Backswing Take away Now we are going to go through all the check
points in a technically correct swing. The first check point after address is the
take away position. The first position we are going to make is
when the butt end of the club is opposite your right thigh. The correct way to move into this position
is by moving the club, hands, arms and body – particularly the shoulders – away in unison. To get to that point we should avoid having
the arms move independently of the body but rather have everything moves away together.
A good way to check you are in the right position
is to grab a club and put it in between your feet behind your left heel and in front of
your right toes- then move everything away in unison. When the club you are holding is parallel
to the club on the ground the club face of your club should also be parallel to that
club on the ground.
You know the club face is still square then
in relation to where the ball is and you know you have taken it away in unison. Another check point is that the butt end of
the club should be pointing at your navel when you are in this position. This is an important indicator that you have
taken everything away in unison. A good way to practice this is to put the
butt end of the club just straight into your navel, then take the address position and
grip down on the club and move it away with everything in unison. It should be still pointing at the navel. If you move it away just with your hands and
arms it's going to come free of the navel so make sure you practice that — it is a
good way to get the correct feeling. If you have moved it away with just your hands
and arms which sometimes people do if they are trying to get the club away "low and slow"
– which is an old saying – it is going to be detached from your body all throughout
the swing so you are going to find it hard to establish a consistent swing.
You should be taking it away "low and slow
but that will just automatically happen when you move everything in unison. To show you from down the line when you move
everything away in unison -the club head will be outside of the hands if you get a bit handsy
in the take away. You are already in that position where the
club is getting behind your hands so the correct take away position has the club "low and slow"
outside the hands with everything moving in unison. This is a really important position -a lot
of the top players, in fact most of the top players, say if you are going to get any positions
right in the swing it should be address and your take away.
Jack Nicholas said the first 18 inches of
the swing are the most important- that's because this part of the swing you can consciously
control but after that everything is pretty much a reaction – it is happening too quickly
and you can't fully consciously control it. So make sure that you practice this take away
and getting into that position quite often. The next position from there is moving the
club until it is parallel to the ball target line and parallel to the ground. To get to this position from the first position
what you are doing is continuing the rotary motion of your body and just starting to hinge
the wrists. You know you have hinged the wrists correctly
when the club face is perpendicular — should be pointing straight up and down — this is
all assuming you are hitting a straight shot of course, so you move into that position
by rotating the body a bit further- the weight is moving onto the right side even more so
and you have got to make sure that in this position the club face is perpendicular straight
up and down like so and not closed or open.
Make sure you keep the dish angle in the left
wrist that we talked about at address. Another point to check is that the butt end
of the club is just outside your right foot. If you draw a straight line downwards this
shows you have maintained the relationship between your arms and your body and you are
getting a nice wide arc -this is going to give you heaps of power when you come back
down. Another thing to notice is throughout the
take away and into this next position the relationship between your left arm and your
chest is being maintained.
If you lose that relationship where they are
not touching as they were at address you are going to be outside the line or if it comes
inside the line -that's when it is touching all the way down. As we said before in the address position
you only want the upper part of the arms touching the body and that should be maintained through
this position. Now in this position the butt end of the club
will be just on the outside of your right foot and this is giving you the massive arc
you need to hit long balls like Tiger or Ernie.
If you have come in too close in here you
are going to lose that and you are going to have a much weaker shot. You are going to be coming down on the ball
too much. If you are trying to extend it out too far
you are losing that relationship between your arms and your body and everything becomes
out of unison and your are going to find it very hard to hit straight shots — you might
hit pretty ling shots but they are not going to be any where near the fairway, so make
sure you keep the relationship between your left arm and your chest into this position. That will make sure that the butt end of the
club is pointing just outside the right foot if your draw a straight line down through
it. Now also in this position, the club should
be parallel to the ball target line. If you are getting it inside the ball target
line you are going to cause all sorts of problems. When you come back down you are probably going
to be in that same position and you are going to hit massive pushes or you might flip it
over and start hitting hooks.
Similarly, if you are outside the line, when
you come back down you are going to be outside the line again you are going to come across
and hit massive cuts or if the club face is closed you are going are going to hit big
pulls so make sure also the club shaft is parallel to the ball target line..