The backswing starts the golf swing. Get it right, and you’ll hit bullets, frozen ropes, and 300-yard bombs. Get it wrong and you’ll hit hooks, slices, and shanks. If you’re going to have a swing that does damage on the course, you have to perfect your backswing. The two golf drills below help you do that:

Golf Drill #1

Address a ball with a 7-iron. Now make your backswing. As you get to the top, slide your right hand down to where the grip meets the shaft. This move forces your right elbow to fold and your left arm to straighten and stretch across your chest. That’s the perfect position for your hands at the top of the swing. Repeat this exercise several times. Then make several swings using your regular grip. Keep alternating these swings until they feel similar.

Golf Drill #2

The Broom Drill below improves the sequencing of your backswing and downswing. Plus, it stretches out your golf muscles.

Find a long-handled broom. Most golfers use a standard kitchen broom. But any broom will do as long as it has a long handle. Address the ball and take some practice swings. Make your normal swing. Make 15 swings, take a break, and then do it all again.

Work hard at these golf drills. They’ll perfect your backswing and improve your coil. That, in turn, will boost your ballstriking and increase your accuracy.

Use This Golf Tip to Hit Shots When You Have

A Restricted Backswing

Hooks, slices, pulls, and other mis-hits can kill you. They cost you strokes, as with any bad golf shot. But they can also leave you under a tree or near an obstacle that restricts your backswing. Now, what do you do? Believe it or not, we have a golf tip just for this situation.

The key here is taking your medicine. You hit a bad shot. Accept what’s happened and move on. Then, try to find the fairway with your next shot. That’s a challenge if you have a restricted backswing. The cock-your-wrists backswing can help. It lets you hit the ball solidly, even with a restricted backswing.

Below are six keys to this shot:

Determine your landing spot
Take a balanced stance
Choke down on the club
Play the ball back
Cock your wrists fully
Swing down and into the ball

Shortening your swing radius when you have an obstructed backswing is critical. The shorter the radius, the less chance you’ll hit an obstruction going back or coming down. Here are some golf tips on hitting this shot:

Take your typical stance with an iron, but play the ball back a bit. Now choke down on the club. Choking down shortens your swing radius. How much you choke down depends on how much room you have to go back.
Move your arms into a normal address position, but with your wrists fully cocked at the top. Cocking your wrists makes it easier to come down into the ball without hitting anything.
Take some practice swings. You want to make sure the clubhead clears the obstruction when you come down.
Determine your landing spot in the fairway. Pick out a specific target if you can that’s not too far away. Then, swing straight down and hard into the ball.
Swing as smoothly as possible. Some golfers try to hit the perfect shot here. Forget about it. You just what to find the fairway in position to hit the next shot.

Use these 7 Golf Tips to Build Torque in Your Backswing

and Unleash your Power Next Time Out

Know the secret to belting bombs off the tee? It’s coiling correctly in your golf swing. Coiling builds torque in your swing for a repeatable, consistent swing. You can then uncoil to deliver tremendous power to your ball at impact. It’s like building tension in a spring, then letting go. It’s an amazing feeling to hit shots like this.

Creating coil in your swing, however, is a challenge. The secret to doing so successfully is your backswing. Using the ground in your backswing also produces a great coil. It generates power while achieving stability and balance in your swing. A good, tight backswing produces a great coil. But you must make a solid backswing to achieve all these things.

Below are seven golf tips on making a great backswing:

Create a wide swing arc — This move is essential to hitting bombs off the tee. The key to creating a wide swing arc is maintaining a straight left arm (or as straight as possible) going back. That’s not easy. But making a full shoulder turn helps. It positions your hands as far away from your head as possible for a wide swing arc. See below.
Make a powerful turn — Spine tilt is the secret to a power-laden turn. Once you set it at address, keep it there. Then turn around it. A good golf tip here is to imagine a rod running through your head all the way to the ground. Now turn around it. That’s the easiest way to create the rotational speed and proper weight shift you need to hit bombs.

Golf Drill: A good golf drill to ingrain this move is to put a club on the ground perpendicular to the target line and against the inside of your right foot. Now hold a driver across your chest and turn. Try to get the shaft your holding across your chest to point to the shaft on the ground.

Turn early, tilt early — Turning early and tilting early builds power. Start your swing using your shoulders right away. If you turn the right way while also tilting the right way, the club will automatically find the right plane. Keep your left arm under your chin when you tilt for more consistency.
Keep your back leg stable — You need to shift your weight slightly to the inside edge of your back foot to make a good backswing. That allows you to drive your front side and rotate your hips on the downswing. To do this correctly, keep your back hip in place and maintain a slight flex in your back knee. That creates a stable platform on which to shift your weight.
Maintain your posture — If you’re like many weekend golfers, you seldom think of posture as a critical basic. But it is—especially when it comes to power and consistency. Moving away or toward your target saps power from your swing. Instead, maintain your posture by turning in place. To practice this move, set up with your head pressed against a wall. Now make your swing while keeping your head against the wall.
Increase your wrist hinge — The easiest way to boost power is to increase your wrist hinge as you end your backswing and start your downswing. It’s called lag. While this move is harder to do than it seems, keeping your wrists loose when you swing will help create the lag you need for generating awesome power. When you do that, your wrists will naturally hinge into a power lever to help you hit bombs off the tee.

Golf Drill: Address the ball as usual. Then swing the club to the top. Swing halfway down while retaining a 90-degree angle between your hands and the club. Return the club to the top of the swing. Swing halfway down again and retain the 90-degree angle. You should feel as if you’re making a pumping motion and that your right hand (left hand for lefties) is “milking the cow.” Swing to the top one more time, and then swing through the ball in one fluid motion.

7. Make a one-piece takeaway — You’ve probably read this golf tip in my newsletter articles. But it’s great advice. Making a one-piece takeaway boosts your chances of succeeding in the rest of your swing. In a one-piece takeaway, your shoulders and your torso drive your swing. Your arms play a supporting role. Watch Adam Scott when you have a chance. He has one of the smoothest takeaways on Tour.

Ingrain these seven golf tips for a great backswing. Having a great backswing is the secret to generating excellent torque in your swing. It’s also the secret to creating a swing that’s powerful, consistent, and repeatable.

Hit it Harder, Straighter, and Longer by Practicing these Backswing Golf Drills