Sunday, February 15, 2009

Why You Should Shorten Your Backswing

I'm sure you've all seen it. Let's be honest, many of you probably do it yourselves. You move up to the ball. You get yourself all balanced. You make sure you're in line for solid contact. Then you start your backswing and wrap that club so far around your head that you can see it on the other side!

And what happens? By the time your club head gets back to the golf ball, everything is so far out of whack that you're lucky to make contact at all. I know Tiger Woods does it. I know John Daly does it. But we're hardly Tiger or Big John, are we? we need our timing to be perfect. We need our body to be balanced. And what better way to accomplish this than by shortening that mighty backswing? I know you'll be worried about distance, but I assure you that once you shorten that backswing and start hitting the ball solidly more often, the little bit of distance you may lose will be insignificant.

I discovered the magic behind a shorter backswing quite by accident. Since I live in a colder climate but don't want to stop golfing just because of the temperature, I'm forced to wear layers in order to play sometimes. Naturally, if you're dressed in multiple layers of clothing it's difficult to take such a big backswing. What I noticed was that I with my shortened backswing I was hitting the ball solidly and straighter much more often. Any distance I lost was more than made up for with accuracy. In the end, my scores were lower than normal.

Now, for those who don't have to wear layers, consciously shortening your backswing may be a bit tricky. You'll have to work out a little system where you can mentally stop the backswing before you usually do. I would suggest trying to stop it even sooner than you may want to because momentum will take you a little farther than your stopping point most of the time.

I know it may not look as cool. And I know that decreasing your overall distance isn't something most golfers strive to achieve. But straighter shots and lower rounds certainly are. The next time you're at the range, give a shorter backswing a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

By Ken McCarron

This simple tip is going to save you tons of frustration on the golf course.
If you're interested in a more complete swing system that could potentially knock 7-12 strokes off your score in a couple weeks, go take a look here... http://masteryourswing.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_McCarron

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