AXIOM Refine Your Backswing
Sorry, you need to be a member to access this video.
You Are Just Seconds Away - Become a member here!
Already a member? Log in now
Dial in your arms during the backswing to start easily shaping the ball, changing trajectory and power with the backswing that is best for you.
By now, you've got the big picture of how the pros make the swing look so simple and so smooth.
And hit the ball so far with so little effort, and you're probably starting to become a great ball striker in your own right.
But now you're probably starting to think, Okay, now that I'm hitting the ball consistently, I want to start shaping the ball or getting a specific ball flight as my default shot, or I want to change the trajectory of my shot.
So, the next logical step is refining the position of your arms at the top of your swing, because that can have a huge but simple effect on your downswing.
That you allows you to start changing the way that you shape the ball off the tee or with your irons.
You know now that the position of the arms is not nearly as important as the direction of overall movement of your swing.
That clockwise movement is far more important than having your arms in a perfect spot per se at the top.
But understanding how? The position of your arms and the the angles and things that you're creating with your arms at the top and how you arrive there at the top will start letting you understand how to have complete control over your shots.
And just like everything else with the axiom, it's super simple.
But there are two different ways for you to arrive at the exact same position at the top.
And it's going to feel wildly different, depending on if your lead arm or trail arm dominant.
So let's first take a look at the trail arm dominant movement.
The trail arm dominant movement and even if you're lead arm dominant.
You still want to watch this because it's going to help you understand how to achieve the proper positions like the pros at the top.
The lead arm or the trail arm dominant movement is very much like throwing a ball.
How would you get your arm in a position to throw a golf ball down at the ball on the ground? Well, pretty simple as you learn from the takeaway movement, initiating the swing with that little shoulder blade glide so you stay nice and centered.
And getting your arm to float up to the top.
As it folds at the elbow and elevates at the shoulder, your wrist begins to set.
That is a whole backswing.
That's it.
If you can create this simple movement, and of course, you know, it's going to start to fall.
With that clockwise movement to shallow out the shaft, you're in a great position at the top.
Here's a couple simple checkpoints for you.
First your elbow needs to be roughly in line with your shoulder.
Now, of course, it can have.
You can have the old flying right elbow at the top.
Like Jack Nicklaus and Freddie Couples, they did okay with it.
But all you're doing then is increasing variability in your swing.
If you have the time to pound gazillions of balls and you like that feeling, it's fine.
But what we want to see is that elbow pretty close to being in line with the shoulder.
And when you go to do your checkout, that'll be one of your checkout points.
The wrist should also be close to in line with your shoulder and elbow.
They should almost form a straight line, but it will be.
If you have the mobility in your shoulder to get a little external rotation in your arm, that can help as well.
Again, that's a clockwise movement for right-handed golfers.
These are the simple ways to think about your backswing.
Can you do this? Yeah of course you can.
So now if I just did this and I hinged forward and just pulled that shoulder blade back look where I'm at the top of my swing.
That's perfectly fine.
All I need to do now from here bring my left arm up my right arm supports it.
If I do it with the club you can see I'm in a great position at the top and all I did was get ready to throw the ball.
Again, it's not so important that you have these perfect positions at the top.
It's the overall flow of movement and getting the positions in the ballpark that's gonna allow you to play really consistent.
Now if you're lead arm dominant it's gonna feel different.
You're gonna feel that you're swinging your lead arm up and the trail arm is supporting the lead arm at the top of the swing.
They both get in the exact same spot but if you're gonna feel lead arm dominant it's gonna feel wildly different.
So I can swing my lead arm up to the top, bring my right arm up to support it same thing.
Or I can swing my right arm up to get ready to throw and bring my left arm up.
They're in the exact same spot.
There's no difference but the feeling is definitely different.
The more important thing to remember about your backswing is that this is not a destination.
It's not a position that you arrive at it's a move position that you move through.
Remember your hands are never stopping that subtle clockwise motion.
I can make it really exaggerated but that's obviously more like Matthew Wolfe or Ryan Palmer.
We don't need to do that but we can but my movement is very subtle.
When you look at my downswing and backswing my hand movement is very very small.
That reduces variability.
It makes my swing simpler and it helps you again remember that it's not that you're trying to arrive at a specific spot at the top.
It's that you're trying to move through those positions at the top of your swing.
The overall goal of the swing is to make one continuous, one directional movement, always moving clockwise throughout the whole swing.
Until you get to the release, when everything switches over, but that happens automatically as you release the club.
So your goal is just feeling this movement, moving through it, and once you have the basic idea of where your arm should be, it'll be very easy.
If you just kind of go like, Okay, I'm gonna throw a ball, you bring my club up here now.
Feel what that feels like, check it in the mirror and then just feel yourself moving through it.
And now, all of a sudden, you've got the ability to feel and hit the same positions at the pros that we're gonna look at next.
So let's take a look at the best players in the world and see what their arms look like at the top and the variables that you see there.
So that you can start achieving a very simple, very compact, very consistent backswing.
Let's take a look at Justin Rose on the left and Stuart Appleby on the right.
These are two guys who are very different sizes but they look very similar as they get to the top of the swing.
In fact, even the whole swing, the takeaway.
You can see them keeping the club head outside their hands, and when they arrive at the top, they look very, very similar.
Now one thing that you'll notice difference here is that the arm depending on how much elevation you have and basically what elevation would do would be raising your elbow in relationship to your chest so you can see in this case Justin Rose's base of his elbows here the base of his pec is about here because he doesn't have a lot of elevation in this swing that moves his hands to a deeper position which is totally fine a lot of this has to do with height he's a very tall guy and he's hinged forward quite a bit and this is a nine iron so that's gonna affect the position but the goal here is that the arms are staying more or less in front of the body and that's gonna change depending on a little bit have how much elevation you have how much you're hinged forward and how much you rotate obviously if Justin kept turning his body his hands would look deeper but what you're gonna see in a lot of players at the top if we just drop a line straight down from the top it's going to tend to be over the foot Stewart's a little bit deeper he doesn't have as near hinged forward posture as Justin Rose does in this case but you can see at the top both are in a very similar position but they have a little bit different elevation look than some other players we're gonna look at just a moment so you're gonna see that their lead arm has a is very much in close to being in line with their shoulders but they're still gonna bring the club down very much the same way if you compare somebody like myself with Tiger Woods you're gonna see a slightly different angle you can recall from looking at Justin Rose and Stuart Appleby that their lead arms were a little bit shallower so it was more in line with their shoulders Tigers swing and my swing at the top look a little bit more similar my arm is a little bit above my shoulder plane as is Tigers if you dropped a vertical line straight down from the butt of the club you're gonna see over my ankle like you saw in Rose you're gonna see a very similar position in Tiger but again the goal is not so much a position it's the movement and if you move correctly you're going to end up in these positions your arms are gonna be in front of your body it's a very very simple movement based on just what I just showed you whether you're feeling like you're gonna throw which is Tiger is a very right-hand dominant player and in this swing here I am swinging right-hand dominant and then people who swing left -hand dominant are gonna feel that they swing the arm up and to get into that same position but they both arrive at the same spot let's take a look at one more tour pro look at Kevin Na because he's a great balance of being in between you'll see at the top of his swing right as he gets to the top it's the same position I just showed you that right arm is right in front of the right shoulder he's got a little bit of external rotation that right arm that helps set the club on plane he's in a great spot here at the top and it's gonna be very easy for him to shallow out the club on the way down so when you're trying to work on your back of the swing position the top of your backswing position don't make it complicated get it in a reasonable spot either let your lead arm swing up or feel like your trail arm is going to load up to throw and combine those motions to feel a very simple backswing but when you combine the the movement of the axiom with these very simple understanding of the fundamentals of where your arm should be at the top you're gonna start becoming very very consistent because you're taking out a ton of variables out of your swing
Asle
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Asle