The "Nicklaus" Head Swivel

I recently watched another great video by Shawn Clement on head position and lag and tried something he mentioned, and this alone has made a huge impact on my game from the first try. It directly relates to that universal golf fundamental: Stay behind the ball or keep your head behind the ball.

When you address the ball in your standard manner, turn your head 20-deg to the right and then tilt the right side of your head 20-deg down. Just your head…not your torso, so perform it as a "1-2" move after address. Your left cheek should be behind the ball, and your right ear pointed down to the ground, as if you were trying to drain water out of it. The head is both behind the ball and tilted to the right; if you've been on top of the ball, this will completely change your perspective of the golf swing…and for the better.

Bradley's Head Movement

Why does this make a difference for me? First, the turn to the right (move 1) presets the head in a good position to allow a full, relaxed torso turn without any upper-body sway (i.e., the head is not blocking the left shoulder). This alone helps prevent a reverse pivot, because the head is not blocking the left shoulder. Second, the downward tilt (move 2) presets good secondary axis tilt away from the target, necessary to hit inside-out and to retain lots of lag for effortless power; you can't maintain tilt away from the target if your head is level or leaning left.

In addition, I monitor the following points: The 20-20 head swivel applies to the neck and head ONLY; be careful that you're not turning and tilting your torso more than the standard setup position, which can cause fat shots and shanks (remember, it's a "1-2" head movement only after standard address). The club head is lightly touching the ground behind the ball--almost hovering. I also let the club head lag my hands on the takeaway, keeping the club head outside my hands and ensuring my wrists are relaxed, so that I can sense a loaded club at the top and better retain lag coming down. Keep the club face pointing at the ball during the takeaway. Grip: Use a somewhat strong left hand grip and a neutral to weak right hand grip for most shots (alterations can be used to shape shots). I now understand Clement's analogy of "hammering into a door frame" and why one's head must be behind the ball (Would you hammer into a door frame with your head in front of it? Of course not; you wouldn't be able to see it or get any leverage). Though the 20-20 head swivel hinders the tendency of the upper-body to sway to the right on the backswing, the hips can still sway to the right, so be aware of this--all that's necessary is a rotation of the torso; no additional rightward shifting is necessary. I believe there are only a few universal requirements for a good golf swing, such as a FLW and forward shaft lean, and I also believe that staying behind the ball through impact is one of them.

If you dig deeper, you'll discover that Jack Nicklaus--arguably the greatest golfer of all time until Tiger gets his crap together--did this very thing as his swing trigger. And then you'll find out that he got it from Sam Snead. And then you'll see that Bobby Jones did it too. So there's something to it. It may look weird in the modern golfing era, but it has really helped my swing.

You'll also see that all modern pro golfers get behind the ball through impact; most simply don't preset it the way Nicklaus and Snead did at address or as a swing trigger--they achieve the correct head position while in motion, which contributes to the illusion that they stay on top of the ball because of their address positions. Examine the image of Keegan Bradley above. The vertical green line represents the back of the golf ball at address. The colored boxes mark his head positions throughout the swing: red is at address, yellow is at the top, and the green box is at impact. His head position at address is level and right on top of the ball, but by impact his head is well behind the ball's position and tilted right. The modern way to achieve Nicklaus' head position is to move into it during the swing; amateurs like me are better off presetting it address and leaving it there, as the former requires greater timing.

Another reason that this probably makes a difference for me is that I'm right-handed but left eye-dominant, which is not typical. Thus, I'm getting my left eye right on back of the ball.

You have to swing the club. To do that, your body must be in position, beginning with your head, which needs to start behind the ball and stay there all the way through impact.

Jack Nicklaus: My Lifetime Principles For Great Golf

First, it is a positive move, like the forward press of the hands, from which to start the backswing. Second, turning the head to the right makes it possible to take a longer, freer turn with the whole body than would be possible if the head were held straight to the front. Third, and most important, it is a method by which we help brace ourselves against swaying to the left on the downswing and moving our body out ahead of the ball at impact—a sure way to ruin a golf swing.

Give Every Shot A Cockeyed Look - 02.17.64 - Jack Nicklaus 

[Sam] Snead suggests that if we tilt our head slightly in the direction of our backswing, it will relieve a lot of the tension in the back and left side that keep us from making a full turn. 

Snead Says, "Tilt Your Head To Help Relieve Tension During Your Backswing" 

Jack Nicklaus was famous for turning his chin to the right before he took the club back. He moved his chin (head) to the right so that he [could] turn freely during the backswing.
Also, tilt your head slightly to the right at address. Because your spine should be tilted to the right at address, your head should be tilted as well. 

The Head Movement during the Golf Swing 

Most people's dominant eye is on the same side as their dominant arm, leg, etc. However, despite being right handed, I am left eye dominant. So is Jack Nicklaus. 

3Jack Golf Blog: The Dominant Eye and Golf 

Joe Dante, one of America’s best known teaching professionals, from his book Four Magic Moves To Winning Golf. “Keep the head still.” This impossible advice has been given in one form or another for about as long as there has been any literature on golf: “Keep your head down.” Keep your head still.” Keep your head fixed.” “Keep your eye on the ball.” “Don’t lift your head.” “Don’t look up.” You’ve heard these directions a thousand times. If they would only say, “Keep your head back,” they would be much closer to being right. 

Expert Advice - Head Movement 

The best way to stay behind the ball is to start with your head positioned behind the ball in your set-up. As you swing, keep your head from moving in front of the ball. You’ll turn through the ball correctly, resisting any tendency to lunge forward in the downswing, which can cause poor contact and any number bad shots. 

It’s vital, however, that we make sure our weight moves to our front foot to begin the downswing. In an effort to stay behind the ball, many inexperienced golfers hang back on their back foot during the downswing, the dreaded reverse pivot. The result is usually a weak push or slice.

Golf Tips; Stay Behind the Ball 

Staying behind the ball doesn’t mean limiting your rotation or your weight shift toward your forward side. Rather, staying behind the ball means keeping your spine tilted away from the ball at impact and bracing against a strong left side. 

Slice Killers! | GolfTipsMag.com

The most difficult thing for the average golfer to do, in my opinion, is to stay behind the ball. He has a tendency to move ahead of the ball with the body, and in doing so he develops an outside-in swing which causes such familiar troubles as slicing, shanking, and topping. This is particularly true on the drive, which so many players try to hit with too much power. 

Staying Behind The Ball 

The point is…you need to have tilt behind the ball at address and tilt behind the ball at impact with your weight moving toward your front side…and you need to find a feel that gets you there. 

Tilt behind the ball at impact 

If you start with your head directly over the top of your belt buckle then you must move your head over to your right shoe on the backswing. If you start with your head more toward your right shoe than your belt buckle, you won't need to move as much. 

Golf Instruction: Keep Your Head Still 

In Harvey Penick's, The Little Red Book, published in 1992, page 75 is entitled "Stay Behind the Ball" "All great golfers move their head slightly backward before and during impact, but never forward. A golfer must stay behind the ball. I mean set up with your head behind the ball and keep your head behind the ball. If you move your head forward during your downswing or through impact, you will hit a wee, ugly shot, probably a pulled slice." 

Keep Your Head Back and Behind the Ball Through Impact! Six Top Golf Pros Agree 

During the transition, his head naturally moves forward with the weight shift to the left side and his head gets further out in front of the ball by the time he arrives at impact. This forces him to release the club early just to make contact. 

How to Keep Your Head Behind the Ball in the Golf Swing 

Here's an easy way to help keep your head back and have an aggressive release. Simply focus your eyes on the back inside quadrant of the ball at address and remain focused on that spot on the ball until after impact. Doing that will guarantee that you keep your head behind the ball. 

Big Play: Ted Potter Jr homemade swing 

If you want to increase your clubhead speed while reducing tension, learn to lag―swinging the clubhead away from the ball last. Begin the backswing by rotating the upper body, while keeping the hands and arms passive. If the arms are truly relaxed, they’ll only move as a result of the torso turn. The clubhead holds its address position until everything else is in motion; once it moves, it “lags” behind the body. 

Lag Behind to Get Ahead

Do the Twist

As a former slicer, you may--through various compensations--have developed a hook that occasionally--or maybe usually--turns into a vicious hook. On a bad day, you pull-hook a lot, which is partly left over from your slicing days. And then suddenly one day, you'll go back to slicing the crap out of the ball. And you'll marvel to yourself and wonder why and set out trying to hook the ball again. That's golf. Fun huh? But wait! Maybe you've never broken the slicing curse and have resigned yourself to trying to make the slice work.

The Thumb Press

I've posted before about ways to square the club face and ingredients for various ball flights. If you start slicing the ball (i.e., curving left to right unintentionally), your club face is open to the path upon which the club head is moving; this is why you can hit a pull-slice (ball starting left of target usually with an outside-in path), straight-slice (ball starting at target usually with an in-out-in path), or push-slice (ball starting right of target usually with an inside-out path). So path has an effect, but you can see that slice basically means 'open club face' in all three situations. If you're hitting a push-slice (starts right and curves further right), you're almost there and just need the club face to close through impact! If you're hitting a pull-slice, you've got the most work to do, because you're likely over-the-top (OTT) with an open club face. But in all cases, the club face must be squared! That should be your first priority; then you can work on ingraining the correct plane and swing path. As the saying goes, you can go from slicing to hooking to good golf but can never go directly from slicing to good golf.

Many fine instructors, such as Brian Manzella, teach that OTT (and many other related golfing errors like flipping) is a symptom of an open club face, not the cause (though you'll find others that absolutely attribute a slice to an OTT path). Why is OTT a symptom instead of the cause, some say? Because in an effort to compensate for the open club face, you move OTT (and again, the open face could be causing other swing flaws) in an unconscious attempt to get the ball moving left, so that the ball might slice into the fairway instead of the right woods. So OTT may very well be a compensation for the open club face, not the cause. This means that the open club face is actually discouraging you from hitting inside-out, which is the correct path into the ball!

Assuming a netural to slightly strong left hand grip, you should use a dorsiflexed right wrist (DRW) to hit the golf ball, because you'll ensure a flat left wrist (FLW) at impact, and this may be one of the few universal fundamentals espoused by all great golfers and teachers. And I believe there are various places in the swing sequence where great golfers achieve this position. Some great golfers cup the left wrist at the top (e.g., Hogan, Couples, Watson, Clement, etc.) but dorsiflex the right wrist coming down (thereby flattening the left wrist). Others (e.g., Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker) achieve a FLW at the top, and thus, a DRW at the top before starting down. And some teachers espouse creating the DRW as you move off the ball in the takeaway (the point of this blog post). Most weekend and high-handicap golfers should only hinge or dorsiflex the right wrist in the backswing and forget the temptation to squeeze more power out of the conventionally taught upward vertical wrist cock (i.e., radial deviation or thumbs pointing more and more toward you); vertical wrist action feels powerful (and it may be marginally), but it will cup the left wrist and straighten the right wrist at the top, and that all has to be undone properly by impact to square the club face.

Duval's Closed Takeaway

Grip strength plays a role on the left wrist. Stronger grips tend toward cupping at the top, while neutral to weak grips tend toward flattening or bowing at the top. Want to slice on purpose? Use a weak grip and then cup the left wrist at the top--instant banana ball without major compensations. That's actually a good combination to use in a greenside bunker; but I digress.

Why is a FLW at the top antithetical to left wrist radial deviation at the top? Because of biomechanics. It's easy to see how a FLW limits or restricts radial deviation (i.e., upward vertical wrist action); the more you cup or dorsiflex the left wrist, the more you can vertically cock the left wrist up and create what Shawn Clement calls 'snuff boxes.' With a FLW at the top, the left wrist is restricted and can't radially deviate more than 90 degrees, which is all that's needed--especially by weekend golfers. Likewise, the DRW can radially deviate slightly but is prevented from going too far because of the blocking action of the FLW.

Too much vertical wrist cock can contribute to collapsing at the top (in addition to opening the face), especially with weekend golfers. In Stricker's case, he uses very minimal vertical wrist action, and so he's very consistent and long enough to score well against the best professionals; he may have the best professional golf swing for amateurs to mimic because of its simplicity and minimal vertical wrist action; however, he uses plenty of right wrist dorsiflexion!

And now for the point of this post: Using one of Brian Manzella's teaching points (which other teachers such as Joe Dante and Tom Tomasello have also espoused in one form or another), try setting the club face in the correct position early--even as you take the club back, using only one conscious wrist motion. Manzella calls it "twisting" the club (i.e., "twistaway"), such that you dorsiflex your right wrist, palm down, without radial deviation, as you take the club away. The left wrist flattens immediately; it may even arch or bow slightly, and the back of the left hand faces slightly towards the ground. The club face is pointing more down at the ball, as you take it away, staying square to the arc (some detractors would argue "closed to the arc"). Then take it to the top (the club face pointing more skyward than a slicer is likely used to), keeping in mind that you must keep good width, good lower body pivot to start the downswing, and then return the DRW back to the inside part of the ball.

Some notes of caution about the downswing. You'll notice, when you "twistaway" like this on your takeaway, your right palm is roughly on top of the shaft, which means that your right arm is above your left arm. You should immediately discern that you can't come back down exactly the same way, or you'll be OTT, hit pulls, pull-hooks, tops, toe shots, and produce thin, toe-deep divots. During your downswing, you have to shift left (left hip bump over the left ankle) and your arms sort of reverse positions: The right arm feels as if it initially comes down UNDER the left arm (instead of on top of the left arm as it was in the takeaway). The right shoulder feels like it's moving down towards the right pants pocket. In a sense, you're opening the face up just slightly as you come down, because a strong lower body move to start down--in addition to adding tremendous power and great sequencing--has an opening effect on the club face that counteracts the closing affect of the palm-down DRW. This really puts you in a powerful impact alignment, pressuring the shaft, with the hands leading the club head down, with a FLW and DRW right wrist. You're making a bit of a loop--back steeper and closed, and down shallower and a bit more open, instead of trying to go back open and then close the face quickly on the way down (what's conventionally taught but is very tough to do consistently). In reality, your wrists aren't changing positions at all to create this more open club face position; your body and arms are changing to allow for the correct contact, so that your right palm comes back down a little more to the inside of the ball, as opposed to on top of the ball (which is how you executed the "twist" takeaway). Using the "twist" takeaway, get the feeling that the right arm and right hand are coming UNDER the left on the way down and you'll hit inside-out with a club face that's closed just enough--not too much, and with no extra, crazy squaring manipulations needed on the way through.

You no longer have to swing OTT, cast, or flip to keep the ball from going right; you've removed the cause. You no longer need to rotate the hands over in a flash to close the club face. You have to learn to trust that you can hit inside-out, start the ball to the right, and then draw it back to the left, because you've already ensured a square club face. No manipulation coming down is necessary, other than just starting down properly. Manzella teaches this in his "Never Slice Again" video, but he's also published parts of it on his web site and in Golf Magazine. Joe Dante's "Four Magic Moves" book is also an old classic that covers this precept. Many others teach very similar concepts, and just as many are opponents of this kind of thing (like many golf theories--lots of contradictory opinions, with everyone of them thinking their way is the "right" way).

Duval Closed at Top

Are there touring pros who are or have been shut or appear shut at the top? David Duval, Zach Johnson, Lee Trevino, Graeme McDowell, Greg Norman, Boo Weekly, Payne Stewart, Tom Lehman, Tom Weiskopf, and Dustin Johnson to name a few. But remember that this "shut face" position can be achieved at the beginning of the downswing or at any point before impact, and many pros, including Tiger Woods, do it this way (i.e., club face angled more toward the ground coming into impact due to the right palm rotating down toward the ground). Hogan went from cupped at the top to bowed left wrist at the bottom. Taking the club back already in this position and keeping it that way prevents the timing issues associated with achieving the position on the way down--very important for weekend golfers!

Why do you think you slice, because you come ‘over-the-top’? Reverse Pivot? Cut across the ball? ‘Hang back’ on your back foot, etc.? Nope. You may do one or all of the above, but these ‘flaws’ don’t cause the slice, you do them because you slice. You slice, because the clubface is too open. Period. Fix the clubface, and the slice goes bye-bye forever. The compensations will often also go away quickly when they are no longer needed.

Brian Manzella - Never Slice Again!

Once the hands move beyond the right thigh, the right wrist will start bending back which is classified as "dorsiflexion." This bending back of the right wrist creates the corresponding "flat left wrist" that is so well known in golf instruction.

As the backswing continues to progress beyond the right thigh area and the wrist bends back, the right elbow will start to fold. The right elbow actually does not travel very far in a good backswing. It simply folds and points toward the ground as the right palm faces the sky in the classic "waiters’ tray" position at the top.

Right Wrist Action for the Perfect Golf Swing

The best way to describe the right arm on the downswing is that it should be "pushing down and out."

"Pushing down" allows the right arm to actively straighten while maintaining its bend in the right wrist.

"Out" is the second half of the equation as it directs the right arm to deliver the club head from the inside. Most players need to feel as if they are driving the right arm not only "down," but "out." I often times describe this feeling as if the right arm is being directed more towards right field.

TPC News and PGA TOUR Golf Events - TPC.com

The down cock of Hogan and Garcia has nothing to do with achieving distance. It is the maintaining of the cock [the hinge or DRW] in the right wrist until waist high in the down stroke that produces club head speed. The left wrist cock is unnecessary mechanical motion that must be recovered from. The left wrist cock[s] in a plane that is 90 degrees to the plane of the swing. Left wrist cock is one of the most unnecessary and hardest to recover from mechanical motions in golf.

"The Professor" Jack Kuykendall Answers Your Questions

When it is done, without moving the hands other wise, the right hand breaks backward at the wrist and the left hand breaks forward or inward, the hack of the left hand going under and facing, in a general way, toward the ground.

The Golf Backswing Part 3: The Thumb Press

Good wrist action is no wrist action. This is something I have been saying for years and years. It's one of my Surgisms. Yet, every so often I get a critic who is adamant that I actually cock my wrists. Well Surgites, today I'm going to let the video do the talking!

No Wrist Cock, PERIOD! | Swing Surgeon

A strong grip is by far the most common error I see with players who curve the ball too much from right to left. The right hand drifts to the right--away from the target--and moves underneath the club, as shown in the photograph below. With the right hand in this position, it will tend to turn over too much through impact. Because the position of the right palm roughly replicates the clubface, it's easy to see why this turning over of the right hand causes the clubface to close and the ball to curve left.

Hank Haney: Stop Losing Shots To The Left : Golf Digest

As you drive through the hitting zone, give the ball a slap with your right hand, changing your right wrist from bent back to bowed. Check the positions at left to see what it looks like.

Make a Power Release - GOLF.com

I have had tremendous success with this technique – primarily, I believe, because it taps into a [slicer's] instinct that screams – in order for my ball to not leak right I must swing as much to the left as possible. Essentially the drill gives the golfer a reason, something they’ve never had, to swing to the right.

• Tilt the face down 30 degrees (1 hour)
• Take normal grip
• Adjust shoulders and arms to square the face at address
• Swing out to right field

From Slicer to Bomber | Andrew Rice Golf

If you understand the above-described biomechanical maneuver, then you should realize that this "twistaway" maneuver is automatically/naturally used by a TGM hitter, who doesn't use a takeaway swivel action.

Backswing

At this stage [downswing, shaft parallel to the ground] the right wrist should still be bent back fully but the palm is now facing the ground not the sky. With the palm facing down this insures the clubface is also facing down or toward the ball and requires no scooping or manipulation to be squared up in time for the hit.

Golf Lag: Stop Casting, Lag like Tiger Woods

A clubface that points down was said to be a closed clubface. We now know that this is not true and in fact is a square clubface position. The clubface angle should match the angle formed by the back of your left hand on the takeaway. The more you have to manipulate the hands, the more clubface control you will lose. So next time you swing a club look at the toe position at your waist height. Is it open, square, or closed? [Toe-up means the club face is open.]

clubface position at waist height | Golfeneur

This golfer eliminated the shank very quickly when we got him to stop rotating the face open during the take-away. At the start, he was rolling his arms, right palm toward the sky, on the backswing, and he changed that to keeping the right palm facing down toward the ground for as long as he could throughout the backswing. Yes, it felt awkward as could be. The shanks disappeared instantly, but returned every time he failed to execute the new move. That’s good. There’s nothing like immediate feedback! But now his solidly struck shots went well left of the target. I explained that he no longer needed to try to flip the club closed through impact to correct the formerly wide-open face. He began to hit far better shots when he felt like he was keeping the face from closing through impact. His sensation was closed back, open down. It worked! Funny game.

The Case for the Face | John Dunigan Golf

The philosophy of the golf swing is that the position of the clubface throughout the entire golf swing is the single most important fundamental there is. It effects all other major fundamentals and is the glue that holds the golf swing together. When we swing the club with a square clubface, we naturally improve the path in which the club head comes into the ball, the angle that we approach the ball, our ability to get into a great impact position, our acceleration through the shot and our overall rhythm.

What is a Square Clubface?

[Tiger Wood's] right palm twists outwards as he starts the downswing. The motion is as if you are directing traffic to stop coming from your right side. There is a little straightening of the right arm along with the palm rotating to face away from you. This is the little secret that no says much about. Yet it happens in most good golf swings.

One of the biggest misunderstandings of the golf swing is that the hands have to rotate through impact. While this may be partly true, it directs the attention of the golfer to a point in the swing where all is lost already. This golfer has the same odds at getting the clubface squared at impact as me getting into a size 32 pants There’s too much error built into the swing and we already know what’s going to happen.

Secret to Squaring Your Clubface

Do you know why golfers don't change club path on the course? It is because they don't understand and cannot control the club face. When you have a club face that is open, the golfer will always correct this by swinging over the top, or left. Simple.

It's the Club Face Stupid! | Jim McClean

In addition to Dustin Johnson, many tour players have played successfully from a closed-face position, including Zach Johnson, Paul Azinger and Rory Sabbatini. The common denominator amongst them is they all rotate their body very aggressively through impact. This rotation neutralizes the clubface and prevents the ball from curving left. This technique can hold up very well under pressure because these players are not required to consciously close the clubface at any time through impact. Rather, the opposite is true: the harder they rotate and do nothing with the clubface, the straighter the ball will typically fly.

Video: Analyzing Dustin Johnson's Swing : Golf Digest

"David’s [Duval] clubface is amazingly square through impact," says David Leadbetter. "His clubface is closed at the top, the face pointing a bit toward the sky, which along with the strong grip would be a recipe for hooking for some players. But David works the club `under’ on the downswing, a bit like Lee Trevino, and that move can make a player incredibly accurate, especially with the irons."

David Duval’s Golf Swing | Golf Swing Gallery

 

 

Right Arm Width: The Anti-Collapse

Arms Collapsing

One of my biggest golfing faux pas is collapsing at the top of my backswing. My right elbow has a tendency to pull the club back inside too quickly (too flat). Then at the top, in probably some unconscious effort to manufacture a longer swing and get the club parallel to the ground, my right elbow sucks in close to my right side--past 90 degrees--and my left arm collapses. As a result, I would get to parallel, but not like the pros do (through flexibility and athleticism); when I got to parallel, the club shaft appeared to be an inch or so from my right shoulder! It didn't feel this way during my swing, but it looked absolutely horrible in pictures and on video: My left elbow was almost at 90 degrees!!!

Correct Width

My downswing then exhibited an over-the-top move and a flip at the bottom.

My teaching pro had me work on correcting the collapse by using a partially deflated rubber ball between my elbows as a drill to show me the correct feel for keeping my arms extended, wide, and in front of my chest during the takeaway and backswing. He told me that my elbows should maintain the same distance relationship (or near to it) at the top of my backswing as they did at address; the right elbow and arm should not be pulled behind oneself--an optical illusion we all think we see in the pros. The ball drill felt very strange indeed; it felt "wrong" to me. I had never really tried the correct feel, which feels shorter, compact, more linear, and vertical (and it really is because it's not as flat on purpose).

Something amazing happened when I watched video of me hitting a ball using the ball drill, besides the fact that I wasn't so collapsed at the top anymore; I had a flat left wrist at impact! A consequence of having a flying right elbow on the backswing, and sucking the club inside so far, was that my right elbow would crash into my right side on the way down--I was trapped! And the only way I could save the shot was to flip the club using my wrists! This made it clear to me--especially for an amateur hacker--that what you do on the takeaway and backswing CAN have a dramatic effect on what follows! (NOTE: Listen to your golf teaching pro!!!)

Many fine golf instructors have noted the importance of an extended left arm to create width in the backswing for power and consistency, and I believe the answer isn't the left arm itself: It's the right arm! The right arm should stay as extended as possible and push the club handle away from one's body, keeping the left arm straight passively. Pressure should be felt on top of the left thumb, and the right palm should face roughly up and to the rear at the top of the swing (as if the right palm is pushing the handle away from the target). The right arm should bend slightly (up to 90 degrees at maximum), but it shouldn't go below 90 degrees the way I was doing before, sucking the arms in close to the body and collapsing the left arm in the process. The hands can go as high as head level but shouldn't really go any higher, or the arms will disconnect from the body; also, the extension should only go as far as the left arm will allow while maintaining a slight bend in the right arm (again, ensuring no loss of connection). The club DOES NOT need to reach parallel to hit a powerful shot; don't worry about the pros who can reach parallel--they're pros and you're not!

This brings me to another point when it comes to addressing your swing problems: Don't be afraid to exaggerate a swing change, even if you might be overdoing it at first. You've got to give your body a new feel, and many great teachers such as Martin Hall, Hank Haney, and Butch Harmon advocate for exaggeration to ingrain a change in your game. As Martin Hall often says, "If you keep on doing what you've been doing, you'll keep on getting what you've been getting."

Coupled with maintaining a stable lower body (i.e., another of my errors was rotating my hips freely with my upper body) through torso rotation, I can consistently hit the middle of the club face this way. An overacting lower body can also contribute to sucking the club too far inside and its follow-on recovery moves of going OTT and flipping.

Another way to think of this: Try to keep your hands as far from your chest at the top as they were at address.

The second thing to consider is does the leading arm really bend on it's own? The answer is "no". It is the rear arm that pulls in. When your back arm collapses or pulls into your body, your front arm will naturally collapse. For this reason, our focus must be on the width that our rear arm is creating and maintaining.

Keep Your Left Arm Straight

If the arms travel across the body in the back swing, as is seen in many players, the club will be too far behind the body and it will take excessive hand rotation in the down swing to square the clubface. Conversely, if the arms move away from the body in the back swing the club will be above plane and the club will be returned on an outside to in path through the ball.

To learn to correct role of the arms, place a soccer ball between your arms in your address position and take some practice swings. Make a back swing keeping the ball between your arms and in front of your chest. This will ensure that the arms stay connected to your body coil and they remain in front of your chest with good width. All the ingredients you will require to generate good club head speed.

Golf in Japan

One of the staple tips we’ve heard over the years is “Keep your left arm straight.” By trying to do this, you could be preventing rotation and stalling your arm speed so why don’t we take the water skiing example and think of the lead arm like a rope where the roll of the right arm is to keep it tight – for the whole swing. There are a lot benefits to this including maintaining width in the arms, sequencing the arms with the chest, preventing the clubface from rolling open on the backswing, and creating just the right amount of lag on the downswing. Amateur golfers dream of lagging the golf club and in doing so create angles that are too much to control and ultimately can’t control them leading to the exact opposite at impact. Try going for an inch of lag instead of a foot.

The Backswing

At the top of the backswing, many amatuer golfers collapse their arms here as well. This is a crucial point in the swing where you want to make sure you have good extension and width. The right arm and elbow naturally folds as you swing to the top and your wrists are set and firm. The hands should also be a good distance away from your head or body. Collasping your arms will cause your hands to get too close to your head and you'll lose your golf swing width.

Golf Swing Width

To increase width, you need to increase the spacing between your right hand and right shoulder (right-handed golfers) during your backswing.

Practice taking a backswing holding the golf club with just your right hand. Keep your right hand as far away from your body as possible during these practice swings. During this drill, reach your right hand toward the sky at the top of the backswing.

Golf tip: Remember, in your backswing, width equals power

When Nick came to me, his hands were too active on the backswing, which made his swing arc narrow--a big killer of distance. The club got too far to the inside, so he would shift his weight away from the target on the downswing to get the club back in position to hit the ball.

I wanted Nick to feel his arms staying in front of his body as he turned back. We worked hard on building a backswing where his right arm and hand were as far away from his head at the top as possible. This gave Nick, who is 6-feet-2, tremendous width in his swing arc.

Nick Watney's Power Pointers

One of the biggest problems that many golfers have is an inability to generate and maintain sufficient width in their backswings.

That problem could be related to flexibility but it’s also possible that it’s just a swing flaw relating to issues such as a narrow swing arc, a takeaway that’s too flat or laid off, or just a complete collapse of the arms at the top of the swing.

Widen your swing arc to create more power

Because a swing change involves either a totally different motion or a wholesale change in your grip or setup, there's no way it should feel comfortable.

The best way to make a radical change like that is to take slow-motion swings, sometimes exaggerating the movement. Then you repeat it over and over.

Butch Harmon: How To Make A Swing Change