GolfPlus June 2018 Digital Edition (June 2018) | Page 37

A long wide arc with the trail arm
Incorrect takeaway that can lead to a player having to make numerous
compensations on the down swing. The player has lost the pine angle very early
in the backswing. The trail arm is folding early and is already losing width.
A lot of golfers have been told to keep the trail
elbow close to the body on the backswing. I
can’t think of a worse driver swing thought.
With the trail arm cramped going back,
the golfer has a very narrow swing and a
restricted body turn-and will struggle to
create power and consistent strikes.
Forget that. I want the trail arm (right arm
for righties) to be as long as possible foras
long as possible. That does a few amazing
things. First, it widens the swing arc, which
increases the distance the club-head travels
back and, in turn, creates more room for it to
accelerate into the ball. A wide arc also pulls
the body into a full rotation. Second, with the
club-head moving back straighter, it won’t
get stuck behind the body. Golfers who get
stuck either swing into the ball from too far
inside (pushes or hooks) or heave the club
away from the body on the downswing (pulls
and slices). Third, it creates space between
the club and the body, so the trail elbow can
drop down at the start of the downswing and
set up a powerful inside path to impact. Make
this your one swing thought: Trail arm long
for as long as possible. You’ll hit longer,
straighter drives.
An athletic transfer
of pressure
I prefer to use transfer of
pressure rather than weight
shift in Golf. Weight transfer is
too slow as it involves a transfer
of mass. For a good powerful
move that produces a lot of
club-head speed, a player must
transfer pressure to the trailing
leg on the backswing. As the
arms reach about 9o clock and
are continuing their motion to
complete the backswing, the
pressure already starts to shift
toward the leading leg and thus
pulling the arms to make the
downswing.
Thus kind of an athletic move
creates more power and thus
more speed leading to a club-
head moving at fast speeds.
A poor top of the backswing. The spine angle is lost, the shoulder turn is
very fl at that could lead to an over the top or spin out on the d ownswing.
GolfPlus
JUNE
2018
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