Hello, In all these threads I have not read any reference to Torque. In some of Andrisani's books of Tiger Woods swing (no need to purchase the
books, though - he first book mentions the greatness of every single move
Tiger does, and the second book kills the first book saying that many
things were really wrong, both books each praise Tiger's current coach - Harmon and Haney), it is clear that what provides much power to Tiger Woods' swing is the torque he builds between his waist and his shoulders. That's what he means by using his long muscles to gain distance.
Now, back to the backswing. If you have a very slow backswing, when you reach the top of your back swing you have lost some torque created by the inertia of the golf club head. If you speed up just a little bit your back swing, the weight of the club head and its inertia will cause your shoulders to twist a little bit farther with respect to your waist, and thus store some torque that will be helpful on the downswing to gain club speed.
Try this: Flex your right knee a little bit on your backswing so your waist gets restricted from turning further, and the degree of torsion between your shoulders and waist increases. If you do NOT flex your RIGHT knee, then your waist rotates with your arms around your right leg, and no torsion is built. So, on your way down, this torque will pick up and you will gain at least 10 or more yards in your drive (guaranteed).
So, as mentioned here, TEMPO is the key, since if you swing too fast on your backswing, and then your downswing will leave your torque behind and will not generate club head speed.
Try swinging too slow, as if it were slow motion, you will notice barely any torque (or MUSCLE stress between your waist and shoulders), try swinging too fast, most likely on your way down your hips will come down much faster than your arms and your arms will never catch up correctly/square.
But if you concentrate on Tempo and an intermediate backswing speed, you will feel the torque stored at your waist / arms will kick back on your downswing and boom! there's your added distance.
Please let me know if this works for you.