Will a shorter backswing improve my accuracy? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Will a shorter backswing improve my accuracy? (Video) - by Pete Styles

It’s a good question this one it’s a question that I get asked quite regularly on the -- on a lesson tee is, if I shorten my backswing will my accuracy increase? And I guess the general answer is yes but there's a couple of caveats and provisos we’ve got to put in there as well. Take it to extreme principles, and if I said, “Yes shorten your swing to there you’ll never miss a fairway will you?” So a really short swing would always produce more accuracy, but we trade off too much distance if the swing gets too short. So what we want to try and achieve is a swing that provides enough power but still retains enough control.

So firstly a swing that retains enough power should be one that has a full shoulder rotation so if the shoulders rotate fully round then we create a 90 degree shoulder rotation, that should create power. Now if we can shorten that swing as well we have big shoulder rotation and a short swing. So I’ve got full power but control as opposed to too long lacking control or not enough shoulder rotation, not enough power either. So we want full shoulder rotation but not a very long swing. And then be really committed in the downswing, because you’ve got a short swing therefore you got a bit more control. You should feel really commit into hitting the ball and actually accelerate the club and hit it full distance, but from a short backswing position. So we’ve got this short backswing, full power on the way through and really clip the ball out there a decent distance because the full shoulder rotation creates the power, the shorter swing creates the accuracy, that’s how shortening your swing can hit more fairways and straighter shots. 2015-03-26

It’s a good question this one it’s a question that I get asked quite regularly on the — on a lesson tee is, if I shorten my backswing will my accuracy increase? And I guess the general answer is yes but there's a couple of caveats and provisos we’ve got to put in there as well. Take it to extreme principles, and if I said, “Yes shorten your swing to there you’ll never miss a fairway will you?” So a really short swing would always produce more accuracy, but we trade off too much distance if the swing gets too short. So what we want to try and achieve is a swing that provides enough power but still retains enough control.

So firstly a swing that retains enough power should be one that has a full shoulder rotation so if the shoulders rotate fully round then we create a 90 degree shoulder rotation, that should create power. Now if we can shorten that swing as well we have big shoulder rotation and a short swing. So I’ve got full power but control as opposed to too long lacking control or not enough shoulder rotation, not enough power either.

So we want full shoulder rotation but not a very long swing. And then be really committed in the downswing, because you’ve got a short swing therefore you got a bit more control. You should feel really commit into hitting the ball and actually accelerate the club and hit it full distance, but from a short backswing position. So we’ve got this short backswing, full power on the way through and really clip the ball out there a decent distance because the full shoulder rotation creates the power, the shorter swing creates the accuracy, that’s how shortening your swing can hit more fairways and straighter shots.