Pushing vs. Pulling in the Golf Swing for Consistency

Published: March 3, 2026

I know what you're thinking to yourself. If I could just swing like that and hit the ball like that every single time, golf would be the greatest game ever for me, because I would actually be able to go out and enjoy it all the time. Instead of being frustrated and aggravated chasing balls all over the trees, you could be enjoying the whole course. But the reason that you're not hitting the ball like that and you're not playing consistently as well as you should is one reason — and one reason only — you're pushing instead of pulling.

What on earth do you mean by that?

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The concept of pushing versus pulling is at the very core of Rotary Swing, because it's a physics fundamental. It's going to explain all of the swing faults that you've ever struggled with — coming over the top, losing lag, flipping at impact, the chicken wing, not being able to shift your weight. If any of those describe you, listen up — because I'm going to go inside for just a moment and explain with a couple of props this concept of pushing versus pulling to help you understand why you're struggling with your golf swing. What I have before you is every training aid you ever need to understand the golf swing. I have a children's toy and a flail that I made in my garage. These two things will completely transform the way that you think about the golf swing from this day forward. If you want to see how an AI swing analyzer identifies whether you're pushing or pulling in your own swing, you can upload your video and get an instant breakdown.

So let's start with the truck. How many of you have pulled a trailer down the highway? Most of us probably have. How many of you pushed a trailer down?

Nobody. Right?

What happens when you try to push a trailer? Well, if I pull it, I can just put my finger lightly on this truck and I pull it and the trailer follows perfectly in line all the way down. No problem. And as soon as I start pushing it — what happened? Almost instantly the trailer jackknifes. Since I started pulling, I can go for days. I don't have to pay any attention. I can look at the camera and the trailer follows along. As soon as I back up — what happens? This concept goes back to pushing versus pulling. If the trailer is being pulled by the force of movement, the truck, the trailer will automatically line up its center of gravity with the center of gravity of the truck. Now what happens when you push something is that these two centers of gravity must be perfectly aligned or they will tend to rotate around each other. I could go really slowly and make corrections as I go along to try and keep these two centers of gravity aligned, but I would have to go very slow and make constant corrections. When I'm pulling,

I can basically be a careless driver and this trailer is still going to pull straight

behind without me paying any attention at all. That is the secret of a golf swing. If you're pushing in your swing, you're always fighting against the force of movement. I want everything to work with me. I want things to line up automatically. I want the club to follow my hands. I have to do that by pulling, not pushing. If you start pushing in your golf swing, you lose lag, you come over the top, you flip at impact, you get the chicken wing, you hit fat shots and thin shots — they all come from pushing. As soon as you start pulling, your golf swing is going to be as easy as pulling this trailer down the road. Now there's another concept of pushing versus pulling — a physics principle that applies to centripetal and centrifugal force. As I move this ball and stick around, you'll notice that I don't have to move the stick very much at all, but the ball is moving at pretty good speed. What type of force am I putting on the stick? Well, I'm pulling — pulling in the opposite direction that this ball is always traveling in. So if the ball is going that way, I'm actually pulling it this way. If you make one of these at home, you can feel this for yourself. As soon as I try and push, because this cable is slack, the ball

doesn't

work, and the stick is moving all over the place, the ball moving slow. It's a perfect illustration of most golfers' swings. The stick represents your body. The steel cable represents your arms, club, and shaft. You never try to move the arms, club and shaft directly — you move them by moving the body. This is way more efficient. I can move this stick very little as long as I'm pulling in the opposite direction that I always want this ball to go, and the ball will create a perfect swing plane. Look at how consistent that plane is. If I tried to make the ball go there by pushing it, it's never going to hit the same spot twice. Sound familiar? But as soon as I pull and align myself with the forces of physics — because the laws of physics are a much better golfer than you are — the stick barely has to move. This is why elite players who swing at the highest level look like they're barely moving yet hit the ball a long ways. They're more efficient, working with the laws of physics. Understanding that you should always be moving in the opposite direction that the club is moving is the key to understanding the secrets of the golf swing. We're going to explain more about this in the Rotary Swing five step system. You can also train these exact pulling mechanics with structure and real-time feedback using the GOAT Drill system.

Did the light bulb go off in your head watching that little demonstration of the simple concept of pushing versus pulling? Now, how does that relate directly to the golf swing? It's really simple. Think about the movements that create the most common swing faults that almost every amateur golfer struggles with. Let's start with the over the top move. That is one thing that nearly every golfer who's ever picked up a golf club has struggled with — coming over the top and hitting a pull-slice. It's almost the punchline of every golf joke because it's so prevalent. The whole reason it happens is simple. It's again pushing versus pulling. If you're pushing, you're going to come over the top. If you're pulling, you won't. It's that simple. Let me show you why.

So first let's look at what the over the top move looks like. So many golfers struggle with this — as they start down, they start pushing from the trail side. As you push from the trail shoulder, that moves the club out over the top of the plane. You also have your trail arm, your tricep, and your wrists that can also push, and that's what's going to cause you to start to cast the club. So you push — that's how you create the over the top move. Pushing from the trail leg will also rotate your upper torso, and that will get you coming over the top. Any little pushing movement you create at the start of the transition will always get you coming over the top. Now let's look at the opposite. If I pulled with my lead side, what would happen? Well, I'll take my trail arm completely off the club and pull my arm. Look what happens now — the club is actually coming too far from the inside.

It's a huge change.

Pushing always makes the club go out away from you — it's always going to cause you to cast the club and swing over the top. Pulling drops the club down to the inside. Now of course you have to do both in this swing, and we'll go more in depth on that as you join Rotary Swing and start going through the process of understanding when you should push and when you should pull and when to balance those two out. But the main concept is this: if you understand that the majority of the time you should always be pulling instead of pushing, you'll have more lag. You'll shallow out your swing plane and you'll hit the ball more solidly, more consistently, and more importantly with less effort than ever before — because you're going to maintain leverage in your swing. So just as the trail side causes you to come out over the top, it also causes you to cast the club.

The problem is most golfers are trail-hand dominant and they're playing with clubs suited to that trail hand. So the instinct as you go to the top and load up the trail arm by folding at the elbow, folding at the wrist, and elevating the shoulder — all you want to do is unload all those muscles you loaded in the backswing. And because your trail side is already really dominant, the only thing you can do from this position is extend, release your lag, and cast the club. When you push with the trail hand, you lose everything. Now let's do the opposite. If you've got a club handy, try this for yourself — take just your last three fingers of your lead hand, take the trail hand off, and just pull down. Look how much lag is created. In fact, I can't even release the club because I don't have my thumb on there to push against the shaft.

Again — pulling. As I pull, I maintain more lag than I know what to do with. In fact, I have too much lag. If you're casting the club, you're pushing against the shaft. The same thing happens at impact — if you have a little bit of a flip, that flip comes from your trail wrist being hinged and loaded, and then you push against the club and all of a sudden your lead wrist breaks down, which leads into the next most common flaw: the dreaded chicken wing. Again, you can't create this move unless you're pushing too hard from the trail side. So if you're casting the club, coming over the top, scooping at impact, or dealing with a chicken wing — all four of these extremely common swing faults come from pushing from the trail side. That is a critical concept you need to understand as you work to improve your swing. And it's why the Rotary Swing approach is so powerful and so effective — because it doesn't work against the laws of physics. It works with them.

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