Stay athletic during your back swing

Most players after a shot think about what went wrong on the down swing when that was not the problem.  Working with a friend yesterday I had the opportunity to work with him on staying athletic in the back swing.  What I mean by this is keeping the back knee flexed, keeping the sternum or spine from going vertical and not bending the spine towards the target at the top of the swing.

Sounds easy but for most golfers this makes there swing feel too short and they think it takes away power and speed which in fact it does the opposite.  You can see from the player below that they did not “stand up” on there back swing.  These guys are pretty good, Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan.  Those are the facts but what will it feel like, not good.

For most of us this feels like it not only takes away power but it also feels like we are making a 3/4 or 1/2 back swing.  That is why this is one of those times you should have a friend video your swing so you can see the difference between feel and real.   One way to visualize how to do this “new” move is to imagine you have a bungee cord attached to your trail, right knee and your sternum.  If the bungee cord was tight at set up you would want to feel like you are making a little slack in the cord.  In other words, you want to feel like you are actually getting your sternum closer to your trail or back knee on the back swing that it was at address.

So go to the practice range and practice hitting shots with your new 3/4 swing, you will most likely hit your first 15-20 shots behind the ball.  This will go away as your brain starts to realize you do need to move your chest down to the ball to make contact like you used to.

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