Backswing Height? Use it to your Advantage

Backswing Height? Use it to your Advantage

A great backswing doesn’t guarantee a great strike — but a bad backswing definitely makes striking nearly impossible. The backswing height can be utilized to inspire more passive power and strangely enough more backswing chest rotation.

Matching the Backswing Height to an easier Engine

The train of thought that higher hands makes a more difficult swing entered instruction somewhere in the 90s if I’ve understood matters properly. And I get it. More distance from the ball equals more dispersion. But it’s not the full story. You need to think about it from a power perspective. If I’m supposed to make a difficult transition move and lag the club etc (intentionally) then a high backswing is more difficult, BUT if I use the swing arc as my primary source for power then it’s another story.

If you power your swing arc and make it the driver of the entire motion (make the body reactive) then the arc in itself becomes quite simple to perform. And it’s really not a big difference between a low or high backswing then from a difficulty perspective,

How the added Backswing Height affects mechanics

Here’s the strange thing. Going upwards means body rotation. Let me shed some light and invite you for a small test. If you spin your entire body 45 degrees (hips, shoulder, everything) and now from this position just lift your arms straight up. What happens then? The chest rotates. So lifting straight up might add steepness from a depth perspective but it actually creates more shallowing tendencies from your relative backswing rotational position.

How Backswing Height adds power potential

Why did Nicklaus, Watson, Weiskopf and Miller (and the list goes on and on) put their hands towards the sky? Back in the day your persimmon at barely 43 inches together with spinny balls forced you to do everything you could to deliver more power. Backswing height means that you induce more gravitational input in the downswing and this isn’t a small thing.

The initial parts of the downswing, especially in old school golf, acted as the start of the journey that reached it culmination far after the golf ball. Think about it like rolling the a ball down a hill. Now just make the hill slightly higher. That’s it.

Again, this works since you are powering your entire motion with the swing arc engine. That’s what I teach in the FMM Project.

Check out the Forgotten Master Moves homepage here.

The FMM Project – the swing style that I teach – has it’s overview page here.