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This drill video is how to extend to finish your backswing, so a common

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complaint when golfers join the site is that my backswing is too short, I don't

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reach parallel, etc. I'm not here to say that every backswing should reach

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parallel, but we're going to talk a little bit about how you would set the

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club by using more of your spine and less of your arms in order to create that

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full turn. One of the simple drills that I like to use to kind of organize this

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whole body movement for the backswing is when you put the club across your

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shoulders, with a good pivot the shoulder will roughly point somewhere out

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around where the golf ball would be. If you tend to stay flexed forward and you

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are unable to make a full turn, it would end up looking more like this and it

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would

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be pointing kind of out over there. And what'll happen is if I stay flexed

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forward and I make my turn, you can see that my upper body tends to move a

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little

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bit more unless I kind of counterbalance that with what I do with my pelvis,

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but

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the other thing is now because my chest is pointing way down there, I'm not

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able

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to really raise my arms past about this height. So if I have a look of kind of

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like that at the top of the swing, there's not much I could do with my arms or

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my

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hips or in order to create a more full turn. So if that's the case, if I've got

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a

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little bit of upper body sway, if I tend to have my arms bend in order to try

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to

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finish the backswing and get it up to parallel, oftentimes having a fuller body

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movement sets me up for a better position for the downswing. So what that's

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going

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to look like is as I make my backswing, I'm actually going to stand up as I

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side

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bend. So I'm going to turn it into kind of this one little movement that I like

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to teach without the club, which is almost as if my hand is going to stay

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pointed

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at the golf ball and I'm going to reach that up as a hand away. It wouldn't

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make

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sense if I was trying to stay flexed forward because now I wouldn't really be

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able to get it all the way back away from that hand. So I'm going to open my

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chest

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up just like this. Now the important thing is to make sure that the extension

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is

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happening from kind of the mid back or the thoracic spine as opposed to the

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lower spine. So I don't want to be doing this where I'm

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basically arching my lower back. I want to make sure my abs are a little bit

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engaged and I'm going to make that movement just like so. Then I'm going to

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bring my hands together. And what I'll see is that if I'm used to being in this

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flexed forward position, it will feel like my hands are much higher, but they

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're

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higher even though they're kind of in front of me. And that's because when my

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upper body extends, now keeping those arms straight, I'm actually to get

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I'm able to get to a position where if I just hinged my wrist, the club would

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be

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relatively set. So then once I have done that 10, 15 times or so and I have

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kind of this feeling of this upper body extension coupled with rotation

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while keeping the abs engaged, next I can add the club and try to recreate

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that same movement. Now if I were to recreate that movement, bring the club

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across the shoulders. Now that's pointing somewhere in the general area of the

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golf ball. So this is just kind of a breakdown movement of that club across

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your shoulders or the shoulder blade tilt for the backswing. So if you're

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struggling with your upper body swaying off the ball, staying a little bit more

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flexed, this is a good overall idea and concept

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of how to finish your backswing without having your arms bend, without swaying

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off the ball. Now I always like to tie the backswing

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movements to the downswing because unfortunately the backswing by itself,

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you can't really use contact or ball flight as a indicator of if you did a

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backswing movement correctly. So what ends up happening is if I tend to shift

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more like this, I'm going to tend to be more of this upper body dominant pole.

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But if I get more of this side bend extension, I'm going to feel more weight

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in my right leg. I'm going to feel some pressure in that hip

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and that's going to encourage some of the Jackson five, the bump,

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the initiation of the downswing with the lower body. So if you're struggling,

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if it looks like your backswing kind of falls into this category and you have

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sequencing problems on the downswing, this is a good concept for you to kind of

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wrap your head around and experiment with on the range. The normal tendency

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would

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be to get a little bit steep when I start doing this move

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until I work on flattening the clubs from the shoulder because the more that my

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upper body shifts back here, I can actually get steep with my arms,

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but still come from the inside. So when I get a better body pivot,

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what ends up happening is it takes away the ability to compensate with my arm

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movement. So review some of these backswing drills,

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hopefully that helps you understand how to make a full turn if you see your

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arms bending or you see your upper body not quite getting a full turn.

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It's usually this extension, make sure the extension is happening from your

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rib cage, not from your lower back.