Build An Athletic Golf Swing

Sporting goods and household items are the key to a softer swing!

By Wally Armstrong, Photos By Ryan Noll

Labels: Instruction, Faults And Fixes, Quick Tips, Ballstriking, Swing, Game Improvement, Full Swing, Drills, Exercises, Shots, Slicing, Shotmaking

This Article Features Photo Zoom

If anyone has ever told you that the golf swing is an athletic move, they're right. The golf swing is, in fact, a very athletic motion. Specifically, a circular one. As you take the club back on the backswing and down and through on the forwardswing, the clubhead is swung around the body in a circle. It's a lot like other sports, actually. Baseball, hockey, soccer, even football all share the same circular, rotary motions present in the golf swing.

In the following pages, we're going to look at how to build a more powerful, circular golf swing with the help of a few sporting goods and a few household items that help to effectively demonstrate what you want to achieve. With a little practice, and some ingenuity, you'll be on your way to building an athletic golf swing.

HAND OFF!

Imagine you were a quarterback about to hand the ball off to a running back. Your goal is to make sure the back has enough room to grab the ball, and also make sure it's waist high so he can grip it and hold it secure. As you see here, when doing this, I instinctively turn my body to the right with the ball in front of my chest.

Talk about similar! Just as you would with a football handoff, the takeaway begins with the rotation of the body to the right and the club out in front of the chest. As you can see, my club is directly in front of my chest, and my weight has naturally shifted to my right leg.

As you rotate back, the upper body will rotate more than the lower body. To allow for this, let the left knee bend inward and the left heel raise. This helps in making sure you get your weight over your right foot on the backswing. Also, keep your hands out from your torso. The more room your swing has, the more power you'll generate.

These two photos show exactly what you don't want to do, with both a football and a golf club. With the ball, if you don't rotate the body, the running back will have a hard time grabbing the football from you. With the golf club, no rotation usually leads to an improper weight shift, which in this case, usually leads to the dreaded reverse-pivot (which is when your weight shifts in the opposite direction from where it's supposed to).

So follow the correct guidelines to a proper takeaway and rotation of the body. Just think of a good football handoff!