Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
This week the Royal Golf Club's PGA Teaching Professional, Martin Robinson, gives tips on tackling the backswing
ONE of the biggest faults I see on a daily basis at the Royal Golf Club Academy is that most people tend to swing with the top half of their body, using the shoulders, arms and hands to pull the club from the top of the backswing.
This has two negative effects on the outcome. Firstly, the club will tend to come from out to in, cutting across the ball and encouraging a slice to occur. Secondly, you can not generate as much power with the top half of the body as you can with the big muscles in the bottom half; hence you will not achieve your maximum distance.
That is why I believe it's extremely important to work on people's golf swings from the ground up, starting with the footwork and then looking at what the knees are doing followed by the hips - the legs are the 'engine room' of the golf swing.
At the top of the backswing you should have the majority of your weight on the right leg, shown with the slight bend of the left knee, but be careful to keep the weight on the inside of the right leg and not to roll the foot onto the outside.
From the top of the backswing the weight shifts aggressively onto the left leg before impact, this is where you should see the left leg in a straight or 'locked' position. Because of the speed of the hip turn through the downswing, the hips will be fully turned to the direction of the target.
That is a simple explanation of the golf swing. Often, too much attention is paid to the upper body - what the hands and arms are doing - if you carry out the correct movement in the lower body, the upper half, (if kept relaxed), will follow and fall into the correct place, producing a more powerful and consistent golf swing.
