Click here and enter your email address to watch the full video
Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.
Beginner Program

Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Backswing Part 2 - Setting The Club

  • Left Shoulder Downswing
  • Right Arm Fold
  • Spine Extension
  • Forearm rotation

The second half of the backswing involves a continued rotation/side bend combined with extension, elevation of the arms, and a rotation of the forearms to get the club to set on plane. During the second half of the backswing, the “weird” movements are the extension and the forearm rotation.

Tags: Backswing, Concept, Beginner

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
In this concept video, we're going to talk about setting the club or the second phase of the

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:05,000
backswing.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So we're going to assume that we've initiated our swing with the turning of our spine using

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,000
the extending side bending rotating model.

00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,000
Well, the simple thing is the spine is just going to continue making the same movements

00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:19,000
along with the pelvis.

00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:27,000
So you're going to continue doing this extend, side bend turn, extend, side bend turn.

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:35,000
Until you would basically be almost vertical, not quite, about 40 degrees bent left,

00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000
and then rotated somewhere around 90 degrees.

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000
Somewhere in there, whatever your body is comfortable doing, you'll want to make sure that

00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:47,000
in this finished position your weight hasn't, or your movements haven't pushed you to the

00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:48,000
outside of the foot.

00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:54,000
So if I faced here and I did that again, here's my setup, then I stand up, I side bend,

00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000
I rotate that creates my backswing.

00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000
You'll notice that this foot stays flat, it didn't drift up to the outside.

00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000
That means that I'm kind of in this good, loaded position, and you may feel some pressure

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000
in that right hip, which a lot of players have interpreted as a load.

00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:14,000
So that covers the basics of what we need to spine and the hips to do.

00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,000
Now let's talk about the arms.

00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,000
They have another job to do.

00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,000
They want to bring the club in preparation for what the arms need to do during transition.

00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:29,000
So during the takeaway, if you recall, the arms did very, very little.

00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,000
During the second phase of the backswing, you're going to have a little bit of elevation,

00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,000
just like so.

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:46,000
You're going to bend your right elbow, and you're going to let your wrists cut just a little

00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:51,000
bit, and you can even let your arm rotate in external rotation, or you can let your hand

00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,000
rotate out, but you want to keep your elbow more or less in front of your shoulder.

00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000
You'll get into a lot of trouble if you start getting this right elbow back too much

00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:07,000
behind your body, unless you do a very nice transition the way jack necklace or a

00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000
Fred couples has done it.

00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:15,000
It can be a power source, but it can also be a really big cause of a cast movement.

00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:22,000
So for argument say, I would say it's probably not worth it, unless you've been doing

00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,000
it for so long and have no problem making a good drop into delivery position from there.

00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,000
So let's just rehearse just the arms.

00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:34,000
So if we went just the arms, they're basically going to go like so.

00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:40,000
I ask people all the time to just bend that right elbow, just bend that right arm and let

00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000
it rotate out.

00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000
And what usually ends up happening is both arms bend like this.

00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:51,000
So you want to practice bending that right arm without having a whole lot of bend in the

00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,000
left arm.

00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,000
The other last little piece is that this arm is going to rotate slightly palm away, which

00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:06,000
gets the club more in line or pointed at the target as opposed to if it rotated.

00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:12,000
So all the way, you would get the club pointed more laid off as opposed to rotating

00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:17,000
it or pronating it, rotating palm towards you like so.

00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000
So it's a pretty simple movement with the spine.

00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000
You just keep that side bend moving.

00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,000
It'll feel like your head stays pretty still and your shoulders point down towards

00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,000
the golf ball.

00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:32,000
The arms are going to elevate and set and when you put them together, they end up looking

00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:40,000
something like that, which is kind of that toward backswing position, preparing you for

00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000
what we're going to do dynamically during transition.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.