7 Steps of the Golf Swing
The following is a view of the golf swing broken into 7 steps using Tiger Woods as the example. Stage 1- 3 are the takeaway. In most cases, it is interesting to see how their break down the key elements into very distinct elements.
Stage 1 (Early Takeaway) – The key here is rotating the chest. One of the challenges for golfers is the
focus on the rotation of the Shoulders. The reason this is a challenge is that the rotation of the
shoulders involves the rotation of the chest PLUS the retraction of the Scapula. Most professional
golfers get the chest rotation out of the way in the early takeaway. You can see the butt of Woods’ club
is still facing his stomach at this point in his swing. You can see a similar early movement from Drew
Storen.
The following is Force Plate Data from the swing of Kyle Berkshire (World Long Drive Champion). You can see that he is actively using his legs to create torque to twist his body away from the target. This allows him to make his rotation without using his arms. In Woods swing, you can see he has not bent the elbow of either arm. A good sign he has not lifting with his arms.
By using the legs to drive the takeaway, pros do not need to use the arms. One of the big differences between pros and amateurs is the amount of lead arm adduction in the takeaway.
One of the keys here is that Wolff retracts and externally rotates which keeping his elbow pointed down. Many Amateurs INTERNALLY ROTATE their right arm in order to take the club back further. There may be confusion with Jack Nicklaus and Jim Furyk who both had a “Flying Elbow”. However, they took the club up more vertically which allowed for the right shoulder to externally rotate even with this motion. You can see the differences in the pictures below. From this position, it is almost impossible to get to the position you see with Bryson DeChambeau common among professional golfers with the right elbow moving down and towards the body.
Why do Amateurs flare out their right elbow this way? It is because they are trying to take the club back
too far and they rotate their arms rather than their chest. The graphic from Athletic Motion Golf
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCPFBRUxLM) shows that an amateur adducts their left arm (and
abducts their right arm) far more than Pros – on average 42 degrees vs 18 degrees for a Professional Golfer. You can see Woods keeps the club in front of him which
means he is turning his chest with his arms. The further you abduct your right arm, the LESS you are
able to externally rotate your right arm. If you take the club back with your arms, you can not externally
rotate and have to continue the backswing with internally rotation. By taking it back too far, you are
giving up the use of the fastest moving joint in the body as you can not get to external rotation of your
right shoulder.
In overhead throwing motions, quarterbacks and baseball pitchers retract their scapula while their arm
is still down and then they raise their arms. This does not work in golf because the arms do not stay up.
Stage 3 (Late Takeaway) – In the late takeaway, Woods lifts his arms which has the effect of upwardly rotating his scapula. He also continues to pronate his forearm. His elbow continues to point downward.
Stage 4 (Transition – THE MAGIC MOVE) – We believe the transition is the key to the golf swing. It also
the least understood and the biggest cause of problems for Amateur golfers. We are going to walk you through a simple formula for what is going to happen:
Squatting + Side Bend + Right Lat Pulldown = Shallowing + Lag of Arms
The left arm follows the rotation of his rib cage towards the target. His right arm moves away from his left arm.
The picture below of Bryson DeChambeau shows a little more clear view of what is being done to pull the right elbow away. By contracting the right lat and bicep, the upper right arm is pulled towards the spine.
Because Woods tilts on his takeaway positioning the right hip higher than the left, pushing into the ground with outer edge of his right foot causes his left side to move forward and downward.
As this weight shift occurs, there is no movement forward in the right knee.
Look at the movement of Jack Nicklaus’ left foot in the downswing. It actually rotates in the OPPOSITE direction of his hips in the downswing.
You can see the same motion in Sergio Garcia’s swing below. His hips are swiveling in the opposite direction of his left foot.
Why do their lead foot rotate in the Opposite direction? You can see it from the pictures below of Ernie Els swing. He begins his lateral shift to the left well before the end of his backswing. Many think he is starting his downswing with his lower body when he makes this lateral shift. However, you can see from these images, he is still rotating away from the ball with his hips as he shifts forward. This means his right side of his lower body is continuing the backswing.
The downward movement that is common in this transition move leads to a squatting position with the most most famous squat being Sam Snead shown below. The squatting motion facilitates the separation of the movement of the right and left because of basic geometry. If the hip moves downward and feet do not move, then the right and left leg need to separate to accommodate the more limited space between the hips and feet. Try separating your right and left leg standing up straight – not really an option. Most amateurs do the opposite of squatting and stand straight up.
If you take a look at Kyle Berkshire’s force plate, you can see the importance of the squatting motion in the golf swing. Berkshire builds up a massive amount of torque by creating 2 opposing forces – a horizontal force pulling the body away from the ball (backwards) and a rotational force that is trying to rotate the body towards the ball. The rotational force peaks just after the horizontal force moves from backwards (away from the ball) to forwards (towards the ball). The point of maximum torque is the deepest part of the squat where the right and left knee are parallel.
While he does not use squatting to separate the movement of his right and left leg, you can see Jose Altuve does use the freedom of not planting his left side to rotate his left side and does end up in squat position (relative to his starting point) just before he moves the bat towards the ball.
One of the most discussed aspects of the downswing is the “shallowing of the club”. Look at Tiger from setup to squat in downswing. His squat has allowed him to shift his hips forward and rotate his left leg towards the target while keeping his right leg in place. In addition, his head has moved down and away from his hips relative to setup which has led to side bend on his right side. As a result, his right shoulder has dropped and begun to tilt downward. This leads to a formula: Squatting Forward + Side Bend to the Right + Right Lat Pulling Down = Shallowing + Lag
You can see how the various pieces come together to create incredible power in the transition in the
photo below:
• Right Lats retract and downward rotate the scapula – creating power and not having scapula
move with rib cage
• Left Pec – resists rotational movement of the club towards the target creating torque
• Squat Starts Left Leg and Rib Cage Toward Target – squatting downward will cause the left leg
to start towards the target and this will pull the rib cage with it.
• Squat Keeps Right Leg Moving Away from Target – this is the separation seen in the right and
left side. The Squat initially causes the right hip to continue to rotate away from target.
• Squat Limits Rotation of the Hips – allowing the arms time to “stay in front of the hips” and
avoid getting trapped. This is because the left leg rotates while the right leg does not.
Here I am applying the formula. The first photo on the left is my starting point. It is just my stance with the club lifted slightly. From there, I squat forward, side bend away from the ball, and tighten my right lat. This puts me close to a common position among better golfers as they approach impact.
Stage 5 (Early Downswing) – The early downswing is triggered by the right scapula reaching the end its range. The pulling of the right lat retracts the right scapula which rib cage is being rotated in the opposite direction towards the scapula by the movement of the left side of the body. Once the scapula reaches the end of its range it downward rotates and protracts. The lower body continues its squatting motion until it builds to maximum torque as the knees are parallel to each other. The left pec resists the movement of the club forward allowing the right scapula to downward rotate and protract underneath the left arm. To allow the buildup of Torque, the HEAD CANNOT MOVE FORWARD with the left side of the body. By moving keeping head steady, the body begins to side bend away from the ball. Side bending away from the ball causes left side to rotate towards the target.
You can see the sequencing of the squatting move in the graphic below of Tiger’s downswing:
Look at how late in the downswing Sam Snead held his squat:
Stage 6 (Late Downswing) – In the late downswing, the left leg straightens backwards which rotates the left hip to Tiger’s left and pulls the right hip towards the ball. You can see this in Kyle Berkshire’s force plate data. Right after reaching maximum torque, he peaks in terms of vertical upward force (driven by left leg straightening) and force pulling body horizontally towards the ball (driven by left leg straighten backwards pulling right hip towards the ball).
With his left side straightening, Tiger has 2 options to create room for the now growing left side:
1. Straighten Right Side
2. Increase Side Bend on Right Side
Most amateurs take option 1 while all professional golfers take option 2. You see that Tiger’s head
moves backwards which facilitates increase side bend on his right side which further enhances the
rotation of the body.
At this point Right Scapula is rotating rapidly in protraction. Tiger did not begin his downswing with
protraction so he has sufficient range of motion left in his scapula to keep protracting the scapula past
impact and fully leverage the fasting moving joint in the body.
Stage 7 (Early Follow Through) – The force plate data from Kyle Berkshire’s swing shows that all forces diminish just prior to impact. The only significant force after impact is the vertical force downward from the left leg starting to slow the body down after impact. The lack of force means the body continues its natural momentum through impact which is rotation of the lower and upper body.
Summary
The following are some of the misconceptions about the golf swing that cause difficulties for amateurs:
1. The Swing Starts from the Ground Up – Many amateurs spin their hips and straighten their left
leg far too early in the downswing. The force plate data shows the vertical force from the left
leg straightening occurs very late in the downswing. The reality is that a substantial portion of
the downswing is spent with the legs getting into the squatting position.
2. Pros Start Their Downswing Before the End of Their Backswing – this is misleading. Pros do
start the downswing with the left side of the lower body before the end of the backswing.
However, a more accurate view would be that pros start their downswing with their left side of
the lower body while still completing the backswing with the right side of the lower body.