Dr. Yessis Sports Training Blog

According to various golf pros, the most important part of the swing is the first few feet from address to about halfway back. They state that by stopping at this position, you can check to see if your hands are swinging the club back properly, i.e., with the toe of the clubhead pointing at the sky.

This of course is effective movement of the club on the take-away as it allows for the wrist cocking action and continuation of the backswing. Without the arm rotation to get the toe of the club pointing upward, a full backswing is not possible. Thus it can be said that the first part of the backswing is most important for taking a full backswing, but is this the key to an effective swing or hit?

More important is the position of the club as it moves down in the downswing. Having the above described club position in the downswing does not guarantee that you will have good contact. In fact, if you held this position to the moment of contact, you would most likely miss the ball. The clubface would not be perpendicular at contact.

When the club is almost level to the ground on the downswing, the following arm and wrist actions are most important for a good hit, not the position of the club. From a clubhead position with the toe pointing upward, you must still break the wrists and rotate the arms in order to bring the clubface back to the square-to-the-ball position to make effective contact with the ball.

Thus, rather than concentrating solely on the backswing, which is important and can be mastered relatively easily, concentrate more on the downswing, especially the wrist break and arm rotation to determine the end result of your shot. If you are weak in these actions you can do some specialized strength exercises to improve and enhance these actions.

For information on these exercises see the book Explosive Golf and the Explosive Golf DVD for demonstration of the exercises.