Improve Backswing Timing with the Rewind to P2 Drill

The rewind to P2 drill is a backswing timing exercise that helps you coordinate how your body moves with how your arms and club move. It is especially useful if your backswing tends to get out of sequence—such as when your body turns too early and then your arms lift late, or when your arms get pulled too far behind you. Rather than simply making another backswing and hoping it improves, this drill lets you rehearse the route back to a solid takeaway position. That gives you a clearer sense of the blend between torso rotation, arm travel, and pressure movement that creates a more organized backswing.

How the Drill Works

In this drill, you first move to the top of the backswing, then slowly rewind back down to P2. P2 is the early takeaway position, just before the club begins to set more noticeably. It is a valuable checkpoint because it reveals whether your backswing started with the right mix of chest turn, hip turn, arm motion, and wrist motion.

At a good P2 position, your chest should generally be pointing in the direction of your hands. Your hips will have turned a little, but your chest should typically be turned a bit more than your pelvis. Your arms are still relatively long at this stage, with only a small amount of wrist set and very little arm bend.

The reason the rewind is helpful is that it changes your awareness. On a normal swing, once you reach the top, your instincts want to begin the downswing and move toward delivery. But when you rewind to P2, you are asking your body to do something different: let the arms lower and reorganize while the torso unwinds only enough to match them. That exposes whether your backswing sequencing was sound in the first place.

This drill is not one you use for speed or ball striking. It is more of a slow-motion, mirror-based training tool. Think of it as a Tai Chi-style rehearsal. You are exploring the motion, not trying to hit a perfect shot from it.

It is most helpful for golfers who have one of these patterns:

The body rotates too aggressively early, then the arms have to lift at the end.
The arms work too far behind the body in the backswing.
The club gets off plane because the arm motion and torso motion are not synced.
The takeaway looks disconnected, with the chest, arms, and club all moving at different rates.

Step-by-Step

Set up in front of a mirror if possible. Use a short iron and begin in your normal address posture. Since this is a rehearsal drill, a mirror gives you much better feedback than a golf ball does.
Move to a correct P2 position first. Before doing the rewind, stop at takeaway and check your alignments. Your chest should be turned enough that it is roughly pointing toward your hands. Your hips should have turned some, but not excessively. Your arms should still look fairly extended, with only a little wrist movement.
Continue to the top of the backswing. From that checked P2 position, complete your backswing in a smooth, normal way. Do not rush to the top. You want to arrive there with balance and enough awareness to reverse the motion slowly.
Rewind slowly back down to P2. From the top, bring the club and arms back down until you reach the takeaway checkpoint again. This should feel more like the arms are lowering while your torso turns back just enough to stay connected to them.
Let the chest “catch up” to the pelvis. As you rewind, notice that the torso is not racing open. Instead, your core is turning in a measured way so that your chest and arms arrive at P2 together. This is one of the main training benefits of the drill.
Allow a slight pressure return into the trail side. One unusual part of this drill is that, as you rewind to P2, you may feel a small amount of pressure shift back into your trail leg. That can feel strange because in a real downswing you would normally be shifting pressure toward the lead side. But remember, you are not making a downswing—you are retracing the backswing.
Pause and check the position. Once you get back to P2, stop and verify that the club, arms, chest, and hips all look organized. If the club is too far inside, too far outside, or the arms look disconnected from the torso, repeat the motion more slowly.
Repeat for several slow reps. Go from the top back down to P2 multiple times. You can also go P2 to top to P2 in a continuous slow-motion pattern. Keep the pace deliberate enough that you can feel the sequencing.
Optionally blend it into a full swing. If you are advanced enough to handle more moving parts, you can rehearse to the top, rewind to P2, return to the top again, and then swing through. But for most golfers, the pure rehearsal version is better because it isolates the movement without adding the pressure of impact.

What You Should Feel

If you are doing the drill correctly, the motion should feel very different from a normal transition. That is a good sign. You are trying to become aware of how the backswing was built, not simulate a real downswing.

Key sensations

The arms lower more than you expect. From the top, it should feel like the arms are dropping back into the takeaway structure rather than the body simply spinning.
Your chest stays connected to your hands. At P2, the chest should feel as though it has turned enough to support where the hands are, rather than lagging behind them.
Your hips unwind only a little. The pelvis is not frozen, but it also is not dominating the motion.
The club feels more organized early. Instead of the shaft getting thrown off plane, it should return to a simple, balanced takeaway position.
Pressure may move slightly back into the trail foot. This is one of the odd but correct feelings in the drill.

Checkpoints at P2

The arms are still fairly straight, not over-folded.
There is only a small amount of wrist set.
The chest is turned more than the hips, but both have moved somewhat.
The hands, chest, and club all look like they belong to the same motion.
The club has not been yanked dramatically inside or lifted abruptly upward.

One of the best signs that this drill is helping is that your backswing starts to feel less segmented. Instead of “turn, then lift” or “pull the arms behind,” you begin to sense a more blended motion where the body supports the arm swing and the arm swing matches the body turn.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Rewinding too fast. If you rush the motion, you will miss the sequencing details that make the drill valuable.
Turning the hips too much on the way down to P2. That usually recreates the same problem you are trying to fix—too much body motion, too early.
Freezing the body completely. This is not an all-arms move. Your torso should still rotate; it just needs to do so in sync with the arms.
Adding too much wrist hinge. P2 is early in the backswing, so the club should not look fully set.
Letting the arms collapse. Excessive elbow bend can make the club look narrow and disconnected.
Confusing the drill with a real downswing. The pressure movement and body action will feel different because you are rewinding, not transitioning to impact.
Trying to judge the drill by ball flight. This is primarily a rehearsal exercise. Use a mirror and your positions, not strike quality, as the main feedback.
Using it when a simpler takeaway drill would do. If your issue is minor, a standard slow-motion backswing rehearsal may be enough. This drill is more specialized.

How This Fits Your Swing

The rewind to P2 drill fits into the bigger picture by teaching you that the backswing is not just about getting to the top. It is about how you arrive there. A good top position is usually the result of good sequencing earlier in the swing, especially in the takeaway and early arm travel.

If your body outruns your arms, you can end up with a backswing that looks disconnected. The club may get too deep, your arms may lift late, and the path can become difficult to manage on the way down. If your arms work too independently, the club can get off plane in the opposite direction. In both cases, the root problem is often timing: the body and arms are not moving in the right proportions at the right moments.

This drill helps you solve that by making you retrace the route to P2. When you can consistently return from the top to a clean takeaway position, you gain a better sense of what the backswing should feel like going up. That awareness can improve:

Backswing structure
Club path organization in the backswing
Arm-to-body synchronization
Plane control at the top
Consistency in transition because the club starts from a better position

It is also a useful drill if you tend to get the club badly off plane. Rehearsing the motion back and forth between P2 and the top can help you discover the specific arm motion that matches your torso turn and keeps the shaft in a better spot. In that sense, the drill is not just about timing—it is also about building a more functional club path in the backswing.

Use this drill as a precision tool, not an everyday default. It is most effective when your backswing has a clear sequencing issue and you need to slow things down enough to feel the pieces working together. When done well, it teaches you a more connected takeaway, a more synchronized backswing, and a cleaner route to the top of the swing.