Learning The Back Swing is a critical technique for all golfers.  Although I started playing golf many years ago, it wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that if I wanted to improve there were a few fundamental things I had to learn.  As I was Learning The Back Swing, I asked myself these questions:

Why do I always slice the ball?

Why can’t I get more distance from my drives?

Why do my fairway shots cause me grief?

Why does it take me three swings to get out of a bunker?

Why do 50% of my chip shots go over the green?

Why do my putts always fall short?

What I will attempt to do with a series of golf articles is to explain how I concurred each of these problems one at a time.


When I really began to get serious about learning to play golf I had no idea that Learning The back Swing was one of the most (if not THE most) important things to do. I realized that if this portion of my golf swing wasn’t perfect, I would never be able to solve any of my problems.

The biggest mistake I made was to watch other amateur golfers to see what they did. I realized very quickly that although some of them hit the ball fairly well, there was very little consistency in what they all did. It was hard for me to pick one thing that they all did the same so I could say “That’s it!” Some were very deliberate (jerky) in every part of their swing while others were more fluid and natural. Some teed the ball high while others claimed they needed the ball almost hitting the grass. When they aligned themselves for each shot, some aimed straight while others played a natural (or not so natural) slice or hook.

So what did I end up doing? I stopped trying to learn from other amateurs and got some professional help. The very first thing the pro worked on was my back swing and how it compared to the back swing of some professionals. It wasn’t very hard for me to see the difference once it was pointed out. I realized that my back swing was too steep when compared to the pro’s which was flatter.

The Takeaway

OK, let’s define what steep and flat mean to me when discussing the takeaway portion of the back swing. What I was doing was moving my wrists before my shoulders and mid-section. This caused the club to create an imperfect plane (too steep) forcing my hands to turn away from the ball. To correct this I needed to place an object (in my case a chair) at a distance far enough to my right that caused me to leave my wrists still while my shoulders, arms and mid-section moved the club towards the chair. Although this felt very awkward at first, it certainly flattened out my initial move. The trick is to find a distance to place the chair that makes you stretch without wanting to fall.

Now that I knew how to do this portion of the back swing correctly, I had to practice it for 100 times a day for one week. The goal was to commit this movement into muscle memory before learning the next step which was to keep my weight on the inside of my back (right) foot while doing it. Once again, I was asked to perform an unnatural and uncomfortable act for the sake of hitting a golf ball in the intended direction.

So, once again I introduced a practice method that helped me accomplish this. My natural tendency and comfortable thing to do was to allow my right knee to turn out and shift my weight to my right side. I was told that this was all wrong and I needed to keep my right knee still and the weight on the inside of my back (right foot). To accomplish this I needed to force pressure on my right knee to keep it straight and this was very hard to do.

Here’s what I did to learn how to keep the weight on the inside of by back (right) foot. I placed a book (1" thick) under the right side of my right foot. I immediately felt the difference, and you will too. Take the time to practice this and make it part of muscle memory.

This covers the take away portion of the back swing. If you put some effort into Learning The Back Swing, your golf game can't help but improve.

J. Cavell is an amateur golfer from New Jersey who loves the game of golf. Like others, he wants to improve his golf game to make it a more pleasurable experience. He is a valued contributor to www.GolfDrivingTipsBlog.com

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Golf Driving Tips

J. Cavell
June 19, 2008

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