The Secret Backswing Move No One Talks About: Lean/Fall Towards Target
Let's get real as amateur golfers we struggle with making a smooth transition that gets us in a position for consistent ball contact. We tend to think of the backswing and downswing as 2 separate motions while pros see it as one fluid motion.
I call this move the Leaning Tower of Pisa move because essentially you "lean" or "fall" towards the target during your backswing. Crazy I know, but it actually does happen as you will see in the video.
This move may take a little time to get right, but it's easier than you think and your ball striking will be better off.
Also it's a more dynamic move and makes it easier to transition from backswing to downswing once you get it.
Start visualizing and seeing the golf swing as 1 single motion and your golf swing will be as smooth as butter. Well not that smooth but you get the point.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Best,
Shawn
00:00
so we see a move in the golf swing from
00:03
the pros some of the best players in the
00:05
world and then when we look at that same
00:08
window of the golf swing with our
00:10
amateur golfers we really don't see that
00:13
they move and this kind of this is a
00:15
move that stretches pretty much the
00:16
entirety of the backswing and it's
00:18
pretty darn important yeah it's um it's
00:20
one thing that we see all like Mike said
00:23
all good players doing and very few high
00:25
handicappers doing so when we see things
00:27
like this it's important to us because
00:30
we can say okay we feel like to become a
00:33
good player you probably need some of
00:34
this movie swing it's one of those kind
00:36
of imperative moves or use at the very
00:38
least you shouldn't be doing the
00:40
opposite of what good players do yeah
00:42
and so if you can incorporate what we
00:44
are going to tell you today into your
00:46
swing it a can only help you and be your
00:51
ball striking right takeoff and this is
00:53
as it has nothing to do with flexibility
00:55
with you know being thin and fit and
00:58
none of those things this is something
01:00
every golfer can and should do in the
01:02
golf swing and it's something that a lot
01:04
of golfers struggle with we're gonna
01:07
kind of show you visually how this
01:09
unfolds so you can kind of really
01:11
understand how to incorporate this into
01:13
your swing
01:18
I borrow one of our pros here when
01:23
looking at his 3d image and this is
01:24
something it's not a pro move we see all
01:26
the time in pros but it's just a good
01:29
golf swing move yeah you see lower
01:31
handicappers with it you don't see a lot
01:33
of high handicappers with it no and we
01:34
don't see most amateurs do it because
01:36
it's really misunderstood I think and
01:39
kind of conceptually misunderstood about
01:41
how this the lateral motion of the golf
01:44
swing kind of corresponds with the
01:46
rotation of the golf swing and it's a
01:47
little bit counterintuitive when you
01:49
think about especially in transition
01:51
what the normal golfer thinks you should
01:52
be doing - what the better player
01:54
actually does is it's a bit
01:56
counterintuitive for them so thank
01:57
that's why people struggle with it so we
01:59
see most golfers right we'll go to the
02:03
top of their swing as they're completing
02:06
their shift to the right for a
02:08
right-handed golfer away from the target
02:09
yeah because I think it you know I'm
02:11
gonna load up so I'm gonna turn
02:12
everything to the right while I'm
02:15
loading to the right and I'm on my right
02:16
foot as a maxed out a maximum turn
02:18
maximum shift so far I'm swinging
02:21
everything gets to the top at the same
02:23
time yeah and that's like a kiss of damn
02:25
any good players that we've seen do that
02:26
0-0 alright so if that's your idea of
02:30
the backswing we need to change that
02:32
because again we don't want to be doing
02:33
the opposite of what good players do
02:35
yeah so why don't you take us through
02:37
here what this tour player is gonna do
02:39
okay so we're gonna break this down in
02:41
kind of series in hi and if you start to
02:43
work on these individually which is a
02:45
great way to break down a complex
02:47
movement is to chunk it right huh John
02:49
it's not a lot of reading and research
02:50
on just chunking these complex movements
02:52
and if you really want to do them this
02:54
isn't something that you should be
02:57
thinking about doing when you're out
02:59
there on the first tee thinking about
03:01
you know practice it slow motion and
03:04
chunk the pieces yeah and all that means
03:06
is you take kind of the first part of it
03:07
and master that and then try to blend in
03:09
kind of the second part of it at slow
03:11
motion and all of a sudden you try to
03:12
speed it up a little bit and speed it
03:14
those aren't sweet ups
03:15
yeah is something need to learn the
03:17
basic motion these are learning to swing
03:19
the golf club correctly and reprogram
03:21
and what your mind does and what your
03:22
mind has a concept of exactly right so
03:24
we're gonna look at our golfer here and
03:25
as he goes back to shaft parallel in the
03:29
backswing
03:30
we're gonna see him and this is so
03:32
common we're gonna see him move off the
03:35
ball his maximum amount somewhere in
03:38
that window from address some players do
03:40
it a foot off the ball some players do
03:42
it right here around shaft parallel and
03:44
there's this window that we see them all
03:46
in look for commonalities and great
03:49
players cuz success does leave clues and
03:51
if we see commonalities that all good
03:53
players do ok let's try to work that
03:55
into yours exactly one of them of that
03:57
yeah this is one of them and we're
03:58
talking about his center of his hips and
04:01
the center of his chest
04:03
right there off the ball in this really
04:06
early window now compare that with what
04:08
we see most amateurs do we don't see
04:10
hardly anything done at this point or
04:13
even some hips that move forward at this
04:16
point well they've been so ingrained in
04:18
their head not to sway it's like I can't
04:20
sway I can't move it all to the right so
04:22
they either just stay very still or they
04:24
start sliding the opposite way and we
04:26
don't want to see you do either one this
04:28
would be the equivalent of if I'm gonna
04:29
try to throw a baseball as far as I can
04:33
to go here and just go forward with it I
04:37
would never take baseball back and go
04:39
forward my whole throw everybody who has
04:42
ever held a baseball and understands the
04:44
wind up and this is your wind up in the
04:46
golf swing yeah it's the counter
04:48
movement yes every other sport would
04:50
have a conic a racquet sport the
04:51
backswing with a racquet he's a counter
04:53
movement so you can load and go up an
04:56
early yeah so as this stomper starts
04:58
back he's already making his shift into
05:01
this spot right here and if he gets off
05:02
track right here or if you stay too
05:04
centered or you go to the left the whole
05:07
rest of the swing is affected and the
05:09
baseball knowledge is good I was given a
05:11
lesson the other day and the the
05:14
gentleman had sent his son to a pitching
05:16
coach and they're very you know it's
05:19
very technique orient just like the golf
05:21
swing there's things that you cannot do
05:23
if we want to be a good pitcher and they
05:25
always would look for what they called
05:26
the queen bee flaw I was interested so
05:30
he said well once they identified the
05:32
queen bee flaw for his son was taken his
05:34
left shoulder out too early
05:35
well the queen bee gives the orders to
05:38
the rest of the bees so if the queen bee
05:40
had a problem all the rest of them part
05:43
of
05:43
all the rest of the motion was gonna be
05:45
affected and have a problem so I kind of
05:46
like that that's a great so this might
05:49
be like your queen bee flaw is not
05:51
getting to the right enough early or
05:53
shifting this way too early in the
05:54
backswing the whole rest of the swing is
05:56
thrown off we see a lot of this kind of
05:58
dragging the club head away low and slow
06:00
that really kind of just serves to lock
06:02
up all this dynamic movement right off
06:04
the ball yeah absolutely correct no
06:07
doubt so when there's no dynamic
06:08
movement there we kind of run into
06:11
issues with where the club goes in the
06:13
backswing and just the overall timing of
06:15
the pressure it really sets the swing
06:17
off kind of behind the 8-ball I mean the
06:19
first two three feet of the swing guys
06:21
that's where things are good get off
06:22
from 99% of golfers like Mike said if
06:25
you don't have any early movement right
06:27
the club tends to get inside this little
06:29
move we have here early gets the club
06:30
out in front of us more right allows us
06:33
not to overturn earlier which sequences
06:35
the backswing and allows us to make this
06:36
kind of next phase of this no we're
06:37
talking one to two inch window these
06:39
guys move in that's that's about the
06:42
width of a golf ball golf balls under 2
06:44
inches we're not talking like this is an
06:46
equal flaw yeah you know that move we're
06:49
not saying blow off the ball and then
06:52
you'll be able to make a great downswing
06:53
that's not it at all it's a small but
06:55
it's movement and it's there yeah and
06:57
you don't want to try to avoid it so as
07:00
we get from this check point number two
07:03
right the shaft parallel up to left arm
07:06
parallel and that window is where we
07:09
start to see the movement back towards
07:11
the target right so start is the key
07:13
word there so what you'll see is Mike
07:16
mentioned moving to checkpoint two to
07:18
checkpoint three right here the great
07:20
players are already starting to kind of
07:22
reset on you'll see that with our tour
07:23
player here now as he's into the right
07:26
side here he's actually starting to move
07:27
back as he's rotating to get more
07:30
resented that's that's the key point
07:32
here so now we're starting to see where
07:33
the concept breaks down for a lot of
07:35
golfers everybody gets moving off the
07:37
ball a lot of guys a lot of guys don't
07:39
want to do that but they get that uh-huh
07:41
now as its continuing to start moving
07:44
back and again we say started you don't
07:46
get forward at this early window you
07:49
start is when you're rotating is when
07:51
this right shoulder is moving away from
07:54
the ball that's when you're kind of
07:56
recenter in your
07:57
self-moving back to where you started
07:58
yeah so I think golfers they did tie
08:02
together the the backswing rotation with
08:04
the backswing weight shift yes but you
08:06
got to remember that you're still
08:08
turning this is if there is a like we
08:10
playing it Mike and I laugh all talking
08:11
about magic moves if there's a magic
08:13
move for the backswing its continuing to
08:16
turn back as you take your body back
08:19
towards the middle Shaun can turn he can
08:21
rotate closed in the backswing towards
08:23
me yep or away from me yep that wrote
08:28
rotate closed okay
08:29
you can move towards me as I do that or
08:31
you can move away from I got it it
08:33
doesn't affect your rotation exactly I
08:35
can still turn yes so that I think again
08:37
they get you get off-track when you
08:39
think okay this is a backswing motion
08:41
how would I ever go forward yes but you
08:44
absolutely need to go fall you have to
08:46
yes so you're at left arm parallel a
08:49
check point three here as you continue
08:51
rotating you need to feel like you're
08:53
kind of drifting into the middle of the
08:55
stance again or back kind of back
08:57
between your feet again it's it is so
09:00
crucial to get that in your head first
09:02
yes and then start applying it to your
09:04
golf swing and then as we see golfers
09:06
move from this left arm parallel to the
09:09
top now yeah the last check point of the
09:12
backswing they are either back to where
09:15
they started at dead zeros or they're an
09:18
inch or two in front of where they
09:20
started yeah they're starting their
09:21
downswing forward of where they were at
09:25
address yeah I think a great way to
09:27
think about that and you'll see our tour
09:28
player do this but a great way to think
09:31
about it is that you know you the end of
09:33
your backswing is kind of right in here
09:36
with the lateral motion for sure yeah
09:38
the rest of it is is finishing the
09:42
motion but you're going toward it well
09:44
think about the club it's reached his
09:46
it's backwards points away from the
09:48
target right here I was a club you want
09:50
to be the far before the club that's as
09:52
far away as it's ever going to get so if
09:53
you start thinking about that okay
09:54
that's as far away as my body's gonna
09:56
get but I can still take the club up
09:58
over my head and just continue my
10:00
rotation just as I get back to 50/50 and
10:03
at the top which would be a check point
10:05
for I might even be a little bit ahead
10:07
of where I started which is completely
10:08
fine we see top players do it all
10:11
the time ahead move forward finally so
10:13
there's a big fear with the head moving
10:14
forward at all in the golf swing it
10:16
moves forward most golfers play their
10:18
ball too far back in their stance so
10:20
when they do this movement correctly now
10:23
the alarm bells go off I'm too far
10:25
forward so they immediately throw it
10:27
back and do this yeah so they're
10:28
incentivized to kind of throw the club
10:30
so again another video for ball position
10:33
but you get to take care of your your
10:34
fundamentals it checkpoint one right get
10:36
that get those in order and then once
10:38
you get up here to the top when you are
10:41
recenter and you're incentivized to kind
10:43
of go forward because that ball
10:44
positions up in the front area that's
10:45
exactly right so we see these great
10:47
players and good golf swings they are
10:50
literally starting the downswing and
10:52
when we know that by just the change of
10:54
direction of the club the rest of this
10:55
stuff is already in the downswing sorry
10:57
but when that club changes direction
11:00
they are already forward of where they
11:03
started that makes the downswing it's a
11:05
quarter of a second that makes it
11:06
infinitely easier to do you don't want
11:09
to accomplish all this forward movement
11:10
once that Club changes direction no
11:13
there's no time for it and when you try
11:16
to fit everything all that wants that's
11:17
a recipe for disaster that's where you
11:19
get the benefit of being forward early
11:21
is that you can stop it early yeah when
11:23
you do that late when you try to go
11:24
forward in the downswing you get this
11:27
kind of impact saggy legs slide all that
11:30
stuff that we don't want flippy all that
11:31
so we got to do we got to take advantage
11:33
of this huge window of time there's
11:36
three quarters of your golf swing
11:37
happens from address to the top of the
11:39
swing that's when we got to get this
11:41
stuff working correctly alright so for
11:43
our drill for this section and there's
11:47
one drill that works for everything in
11:49
the golf so uh huh what is it just do it
11:51
right doing it right is literally the
11:54
best drill you can do and it's got a
11:55
tongue and cheek and obviously if you
11:57
get full speed you not be able to do it
11:58
right but you need to be at first
12:01
anyways yes you need to slow it down
12:03
chunk it up like like we've talked about
12:05
so you piece these things together and
12:08
then start to blend them together in
12:09
slow motion but just doing it correctly
12:12
slowly is the first step it's not that
12:15
you know oh it doesn't always take a
12:16
drill just do the motion correctly right
12:20
but how do we know we're doing it right
12:21
right so you
12:22
I mean I could not agree more it there's
12:24
no substitute for learning how to do
12:26
these as you stand there preparing to
12:29
make a golf swing now the difficulty for
12:32
a lot of golfers is they only want to
12:33
make a golf swing at one speed no one a
12:36
beat balls on the range and try to
12:38
change something and let me tell you
12:39
this you may have to go slow they do it
12:43
right and maybe something like that but
12:45
yes that is correct but the thing is
12:49
just knowing something in your head
12:50
doesn't mean you gonna be able to do it
12:51
that's where golfers get off track
12:53
you'll watch this video oh I see what I
12:54
got to do you have zero chance of doing
12:57
it just because you think you know how
12:59
to do it in your head you have not
13:01
trained the neuro-pathways to change
13:04
them enough to hope for this to hold up
13:06
on that when the golf course or the
13:07
driving race you got to do it slow like
13:09
everything else you've ever done you've
13:10
got to go slow chunk it up learn it and
13:13
then you can do it that's right I
13:14
understand that it takes a certain
13:19
amount of Niemann and a certain amount
13:20
of this to have a high jump that's 11
13:22
feet I can't go out and do it no you
13:25
have to train like a train train train
13:28
the timing of it yeah just to mentally
13:31
understand something does not mean you
13:32
can do it no so we've got to get the
13:34
body on board with what the mind
13:36
understands to be correct in time and to
13:38
do that we've got to be the right
13:40
movements and usually very slow at first
13:43
yeah extremely slow to the point where
13:46
if you can't do it you need to slow down
13:49
yeah just force yourself to make the
13:52
right movements as slow as it needs to
13:53
be to make the right movement so you
13:55
know and we talked about this what
13:57
should they be looking for if they're
13:58
filming themselves or like so we're
14:01
gonna use our avatar again and you set
14:04
the camera up dead-on face on to get the
14:06
best view of this don't have it cockeyed
14:08
to one side or the other kind of rate 90
14:10
degrees to your belt 90 degrees to your
14:11
belt buckle belt buckle hides and we
14:13
give you the best example of how to do
14:14
this so we're gonna put a vertical line
14:16
right up in the middle of his body now
14:18
as he's moving through his backswing
14:20
you're gonna see him shift on this side
14:22
of his vertical line and then as he
14:24
transitions he's gonna be on the forward
14:26
side of his vertical line now the key
14:28
point for most golfers it
14:31
these starts separating way too early
14:33
yeah it might makes a great point you
14:35
know throughout the backswing and early
14:37
downswing you pretty much want to keep
14:38
the center of your torso or the center
14:41
of your shoulders in the center of your
14:42
your hips kind of on top each on the top
14:45
of you so you know when you're making
14:46
your your back a little tiny movement
14:50
back counter movement and then re
14:52
centering these are going to stay on top
14:54
of each other until you get about right
14:56
release point the downswing yeah about
14:59
left arm parallel is kind of what we
15:01
want you to go back swing the left arm
15:03
parallel down swing in this drill and
15:05
you should see yourself forward of the
15:08
starting line so it would be okay with
15:09
upper and lower but yeah a little to the
15:12
right yep one inch let's say one to two
15:14
inches yeah you're eating three
15:15
centering here and then to here
15:18
I still have center of my upper body and
15:21
my center my lower body pretty much on
15:22
top each other but about three four
15:25
inches full forward away started yep yep
15:27
exactly
15:28
and that's essentially where you feel
15:30
you're done moving forward now the
15:32
momentum of the rest of the downswing is
15:34
gonna move you a little more for but
15:35
you're not trying to go for all intents
15:38
and purposes this is your hitting
15:39
platform we like to call it so you're in
15:42
the position here to go ahead and just
15:43
hit the ball hard and kind of stabilize
15:45
everything well the worst idea is that
15:46
we see golfers do when they come in and
15:48
they were able to capture there it's the
15:50
concept of getting into here and trying
15:52
to launch out forward into impact if we
15:55
do not see good golfers doing that they
15:57
get that lateral motion forward done
15:59
early so they can stabilize the rim but
16:01
we got to hit the middle of the clubface
16:03
you don't want to do I don't want me
16:04
trying to push a note into the downswing
16:07
it doesn't happen anyway it's exactly
16:09
right so the drill is doing it right put
16:11
it it's as simple as pulling on the dead
16:13
vertical line up through the middle of
16:14
your body get the camera angle correctly
16:16
and watch record yourself watch when you
16:19
start to move back and forth across this
16:22
line it needs to be done on time and it
16:24
needs to be done in the right amounts
16:27
you do that start adding speed the more
16:29
comfortable you get you're really going
16:31
to start to see your ball striking
16:32
improve not only with irons but also
16:34
with the driver
16:34
it's the magic move
16:36
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17:19
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17:25
Interesting will try it out, been doing the Stack and Tilt so it has the same concepts of being centered and moving to the left side
Hey Dave, yes that is very true. To be honest what it seems to me is that a lot of the S&T concepts besides an initial pressure shift to the trail side are in a lot of golf swings. I just think S&T removes this component to make it easier. As you can see in the video some Pro’s start getting back to the center pretty early in the backswing.
Very cool tip. I am definitely one of those people who break down the swing in too many pieces and need to start blending them together.
You got it Nick! Blending the swing together is the right train of thought. Keep me posted on how it goes.
This makes so much sense now after watching this video and reading the post. I love it. Since I have become an upglove customer, I follow all your posts, what an amazing company? Not only they sell you glove ( softest ones that I have ever tried) but also, they help you becoming a better golfer from webinars to blog posts. Upglove is My FAVORITE golf company. Where have you been? You have a client for life.
Thanks so much Dhiana! We try our best and thanks for being an UpGlover. It might take a little time to hone this into your own swing, but a little practice goes a long way.
Great video.
Thanks Robert! It’s a great YT channel to follow.