What is the Correct Hand Rotation on the Backswing - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
What is the Correct Hand Rotation on the Backswing - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the most complicated things about a golf swing is that everything’s moving all at the same time is not like one bit goes, then the next bit goes then the next bit goes, every part of your body is trying to get involved at the same time and it needs to be to generate the most efficient golf shots the most powerful golf shots. But if we can look specifically what the role of the hands and the arms are in the back swing. We’re going to break this movement down so you can see exactly what your hand and arms should be doing. Now it would be quite useful here if you had mirror so you could position the mirror quite a big mirror if possible maybe at the driving range if you just got a patio door or something you can see yourself in at home I’m going to pretend that the camera is my mirror so you’ll see what you’ll see when you look in the mirror.

I’m going to setup this way around, take my normal address position so I’ve got good posture, my hands and arms are hanging nicely vertically down underneath my chin. Now in the first movement of taking the golf club back my hands and arms shouldn’t be overly involved they don’t necessarily want to be locked out and stiff but they want to be quite passive so the first movement is just for the shoulders to turn and the club will just move back nicely and relaxed in the hands. And the great check point here to make sure you’re in the right place you just look where the leading edge of the golf club is, the bottom grove of the golf club effectively. That should be exactly parallel to my spine so here and my spine angle are going to be the same. If I rolled my wrist and rolled my forearms you would see the golf club come slightly back behind me and quite open facing the sky. The problem with that motion is now to hit the golf ball I would have to undo that motion I would have to be quite active with my hands and forearms on the down swing that could cause me timing issues. Likewise if I take the golf club back and hood the golf club this is where the inwards rotation of my hands and arms, the club face now looks closed it’s not the same angle as my spine it’s too flat. Again to hit the golf ball I would either have to undo that and open it or if I hit it with the face shot that would be a low left hand side pull. So check point one is bring the club straight back to the camera or the mirror. The club head sits on top of your hands so you can't really see your hands and the face angle is the same as the spine angle. From check point one, the hands now want to start to hinge upwards so it’s a feeling of pointing the thumbs up. We’re going to point the thumbs up until we create a L shape position. So I’ve changed my angle now so I can see myself in the mirror from front on, hinging this backwards to an L shape position, a horizontal left arm and vertical golf club. Now I say vertical because the angle there is vertical but if I turn this way you’ll see the angle isn’t vertical; up its tilted back here and the great check point now is that at the shaft should point down to the ball or the ball to target line extended backwards. So if I’m in that position I know I’m good I know this will be too steep, this would be too flat. Imagine a laser beam coming out of the bottom of the golf club that should point to the ball to target line there that’s a good wrist hinge. From there up to the top and there's another checkpoint to the top, this is a little more difficult to see but if I can get my left forearm here and the club face here both pointing in the same direction I know everything is nicely on plain and parallel, so if I take that nicely back club face is in the square position. If the club face points down at the floor too much this would be in an open position and if it points to flattened points up at the sky this would be in a closed position generally caused by a fault earlier on actually, so if you get position one, position two generally position three would find itself in quite a nice position anyway, reverse those positions on the way down on and the club face should come through a lot squarer to hit the golf ball. What you want to avoid is making a mistake on the way back that then needs a correction on the way down, do it right going back, the down swing will be much easier, the golf shots will go a lot straighter. 2014-03-14

One of the most complicated things about a golf swing is that everything’s moving all at the same time is not like one bit goes, then the next bit goes then the next bit goes, every part of your body is trying to get involved at the same time and it needs to be to generate the most efficient golf shots the most powerful golf shots. But if we can look specifically what the role of the hands and the arms are in the back swing. We’re going to break this movement down so you can see exactly what your hand and arms should be doing. Now it would be quite useful here if you had mirror so you could position the mirror quite a big mirror if possible maybe at the driving range if you just got a patio door or something you can see yourself in at home I’m going to pretend that the camera is my mirror so you’ll see what you’ll see when you look in the mirror.

I’m going to setup this way around, take my normal address position so I’ve got good posture, my hands and arms are hanging nicely vertically down underneath my chin. Now in the first movement of taking the golf club back my hands and arms shouldn’t be overly involved they don’t necessarily want to be locked out and stiff but they want to be quite passive so the first movement is just for the shoulders to turn and the club will just move back nicely and relaxed in the hands. And the great check point here to make sure you’re in the right place you just look where the leading edge of the golf club is, the bottom grove of the golf club effectively. That should be exactly parallel to my spine so here and my spine angle are going to be the same. If I rolled my wrist and rolled my forearms you would see the golf club come slightly back behind me and quite open facing the sky.

The problem with that motion is now to hit the golf ball I would have to undo that motion I would have to be quite active with my hands and forearms on the down swing that could cause me timing issues. Likewise if I take the golf club back and hood the golf club this is where the inwards rotation of my hands and arms, the club face now looks closed it’s not the same angle as my spine it’s too flat. Again to hit the golf ball I would either have to undo that and open it or if I hit it with the face shot that would be a low left hand side pull. So check point one is bring the club straight back to the camera or the mirror. The club head sits on top of your hands so you can't really see your hands and the face angle is the same as the spine angle. From check point one, the hands now want to start to hinge upwards so it’s a feeling of pointing the thumbs up. We’re going to point the thumbs up until we create a L shape position. So I’ve changed my angle now so I can see myself in the mirror from front on, hinging this backwards to an L shape position, a horizontal left arm and vertical golf club.

Now I say vertical because the angle there is vertical but if I turn this way you’ll see the angle isn’t vertical; up its tilted back here and the great check point now is that at the shaft should point down to the ball or the ball to target line extended backwards. So if I’m in that position I know I’m good I know this will be too steep, this would be too flat. Imagine a laser beam coming out of the bottom of the golf club that should point to the ball to target line there that’s a good wrist hinge. From there up to the top and there's another checkpoint to the top, this is a little more difficult to see but if I can get my left forearm here and the club face here both pointing in the same direction I know everything is nicely on plain and parallel, so if I take that nicely back club face is in the square position.

If the club face points down at the floor too much this would be in an open position and if it points to flattened points up at the sky this would be in a closed position generally caused by a fault earlier on actually, so if you get position one, position two generally position three would find itself in quite a nice position anyway, reverse those positions on the way down on and the club face should come through a lot squarer to hit the golf ball. What you want to avoid is making a mistake on the way back that then needs a correction on the way down, do it right going back, the down swing will be much easier, the golf shots will go a lot straighter.