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Question on backswing

Actually, this is one thing that is highly variable among players at the highest level. If you want to check your swing for good/bad characteristics here are some places to start.

Some of the most common backswing faults are:
1 - Snatching the club head to the inside
2 - Lifting the club handle up and down in front of you
3 - Manipulating the club with the hands (as opposed to swinging the club back)

Generally speaking...
1 - You want the club head to be slightly outside your hands when the shaft reaches parallel to the ground, and parallel to the ground should occur when the hands are about hip high going back
2 - At chest high your hands should still be in front of your back should be facing the target line (thus your chest will have rotated around your spine about 90 degrees from setup)
3 - Think wide going back, especially in relation to your lead hand (allow the back arm to fold naturally, but the hand of the lead arm should be far from your trail ear at the top of the backswing)
 
I think more about the club face than I do the butt end of the club

However, on the downswing I'd want the butt end of the club pointing at the ball somewhere between shoulder and hip high...on plane
 
I do think about my hands on the backswing a bit sometimes but I guess I don’t think about the handle of the club but they might be similar. For me thinking about the hands is to prevent them from being too long and loose. For starting the swing I don’t think about moving the hands but let the hands move with the body.
 
I don't think about hands because shoulder rotation in the backswing and spine angle dictates hand travel.
 
With a one piece takeaway, the butt end of the club points to the naval. as the wrist sets the butt end of the club will point at the ball line. the club will then be on plane. at the start of the downswing the butt end of the club will go straight to the ball. you must flatten the swing to get to the slot.
 
zoveracker said:
Where do you think about pointing the butt of the shaft at the beginning of the backswing to parallel prior to reaching the top?
I feel like I am most inconsistent with that part of my backswing and wanted to get you guys/girls thoughts.
Click to expand...
The best articulation of the correct backswing I have read was published in a 1930's publication and is the same technique in most of the swings on tour today.
Quote:
"The initial wrist movement in the drive. There must be no rolling of the wrist and forearm from left to right either in the waggle or at the beginning of the swing. This is vital. On the other hand an effort should be made to shut the clubface by a slight roll from right to left. This applies to both wrists. Let us make the action clearer. Suppose you are sweeping grass by left to right sweeps with a broom held like a golf club, with the right hand below the left. You would press down and slightly roll the wrists from right to left as you made sweeps from left to right. That is precisely the initial wrist action for the golf swing. It tends to keep the left elbow in, it prevents the right from lifting, and it gets the right foot working from the very beginning."
For the club to be on plane during the backswing the shaft needs to point just inside the extended ball/target line until it is parallel to the ground, after which the butt end points to the extended ball/target line until it is parallel to the ground. When the shaft is parallel to the ground it needs to be parallel to the extended ball/ target line.
The backswing begins with unbroken wrists, the downswing begins with broken wrists, but the on plane thing with the shaft appies to both backswing and downswing and into the follow through.
It is easy to say but extremely difficult to do.
 
razaar said:
The best articulation of the correct backswing I have read was published in a 1930's publication and is the same technique in most of the swings on tour today.
Quote:
"The initial wrist movement in the drive. There must be no rolling of the wrist and forearm from left to right either in the waggle or at the beginning of the swing. This is vital. On the other hand an effort should be made to shut the clubface by a slight roll from right to left. This applies to both wrists. Let us make the action clearer. Suppose you are sweeping grass by left to right sweeps with a broom held like a golf club, with the right hand below the left. You would press down and slightly roll the wrists from right to left as you made sweeps from left to right. That is precisely the initial wrist action for the golf swing. It tends to keep the left elbow in, it prevents the right from lifting, and it gets the right foot working from the very beginning."
For the club to be on plane during the backswing the shaft needs to point just inside the extended ball/target line until it is parallel to the ground, after which the butt end points to the extended ball/target line until it is parallel to the ground. When the shaft is parallel to the ground it needs to be parallel to the extended ball/ target line.
The backswing begins with unbroken wrists, the downswing begins with broken wrists, but the on plane thing with the shaft appies to both backswing and downswing and into the follow through.
It is easy to say but extremely difficult to do.
Click to expand...
Sounds like Abe Mitchell 😉
 
Although many golfer are not 'On Plane' in their backswing , they usually are by P6 in the downswing . Being 'On Plane' is defined quite well in this video below so maybe the OP might find it useful as a reference for grooving his backswing so that it doesn't end up too flat or too vertical . I'm not saying that too flat or too vertical is a swing fault but the further one is from being 'On Plane' then more 'Plane Shift' is required to get back 'On Plane' by P6 (ie. the functional plane- see image below video).




From Dave Tutelman's website 'Stability of the swing plane'

Stability of the swing plane (tutelman.com)

But there is a part of the swing that stays remarkably close to a plane. It is the yellow sector of the circle in the diagram, from shaft-horizontal on the downswing, at least to the ball, and probably to shaft-horizontal on the follow-through. A significant portion of the biomechanics world has dubbed this the "functional swing plane", and there are good physical reasons it is planar. In fact, the reason is stable equilibrium, as we will see.

1613875206466.png
 
I use a one piece take away for my back swing. I don't really think much about my back swing.

If anything, I will occasionally check to see what my elbow positions are with each other, that they are "some what" close to level with each other.
 
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