Data-Driven Golf Backswing Flaws & How to Fix Them

🏌️‍♂️ Losing your inclination to the ground during the backswing leads to inconsistent contact and directional issues in golf.

📏 The amount and direction of shoulder tilt in the backswing is crucial for maintaining proper posture and spine angle.

🔄 The lead shoulder should move down toward the ground first, then across the chest and under the chin, not just horizontally.

🎥 Filming your swing from behind helps monitor if your head stays stable, indicating correct posture maintenance.

⛳ Practicing small swings focusing on the downward movement of the lead shoulder can significantly improve contact consistency.

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00:00:00 - I've got Lexi with me here today. We're going to talk about a really unique problem that some people uh struggle with in their back swing. And it's basically just losing your inclination to the ground or changing your posture. And what it can cause is a lot of inconsistency with contact. It can shift your club path. You might see some directional issues with this. So, we'll talk about if this is your problem, a quick way to identify it, and then an easy way to fix it. Awesome.

00:00:29 - So, we're going to use Lexi swing here as an example of what not to do. Okay. So, you hit a you hit a shot. The contact was pretty poor. Would you agree? Yeah. Not my best shot. Not your best. Okay. So, if this is your problem, here's really what you need to look at and what's the data that we're really going to talk through. So, the amount of shoulder tilt you have in your back swing is extremely key to helping your you as a golfer maintain your inclination to the ground. The way that

00:00:50 - it should work is the tour average at address is you're going to have your shoulders tilted 8° to the right for a right-handed player and then your shoulders start to move leftward in the back swing. So you go from 8° right to 24° right to 35 to 37 at the top of your back swing. Okay. So basically your shoulders are constantly tilting to the left. That helps you maintain this spine angle and this posture. So let's take a look at what you do when you make a back

00:01:13 - swing. So when we get to the top of the swing you can see how your shoulders are only 21° to the left. And what's interesting is when you look at this front view here, you can see I've basically traced how your left shoulder is moving. See how it's essentially a straight line. It's horizontal. Okay? So, a lot of golfers out there think that the way to make a back swing in the way that you turn is just to move your left shoulder under your chin. That's partially correct. What should happen is

00:01:36 - it should actually move down first and then away from the target. Okay? So, yours is essentially just a really flat line. So, what I want to do is I want to show you an example of what the best players in the world do and how that pattern looks a little different. Okay? So, here's Cameron Champ. Notice how his shoulders have a bit more of an angle down towards the golf ball from the side view camera. And then just look at the difference in the pattern of how his

00:01:57 - shoulder moves, right? So, it starts here, moves down, and then starts to move under his chin. So, this is going to help you if you really struggle with the consistency of the strike. And we're going to talk about an easy way to fix this if you think this is your problem. Okay. So, let's talk about a drill to fix this. So, like I said, it's really important just to understand how your lead shoulder needs to move. So, that's what we're going to basically talk through and that's the process you're

00:02:18 - going to work through to solve this problem. So, take your address position. The first thing you're going to do is as you start your back swing, you're going to focus on moving your left shoulder more down, okay? And basically more pointing down towards the ground or towards the golf ball instead of trying to move it under your chin. So, basically from setup to when the shaft is parallel to the ground, that shoulder is going to start to move downward. Okay? So that's the first thing you're

00:02:40 - going to practice. You're just going to start the initial part of the takeaway just really focusing on moving your left shoulder down. So do that a couple times just to get the early part of your back swing taken care of. Good. That's way too big of a swing. Don't go that far back. You're going to like hip high. Perfect. Okay. Just little swings like that. Just understand how that movement needs to take place. So rehearse that a few times. Set up moving your left

00:03:01 - shoulder down to when the shaft's parallel. From there, then your left shoulder can move across your chest and under your chin. So then you're going to try to combine those two movements. So moves down first, then across. You'll rehearse that a few times. Do this without a ball. Just make some swings. Just practice this movement. What you should notice is it's going to help you control your contact a little bit more. Okay. One really good way to monitor this would be grab your iPhone camera,

00:03:26 - grab grab a a friend, have them stand behind you and and film from down the line just like we do when we're giving lessons. And what you want to monitor is how your head's moving. Okay? Okay. A lot of golfers who don't do this correctly, their head will start to move up and away from the golf ball. If you're doing this right, your head should basically stay in essentially the same circle where it started. Okay? It's okay if it moves a teeny tiny bit, but you're just trying to prevent that

00:03:48 - changing the inclination to the ground. So, uh, let's do this with a golf ball. I want you to go super slow, uh, but chip a couple out there. Just trying to practice that feel of getting your left shoulder to move down and then moving underneath your chin.

00:04:04 - So, really nice job with that. So, check out the difference. Uh, this was the earlier swing. You can see how your shoulders are really level. You've only got 21 degrees of leftward tilt. Um, and what basically happened here is you totally moved your head up and away from the golf ball. Okay, look at this one. You can see how your inclination to the ground is much better. You've got your left shoulder under your chin still, but you've actually got your shoulders tilted more

00:04:25 - to the left. So, that's a big reason why your contact was so much better. Yeah. So now we switch to the front view and I want you to just see the difference in how your shoulder moves. So again from before very very flat. It's essentially a straight line. Now you've got this little fish hook over here. Okay. So that's exactly what you want. You can see how it moves down first and then moves away from the target. That is picture perfect. That's exactly how you want to move your lead

00:04:48 - shoulder in the back swing if you're struggling with contact. That's what the best golfers in the world do. That's what you need to do. And that's how data can help you swing better and hit the ball more consistently. So really nice job, Lexi. Thank you.

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