The Take Away
Starting Your Golf Swing

Starting your golf swing. OK the waitings over, we've gone through golf terminology, the mental game, golf stance, golf grip, lining up your shot, at last it's time to start the golf swing!

In lesson six, The Take Away, were going to go through the first half of the back swing. Every part of your golf swing is important, but if you don't start your swing correctly, it's almost impossible to finish correctly.

If you followed lesson three correctly, you will be set up with a proper stance, the grip end of your golf club pointing to your belt buckle, which in turn will place your head in the correct position. Your spine will also be in the correct position, if your grip end is pointing towards your chin, your spine is to long, if your grip end is pointing lower than your belt buckle, your spine is bent over to much. More importantly your golf club is soled on the ground with the correct amount of loft.

You're ready to start your back swing! The take away is one piece movement, the club head, shaft, your hands, arms and right shoulder move in one piece at the exact same time as you get back to the 9:o'clock position.

Both knees are flexed, and during the back swing the right knee never changes position. The left knee how ever moves towards the right knee as a result of the upper body turning and the lower body resisting this turn, the left knee never passes the golf ball in the back swing.

Golf swing tips:

When you get to the 9:o'clock position stop and check to see where the toe of the club head is pointing, it should be pointing to the sky.

As you swing back away from the golf ball the club head must swing back on an arc which is inside the straight line to the target. When the golf club travels back on the correct path the combination of the arms and hands will be able to swing the golf club back to the correct position at the top of the back swing as long as the right shoulder turns out of the way.

Golf swing tips:

The right shoulder must turn out of the way, not tilting. It is very difficult to get to 9:o'clock with the right shoulder tilted.

The 9:o'clock position is half way back in your back swing. This is a good time to stop, take a look around and check everything is in place. The golf club should be parallel to the target line, club head pointing up to the sky, right shoulder turning.

Golf swing tips:

At the start of your golf swing, think about turning your right shoulder out of the way to allow the arms to swing back, this will make you turn on your axis, and not sway back.

From the 9:o'clock position the golf club must continue up on an arc. This can only happen as you continue to turn the right shoulder out of the way. The shoulders must continue to turn allowing the arms hands and golf club to swing up to the top of your golf swing.

This is the end of lesson six, lesson seven will follow, you will be well on the way by then to perfecting your golf swing technique, or if you like, your very own Tiger Woods golf swing!

Lesson seven The Back swing