In Sync - How to create a chain reaction and nail the key moves

There are two specific areas of movement in the golf swing that will always go a long way towards determining the quality and consistency of your ball striking: (1) the sequence of motion that you create in the first move away from the ball to this first key checkpoint and (2) the first move down from the top of the backswing – the transition, as you throw the gears into reverse. The better your moves are on the way to the top and then from the top, the better you will be through impact.

Later on in this article, one of my regular students – and one half of Italy's newly-crowned World Cup winning team – Francesco Molinari, joins me to help put theory into pretty useful action. But before then, let me explain exactly how to go about perfecting your first moves away from the ball – the critical first link in the backswing chain. This is something you can work on at home indoors (preferably in front of a full-length mirror) this winter and any improvement you make will manifest itself in a more on-line backswing and greater consistency into the ball.

Once you have established a good set-up position (and let me stress there is no substitute for working on the basics of grip and set-up), the key to the sequence of moves you see across these pages is to get the unit of your left arm and left shoulder working freely away from the ball without too much movement of the right side of the body early on. The knees and the hips – while offering stability and resistance – are really not working at all in terms of initiating this early momentum. You will notice there's very little right shoulder movement – the clubhead is set in motion as a result of this all-important left shoulder/left arm 'sweep'.

Finding neutral territory with your first move

When the club shaft reaches parallel to the ground in the early stages of the backswing, it should also be parallel to the target line (as you see above). When the club then reaches the top of the backswing, a line up from the ball through the right shoulder should cut through the butt-end of the club.

Those are the two checkpoints I look out for to determine a backswing is neutral. [I should add a rider to this to say that wherever the shaft is pointing at the top of the backswing is more dependent on how you use your hands and wrists. And I don't believe you should ever get too fussed with that – it relates purely to how you use your wrists. The key to this checkpoint is that you consistently arrive at the top with the but tend on plane – too many players and coaches, in my opinion, get too fussed with the shaft and clubface positions.]

But back to the lesson. Let me stress again, one of the keys to success is that you generate a good sequence of motion from the start. And the practice exercise you see above is one that will really help you to nail getting your backswing working on track. Laying a second club on the ground, with the shaft running parallel to the ball-to-target line, gives you an easy point of reference as you rehearse your takeaway sequence.

Out on tour, you tend to find these days that players are so well coached from a young age that the majority are very close to neutral. But it's important that you identify with your own swing tendency. If you're a player who tends to pick the club up a little outside the line, then to get on more of a neutral track you have to feel as though you turn the right side of the body a little earlier to take the club away more on the inside. If you're a player who is naturally inclined to take the club on the inside (more common), you need to do the opposite: you need to feel you do less work with the right side and sense the sweep of the left shoulder and left arm to get closer to neutral.

Somewhere between these extremes you will find neutral territory – and the more consistently you do that, the better the line and the shape of your swing will be.

Turn & stretch to achieve width and coil at the top

The thrust of my teaching concept is that I want my students to relate to certain feelings that tie-in with a good athletic movement. So, through the early stages of the takeaway I talked about a sense of sweeping the club away with the left arm and shoulder (while the right side of the body remains fairly passive). That primes the motion and gets the club and your body 'in sync', ready to complete the journey to the top. So, what's the key feeling you need in order to do that?

Well, from halfway back, I want you to forget the hands and arms and focus on just winding the right shoulder against the resistance of the lower body. The feeling is that you start the club away from the ball with the sweep, and then take it on to the top with the right shoulder turn and right arm stretch to achieve width and coil – as I'm stressing to Francesco here (above).

You want your legs to offer as much resistance as possible – in the case of a young and fit tour player that left knee hardly moves at all. (As you get older, well, you have to make allowances!).

In the sequence below I am slow-motion rehearsing the sequence from halfway back to starting down. The right shoulder completes the backswing, whereupon the left knee reverses the momentum back towards the target, the hips move across and the arms fall into the hitting position. It's that 'squat' move again, and you should work on this in slow motion: feel that as you start down the right shoulder is working down as the left works up, and the weight is moving to the left side. You are then in a position to really spin your body hard through the ball, releasing energy as speed.

This 'squat' move really is one of the classic athletic features of the modern swing, and can be traced to the evolution from hickory to steel shafts, as pioneered by such greats as Sam Snead and Ben Hogan.

Squat & compress as you shift into the downswing

Dynamic body motion at the heart of a sound, athletic swing

Work your body

This drill is a modern standard, and yet I see so many players who get it wrong. They spin their body back and then through with absolutely no hint of dynamic tension being created. But rehearse this exercise correctly and you will experience a series of strong, athletic feelings as you move from the address position to a fully coiled backswing, followed by a springiness in the knees and thighs as you then unwind with this classic 'squat' move before rotating fully through the ball. There is a slightly tilted look of the spine as you move into the downswing before you use the ground as a springboard to rotate all the way to the vertical finish.

Just look at the above sequence of Francesco hitting a driver, and you really do begin to appreciate the way this body action is the heart of a good swing. He turns his right shoulder to coil his upper body, then squats into the downswing as his weight shifts towards the target before releasing not only forwards but upwards. That's the sequence to go after: coil...squat...compress...release – that's a dynamic body action.