A shorter backswing - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeph 

 

What do you advice as a good backswing length? I know this vary from player to player, even pro to pro. With the irons, if I go further than 45º from perpendicular, club pointing 45º into the sky, arms slightly past parallell, it is much harder to get it back down in the proper way. The long hitters on tour range from the club past parallell at the top, to slightly past perpendicular, they still drive it 300+ yards consistently. You mention "the place where your arms begin to lift off your body and leave the arc, where is this? You have seen my swing, so I'm sure you agree I'm swinging too far.

How much distance would a scratch handicapper gain by swinging to the club reach parallell compared to at a 45º angle? With, of course, the rest of the swing being equally good.

Well no they don't actually hit it 300 yards plus consistently. That's a misconception and these are PROS mind you. Unless you are in the less than 1 percent that make your living out of playing golf on these blogs, you don't fit into a PROS category, really. There is no average par 4 that can't be reached with two well placed shots (a drive of @ 240 and a fairway shot of less than 220). Now mind you I'm thinking that our main objective is to hit the ball STRAIGHT down the middle of the fairway. To do less is just going out and banging the ball off the tee for show. A 300 yard drive in the next fairway or in the deep rough or in the trees is a wasted shot IMHO. A 240 yard shot down the middle of the fairway is a far more desired result, again IMHO.

There is no average par 5 that can't be reached in 3 very easy shots (a 240 yard drive, a 200 yard fairway shot, and a 150 yard approach). Again I'm assuming STRAIGHT is what we are looking for.

I played with guy, older than I, and I'm 61, that hit the ball 200/220 yards with every wood and high iron in his bag, every time and was always in the center of the fairway. He shot @ 9 over for the day and never looked like he ever hit a GREAT shot, meaning a 300 yard strike many people strive for and never really get regularly. In fact the pros average hitting the fairway only 58 or so percent of the time. They recover so well that it's not a big deal to them. This Ian guy that won a tourney about 3 months ago hit a 3 wood off of every tee for the tourney. He by the way won the tournament. So I'm not going to say don't hit it far, but I will say hitting it straight is by far more important and is supported by noting that when the real golf starts (somewhere around the 100 to 150 yard range) everyone is going for accuracy aren't they?

I have been working on this a lot lately. I am totally convinced this magic phrase coil is slightly over rated in golf. In my pursuit of it on every swing, really it has led to me trying to force it, which leads to mechanical breakdowns. In trying to do this to gain distance and power it leads to less. I play quite a bit of tennis during summer months and I have to say apart from get your left shoulder across you or pointing at the net before the ball, length of backswing in tennis is not overly banged on about.

Take for example a one handed backhand which resembles a golf swing to me. Left hand sets the racquet, I feel a stretch of the right lat, meet the ball and rotate your torso. Try to anchor your forward foot if you can which adds to the power of the shot. I know the moving ball aids to speed of a tennis stroke but the principle is racquet head speed not length of swing. Agassi generated as much racquet head speed as I have ever seen and he had relatively short backswing.

I seem to get really tight around that 10 o clock position with my turn. This puts my shoulder turn around 90 degrees. Interestingly my arms are not across my chest. My anatomy doesn't allow mt left arm to get pinned across my chest. I'm always amazed to see lots of players who get the left arm folded right against the chest. Something my body cannot do, and here is where in the backswing we have to accept our limitations.

In my own experiment with this I find that if my left arm goes to parallel with the floor,my shoulder turn is still close to 90 degrees and I stop short of going tight, I can really rip the downswing. I'm concentrating on the slight stretch in the left lat and that's far enough. Any further and I just can't control my mechanics. Balance is everything and based on what I have read there is far more of a premium on staying in your posture than where your club ends up in the backswing. Sequencing the downswing is most important and even going slightly too far seems to take that away so I will let you know how I get on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brakkus 

I have been working on this a lot lately. I am totally convinced this magic phrase coil is slightly over rated in golf. In my pursuit of it on every swing, really it has led to me trying to force it, which leads to mechanical breakdowns. In trying to do this to gain distance and power it leads to less. I play quite a bit of tennis during summer months and I have to say apart from get your left shoulder across you or pointing at the net before the ball, length of backswing in tennis is not overly banged on about.

 

Take for example a one handed backhand which resembles a golf swing to me. Left hand sets the racquet, I feel a stretch of the right lat, meet the ball and rotate your torso. Try to anchor your forward foot if you can which adds to the power of the shot. I know the moving ball aids to speed of a tennis stroke but the principle is racquet head speed not length of swing. Agassi generated as much racquet head speed as I have ever seen and he had relatively short backswing.

 

I seem to get really tight around that 10 o clock position with my turn. This puts my shoulder turn around 90 degrees. Interestingly my arms are not across my chest. My anatomy doesn't allow mt left arm to get pinned across my chest. I'm always amazed to see lots of players who get the left arm folded right against the chest. Something my body cannot do, and here is where in the backswing we have to accept our limitations.

 

In my own experiment with this I find that if my left arm goes to parallel with the floor,my shoulder turn is still close to 90 degrees and I stop short of going tight, I can really rip the downswing. I'm concentrating on the slight stretch in the left lat and that's far enough. Any further and I just can't control my mechanics. Balance is everything and based on what I have read there is far more of a premium on staying in your posture than where your club ends up in the backswing. Sequencing the downswing is most important and even going slightly too far seems to take that away so I will let you know how I get on.

Your tightness is your tension. It shows it's self by way of tight muscles especially arms. It's the one thing that will destroy a good swing.

You may just be tense/tight. Try to swing the club like a lady. Yeah that's right like a girl. Just swing it, swing it perfectly and smoothly and easily. Let the club head do the work. It does anyway. It just depends on what you have done with the club before it came into contact with the ball will determine what will happen.

I some times hit the ball so easily I swear it could not go 100 yards with my 3 wood and out of the blue I'll hit it 220 plus right down the center of the fairway. Yeah, it's not a big drive I know, but to be 220 plus down the center of the fairway off the tee for me at my age and physical condition is huge for me, my game, my attitude and my score. I just hope to get better. Every time I push it I blow it and this is due to tightening up my muscles trying to do something that I can't do with the club.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocParty 

Your tightness is your tension. It shows it's self by way of tight muscles especially arms. It's the one thing that will destroy a good swing.

You may just be tense/tight. Try to swing the club like a lady. Yeah that's right like a girl. Just swing it, swing it perfectly and smoothly and easily. Let the club head do the work. It does anyway. It just depends on what you have done with the club before it came into contact with the ball will determine what will happen.

I some times hit the ball so easily I swear it could not go 100 yards with my 3 wood and out of the blue I'll hit it 220 plus right down the center of the fairway. Yeah, it's not a big drive I know, but to be 220 plus down the center of the fairway off the tee for me at my age and physical condition is huge for me, my game, my attitude and my score. I just hope to get better. Every time I push it I blow it and this is due to tightening up my muscles trying to do something that I can't do with the club.

Yeah I can tell before I start back down that I'm trying to hammer the ball into the ground. At the moment I'm trying to trust my turn and just anchor the swing with my legs. Trouble is I do that smack a pure shot and then my brain tells me on the next swing to press a tad more then I get tight.

One thing that's helping with this is to think of placing the club on the backswing as I have a tendency to get quick which takes me beyond my flexibility range and I gun it on the way down. Slowly but surely my worst shots are moving off line less and absolute error the thin shot is now less because I'm holding my angles better but still lots of practice to do.