downswing too early. So we’re not actually generating enough power before we’re swinging down again. So I’d like you to actually feel in that backswing that the left arm pulls right tight across the chest, now I’ve just got to be careful I’ve got a microphone across my chest, but actually that left arm should come right across, almost over the top of that microphone and pull right across the top of your chest here into quite a nice tight position, to then start with your downswing. So if your left arm is always away from your chest and the bicep doesn’t actually touch your chest, you’re probably not generating the right amount of power and the correct stretch to get that left arm in the correct position. Normally where you might feel you can’t generate enough tension would be if you have a very small shoulder rotation, if you really feel like your shoulders don’t turn enough in the backswing, and that might be due to a illness or injury or just age you know as an older golfer you might feel you can’t quite turn around as much. In fact as a concern one little tip that you might want to try is actually just dropping your right foot back at set up, to encourage a bit of a pre-turn, so if I set up nice and square, everything is 90 degrees to target. But if I drop my right foot back a little bit here, my hips actually pre-close, my shoulders pre-close then I might feel I’ve already got a little bit more wind up to have, and then as I unwind I can release through a little bit faster. Should also encourage the swing path a little bit more from the inside, possibly creating a little bit more a draw. The key to this movement when you’ve dropped that right foot back is allow your swing to go out to the right, don’t try and swing across yourself to your left because that will just encourage an out to in swing path and we see that too often with golfers. So try and generate as much power in that backswing like drawing the bow and the arrow, creating that power, pulling the left arm tight across the chest and then releasing nice and aggressively from the inside. 2015-10-09

And the whole purpose and benefit of a good backswing and a good takeaway is actually to get you into a position at the top of the backswing where we can then start to make a good downswing towards the golf ball, a good downswing has to be at the right speed, nice and consistent and on the right line. So the takeaway is an important part of getting ourselves into the correct position at the top. So we want to make sure that from a good address position we’re holding a nice posture, you’re effectively loading the club into the right position to then bring it down again. Think about drawing the bow on an arrow, you’re pulling that bow back with the arrow to kind of create the power and then you let that go and that’s when you generate the power into the arrow, so the backswing is all about getting that generation of power stored up ready to swing down and to hit the golf ball. But we know that some golfers aren’t necessarily as flexible as other golfers in that backswing, and during that backswing phase you can start to feel a bit tight and a bit tense and some golfers I feel give up a little bit too easily in that backswing and they don’t necessarily generate the coil that they should, so during the backswing phase as you come across this way you’re hearing in my voice, it starts to get a bit tighter as I wind up towards the top of my backswing, but I can keep going and get the club in a good position.

A lot of golfers I feel as soon as they get a bit of that tension, remember pulling the bow back? Tension is good, it generates the power, as soon as they get a little bit of that tension during the backswing it gets a bit tight and they stop and they bend their arm or they stop rotating their shoulders or they unwind with the hips and start their downswing too early. So we’re not actually generating enough power before we’re swinging down again. So I’d like you to actually feel in that backswing that the left arm pulls right tight across the chest, now I’ve just got to be careful I’ve got a microphone across my chest, but actually that left arm should come right across, almost over the top of that microphone and pull right across the top of your chest here into quite a nice tight position, to then start with your downswing. So if your left arm is always away from your chest and the bicep doesn’t actually touch your chest, you’re probably not generating the right amount of power and the correct stretch to get that left arm in the correct position. Normally where you might feel you can’t generate enough tension would be if you have a very small shoulder rotation, if you really feel like your shoulders don’t turn enough in the backswing, and that might be due to a illness or injury or just age you know as an older golfer you might feel you can’t quite turn around as much.

In fact as a concern one little tip that you might want to try is actually just dropping your right foot back at set up, to encourage a bit of a pre-turn, so if I set up nice and square, everything is 90 degrees to target. But if I drop my right foot back a little bit here, my hips actually pre-close, my shoulders pre-close then I might feel I’ve already got a little bit more wind up to have, and then as I unwind I can release through a little bit faster. Should also encourage the swing path a little bit more from the inside, possibly creating a little bit more a draw. The key to this movement when you’ve dropped that right foot back is allow your swing to go out to the right, don’t try and swing across yourself to your left because that will just encourage an out to in swing path and we see that too often with golfers. So try and generate as much power in that backswing like drawing the bow and the arrow, creating that power, pulling the left arm tight across the chest and then releasing nice and aggressively from the inside.