Golf Swing Takeaway Tips – How to Start Your Swing
There is one thing that you will hear over and over again from a number of golf instructors and coaches. Ensure you start your swing correctly because that will affect its sequence and outcome. In other words, a solid start leads to reliable results. Check the golf swing takeaway tips below to start your swing better.
The takeaway is the very beginning of your swing which lasts until your club is almost parallel to the ground. You want to start it correctly in order for all the other pieces to fall into place. A bad takeaway often leads to a bad swing.
Every golfer is looking for a consistent golf swing and the takeaway can help. It will pre-set your body parts and golf club so your backswing, downswing, impact, and follow-through work in a better flow.
In a simple, yet complex motion, which the golf swing is, you want to make the first step right. If you don’t make that first step right there is a probability something else will go wrong after. That leads to inconsistent swings translating to inconsistent shots and frustrating outcomes. Luckily, there are ways to improve your takeaway and go toward consistency.
Move Your Upper Body and Arms in Sync
There are a lot of recreational golfers who at the takeaway move the club with their arms only. That automatically means your swing motions are already out of sequence. It leads to an exaggerated arms motion throughout the swing. The results are usually a lack of power in the swing, lost distance, and mis-hits.
What you should be feeling when you start the takeaway is that your upper body and arms are moving at the same time. It will give you more stability and prepare you for a better transition into the backswing. At the same time, it will make your swing feel effortless and help you hit it with more power.
Have the Clubface Slightly Pointing to the Ground
This is a move that a lot of professional golfers make in order to pre-set the clubface for impact. As weird as it sounds due to it happening at the very beginning of the swing, it makes sense. Think about it this way. If you have your clubface ready for impact earlier, you do not have to think about it or set it up later in the swing.
This way you eliminate all the possibilities of the clubface being too open or too closed at impact. The more moving pieces you add to your golf swing, the more chances are something is going to go wrong. Make your swing as simple as you possibly can and having the clubface point slightly down at the takeaway will help you with that.
Move Your Clubhead on a Straight Line
When I say a straight line, I do not actually mean a straight line. In fact, that would literally mean you moving the clubhead straight behind the golf ball which would have your arms completely out of position. What I mean is it should look from your point of view like you are moving the clubhead in a straight line behind the golf ball.
That will help keep your club slightly in front of your arms preventing it from going behind you too early. For instance, if your club goes behind you too early it can lead to the outside to in club path which can result in severe slices. By starting the club slightly in front of your arms you are pre-setting it for a more neutral or inside-to-out club path. That will help with the impact and get you more consistency.
Do Not Hinge Your Wrists Early
This happens often to a lot of recreational golfers. The wrists start hinging way too early in the takeaway which leads to a couple of things. To begin with, it can cause your club to go behind you which does not help the club’s path later on. That can end with mis-hits that often materialize in the form of slices or shanks.
Second, what early hinging leads to is the lack of stored energy in the swing. It will create less lag and that way you can potentially lose some distance. The wrist hinging should ideally start somewhere around your club being parallel to the ground. It is the last phase of the takeaway before the smooth transition into the full backswing.
Do Not Rush It
Now, this is one of the most important things when it comes to the swing in general. For some professional golfers, it goes so far that you have the feeling they are starting their swing in slow motion. Rushing the takeaway can lead to all sorts of trouble in the swing. It is harder to have control of the motion and can lead to different kinds of mis-hits, to name a couple.
Starting your swing at a moderate speed is going to allow you to follow the swing structure. Additionally, it will help you with the swing tempo which is one of the crucial swing components. Having a good swing tempo in general leads to better contact and consistent ball striking. Remember, that all starts with not rushing the takeaway.
A Solid Start Leads to a Solid Finish
You will notice that professional golfers do different things with their golf swings. However, there is one thing they all have in common. They all have a consistently solid takeaway. In spite of a lot of them having different swing tempos, their takeaways are structured. Therefore, their ball striking is exceptional.
To summarize, by mastering your takeaway you will open the door to a consistent golf swing. It is worth it to spend time practicing and perfecting it. A solid takeaway can help you to hit better any club in your golf bag, from driver to lob wedge. Now find some drills and get to work, it will be rewarding.
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