Shortening my backswing

Goins

"Not too shabby"
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
3,410
Reaction score
20
Anyone who has played with me can attest to the fact That I have a backswing That would give John Daly a run for his money. After hearing that its costing me distance due to deceleration through the ball I'm trying to shorten it. I'm peaking in speed before I get to the ball and starting to slow just before impact. The problem is a normal looking swing on video feels so short and abbreviated and I feel like I'm chopping the ball with most shots going hard right.

Has anyone else shortened up a swing and if so what drills worked best? Thanks in advance.
 
I have experienced this problem many times over. What I find myself doing to get out of this rut is pausing at the top. The pause at the top lets me stop and feel where I should be, gets me started in the right position, AND because I am starting from a stopped position, there should be no deceleration that you speak of.

Like I said, thats what works for me. Good luck Degoins!
 
I've been doing swings where I start where I want the club to stop in the backswing instead of grounding it first, but when I make a full swing it feels so short and choppy. Ill try the pause at the top and see if that helps. I think I'm swinging harder to compensate for the shorter swing and its killing my swing plane.
 
Been there done that too buddy. THe one thing I worked on was keeping my hands high at the top of my swing. That helped me from getting the club past parallel. Might be something to practice as well.
 
One of the first things my instructor did with me was shorten my backswing. He used video to show me how my swing was way too big and then told me that he wanted me to swing with a 3/4 swing. My 3/4 swing turned out to be a full swing. It was hard at first and I find myself still going too far back sometimes. It has helped a lot with accuracy.

One problem I have with my drive is that I throw my right shoulder around too fast sometimes. He had me doing a drill to make me pause a little longer. It was just taking my normal swing but not turning my body at all until I hit the ball. Swing, hit ball, then turn. It's only a practice drill but it works to add that pause to your back swing and let your arms drop like they are supposed to before you turn.
 
Been there done that too buddy. THe one thing I worked on was keeping my hands high at the top of my swing. That helped me from getting the club past parallel. Might be something to practice as well.

I also worked on this. It has really helped me shorten up without losing speed=more fairways!
 
Thanks for the tips guys and gal. I know its gonna be tough but it must be done. I wish that when I started playing that I had gone to an instructor first now I have a lot of bad memories to lose.
 
I try to imagine I'm Freddy Couples when I shorten my swing. A slow moving backswing and a nice whip through the ball. I feel the same thing sometimes when I'm racing through the ball, but when I relax and think tempo I make better contact. Like KellyBo says swing changes are always hard at first. Then they get better!
 
He had me doing a drill to make me pause a little longer. It was just taking my normal swing but not turning my body at all until I hit the ball. Swing, hit ball, then turn. It's only a practice drill but it works to add that pause to your back swing and let your arms drop like they are supposed to before you turn.

sounds like a great tip, you mean standing still at all time, in my back and down swing? just swing with my arms? and after ive hit the ball, turn and follow through?
 
sounds like a great tip, you mean standing still at all time, in my back and down swing? just swing with my arms? and after ive hit the ball, turn and follow through?

It's hard for me to explain but basically same swing as normal but feel like I'm not turning my body on the downswing until I actually make contact with the ball. Makes me stay back just a slight bit longer and I connect so much better.
 
This is my biggest problem, too. My wife calls it the ass-scratcher. The suggestion passed on to me by a GolfTEC guy is the following: Do a proper (shorter) backswing and stop, look at your hands and make sure they are in the right position, look back at the ball and downswing. That's obviously pretty hard to do, but this is how you start ingraining the swing if you do this a lot.

On the course this manifests in what Thainer says - during your swing you learn to put in a slight pause at the top, keep control, and swing through.
 
One of the first things my instructor did with me was shorten my backswing. He used video to show me how my swing was way too big and then told me that he wanted me to swing with a 3/4 swing. My 3/4 swing turned out to be a full swing. It was hard at first and I find myself still going too far back sometimes. It has helped a lot with accuracy.

One problem I have with my drive is that I throw my right shoulder around too fast sometimes. He had me doing a drill to make me pause a little longer. It was just taking my normal swing but not turning my body at all until I hit the ball. Swing, hit ball, then turn. It's only a practice drill but it works to add that pause to your back swing and let your arms drop like they are supposed to before you turn.

I try to do the same thing... It usually works for a bout 4 holes and then I get loose and start swinging...
 
Oh, man. This is a huge problem for me, too. I can make perfect practice swings, stopping just short of parallel, but when I go to hit the ball, the shaft invariably goes way past and hits off the back of my neck...I know it's costing me distance and accuracy. Thanks to those who've posted tips...off to work on this now.
 
One thing that will help almost anyone is to practice making slow motion backswings so that when you get to the top there is no momentum from the club pulling it farther back, turn and place it in position and hold it, if you can't stop and hold it you are going past the point where you can control the club completely then swing down full and hard. For one person that might be at 120 degrees way past full turn but for most it is not going to be anything close to that. Before you start down to the ball make sure you have some visual reference points of where you are at the top, like for example notice where your shoulder is relative to the ball or where your knee is at full break at the top, noticing these points will help you to not turn past that position when you are playing. The great thing about practicing a slow motion back swing is you can do it indoors in front of a mirror without a ball and work on getting your positions just right.
 
Oh, man. This is a huge problem for me, too. I can make perfect practice swings, stopping just short of parallel, but when I go to hit the ball, the shaft invariably goes way past and hits off the back of my neck...I know it's costing me distance and accuracy. Thanks to those who've posted tips...off to work on this now.

This can actually be a grip problem - I used to do this myself, the shaft clangs off the back of your neck, I thought it was normal for a long time. Try the tee in the thumb-crack drill - go to the Golf Fix site and look it up it is great for fixing that loose club wobble at the top. You put a tee between your thumb and forefinger right at the top of the vee on both hands and make sure they both stay in place all throughout the swing. If they fall out then your grip is the problem and not your backswing necessarily. Worked for me.
 
Good advice in this thread already so I am basically repeating what has been said.
This was my biggest issue when I started the game. When I got to the top of my backswing, I was bending my elbow and I was literally chopping at the ball to get my hands back around fast enough. When I looked at my swing in slow motion, I looked more like I was swing an axe than a golf club.
3 things I always focus on:
1. slow down the backswing. I don't come to a complete stop, but like others have said, you should be able to stop your swing without losing your balance.
2. Do NOT bend the elbow on the back swing. For me, that starts to occur right at 90 degrees. I know that is likely a 3/4 swing for a lot of golfers, but, it is what it is. Fortunately I have enough strength that I am still a fairly long hitter.
3. Keep the lower body quite during the backswing. Less moving parts on the way back means less moving parts through the swing.

Maybe better ball strikers can get away with not doing 2 and 3, but, I can't. My swing is VERY compact. For me compact=accurate....
 
I have the same type of long swing, I had a free analysis done at Golftec and they did a video comparison of me and Daly right away. I havn't tried too hard to fix this because when I was, it was so uncomfortable that I wasn't striking well and it wasnt fun. The instructor suggested that I put a towell or golf golve under my right armpit, if it fell out during my swing I was going too long. Good luck!
 
I will slow down my back swing on my irons and it helps me out greatly if im having a bad day
 
Oh man, I can completely sympathize with this topic. I have gotten myself straightened out and my swing is parallel when I am striking it well, but I still slip into this old habit every now and again. This has happened to me lately and my handicap is risen because of it. My solution is to try to look like I have a good swing. People who take the club back too far really look like n00bs and I don't want to look n00bish. Unlike life, short is sexy.
 
This can actually be a grip problem - I used to do this myself, the shaft clangs off the back of your neck, I thought it was normal for a long time. Try the tee in the thumb-crack drill - go to the Golf Fix site and look it up it is great for fixing that loose club wobble at the top. You put a tee between your thumb and forefinger right at the top of the vee on both hands and make sure they both stay in place all throughout the swing. If they fall out then your grip is the problem and not your backswing necessarily. Worked for me.

Good point. I'll check out the tee thing.
 
Anyone who has played with me can attest to the fact That I have a backswing That would give John Daly a run for his money. After hearing that its costing me distance due to deceleration through the ball I'm trying to shorten it. I'm peaking in speed before I get to the ball and starting to slow just before impact. The problem is a normal looking swing on video feels so short and abbreviated and I feel like I'm chopping the ball with most shots going hard right.

Has anyone else shortened up a swing and if so what drills worked best? Thanks in advance.

I have shortened my swing but I don't have any drills for you per se. However, i had a long, loose loopy swing that was "Dalyesque" and the thought that I have to make it short (3/4) is think "half". I'd think 3/4 and be full.

Alex
 
Back
Top