How Does Your Backswing Feel?

[live4u120]

The title is pretty self-explanatory: How do you like to start your back swing? I personally like to feel like I'm coming with my shoulder moving down and behind me. I think this may lead to coming too far inside, and what are the cons of that?

I'm interesting in hearing these!

[shortstop20]

Keep the triangle, get clubhead slightly outside of hands.

[saevel25]

My feeling is rotating my shoulders around my spine, while maintaining the same feeling in my arms as they were at address, this helps me keep my hands from going to far inside. My issue is having my hands to far inside, i rather have then go to far outside becuase i know i can make a shoulder turn, if it gets to inside i am toast.

[NYJetsfan]

I focus on 2 different things depending on if it's an iron or driver.

If driver, I focus on taking it back slow and low. This helps me keep the swing path on the way down, which I tend to have problems with (don't get the club shaft enough to the inside).

If iron, I focus on shoulder turn. When I'm not hitting my irons well it's usually because I'm not getting down on the ball. When I do my practice swing, I'll do it with my feet together so it's all shoulders and it forces me to get the feel of the steep shoulder turn. As long as I get that feeling of my shoulder turn, I'll hit the irons crisp. :)

[Teddy]

I'm just learning to get a feel for my back swing, and i'm trying to unddrstand whats comfortable. As of right now its the feel of the club rising with my left arm and dropping in one motion. I was doing it before where i lifted it slowly and stopped at the peak, but i feel this will in the end have a negative impact on my swing. So i'm going for a full motion.

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

I have a feeling that I am pushing the club grip back with the left hand feeling some tension in the left pect and the stomach muscles. When the shaft is horizontal pointing away from target, I like to feel that the club face is a little bit closed.

The muscles of the right arm and right shoulder and back (for a right-handed swing) should be relaxed during the back swing, IMO, so there is no "taking the club back with the right arm and right shoulder." Push with left, not pull with right on the backswing.

But that's deceptive. The backswing is a one piece movement, and so the tension in the left arm and pectoral is more from supporting the weight of the club in the backswing. In any case, the right arm is just along for the ride.

I think the whole swing is more a matter of "backswing-left arm, downswing-right arm" and I putt that way too, pushing the putter back with the left hand and pectoral muscles using the right only for control and then swing through the ball with the right hand using the left for control.

The biggest flaw I had--resulting from a diagram in a golf book used in a college class in 1972--was thinking that when the club was pointing away from target, the shaft is exactly horizontal and the club face exactly vertical--which resulted, for me, in a too-open clubface at the top. That messed me up for decades.

[BallStriker]

Right now my thought is to maintain the "triangle" away from the ball and keep it slow to the top......when I keep my backswing slow and in control, I have a much better chance of starting the downswing properly and getting my weight shifted back to my left side correctly...

One of my biggest problems is getting my weight too far back and the hands/arms get ahead of the weight shift....this leads to too much weight on the back foot at contact and ugly shots.

[SteveISU]

My thought is, "Don't look like an •••••••".

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

One of my biggest problems is getting my weight too far back and the hands/arms get ahead of the weight shift....this leads to too much weight on the back foot at contact and ugly shots.

Which brings up the question of how wide your feet are spaced. IMVHO, the wider the feet the more difficult the weight shift. I do drills with my feet together, and normally use a narrow stance no wider than shoulder width. But by that, I mean that my feet are where my shoulders are, a chest width apart.

Methinks the length of one's legs affects optimal width of stance. Short legged people like me need to keep the feet closer. Another stance problem is unequal leg length. My right leg is a half inch longer. Which I blame for my early habit of topping the ball.

[saevel25]

Honestly the Pro i went to widened my stance, i didn't have issues with maintaining weight shift. I think most of us do to much weight shift, it shouldn't be ton of lateral movement. The inside of my feet will be at my armpit to the outside of my shoulders.

[westcyderydin]

My feeling is rotating my shoulders around my spine, while maintaining the same feeling in my arms as they were at address, this helps me keep my hands from going to far inside. My issue is having my hands to far inside, i rather have then go to far outside becuase i know i can make a shoulder turn, if it gets to inside i am toast.

same.... i guess i dont really think of rotating around my spine, but i make a full shoulder turn without moving my arms moving much farther back than they were at address.

when i golf well my backswing starts with my shoulders, when i golf bad i start my backswing with my hands and then i turn my shoulders. then i come back way too far inside.

[damnitdave]

For me im turning my shoulder down then leaning to the left while keeping my arms straight

[sean_miller]

Head still, dropping left shoulder straight down, keeping some weight on the left side, long and smooth with deep hands. On video, none of those things are actually happening.

[AspiringGolfPro]

When it is correct it feels like crap, while when it is crap it feels very smooth and beautiful! -))

[RC]

I feel two simultaneous things... the left shoulder moving and the inside of the right foot pushing down, not allowing the angle of the right leg to move laterally to the right. Then I want to feel the club go weightless (or nearly so, it doesn't of course.) If my right arm stays in a good position the club feels like it disappears so then it is just shift and turn and the club comes back on plane.

[iacas]

My feeling is rotating my shoulders around my spine, while maintaining the same feeling in my arms as they were at address,

I'm of the opinion that nobody in the history of golf has taken their hands too far inside:

http://iacas.org/f/hands.pdf . That list is going to remain empty for awhile. saevel, have you ever posted a video of your swing?

[saevel25]

well what is your definition of too deep, or do you not believe that this move exists at all. Because i think too deep as a position that will cause the swing to have to counter such a move in doing so making an over the top move.

But i should say that for me, i want to concentrate on shoulders so i don't flip my left hand over in the backswing causing my swing to become flat. Thats the issue i think i was trying to describe. I think the more correct feeling would be my right arm collapsing to soon causing the club to rotate more open in the backswing.

Yeah i posted my swing a couple times here, but my current swing has a major difference now. I will have to take a video of it sometime soon to update my progress. I am working on keeping my balance better, i have a habit of having the weight on my toes before taking a backswing.

[westcyderydin]

I'm of the opinion that nobody in the history of golf has taken their hands too far inside:

its just a matter of having enough room so you can control your swing path and especially so you do not come over the top. there may be another element in this equation, but its harder to create room if you come back too far inside.

in my swing the difference is starting my backswing with my shoulder turn or if i start it back with my hands moving back. if my backswing starts with my shoulder turn, then the relationship of my shoulders and my hands doesnt change much in my whole swing and i have a lot of room. if i for some reason move my hands back to start my backswing, my hands get behind my chest and it feels like my left biceps tucks into my chest. then i come back too far inside, my swing plane gets very low, i have no room, and i hit my irons very poorly.