The Golf Swing

The swing broken into the parts worth thinking about separately, from takeaway to follow through.

13 guides

Golf Swing Basics: How to Swing a Golf Club

A golf swing has one job, and it is not looking good on video. Learn what the club has to do at impact and the rest of the motion stops being a list of positions to memorise.

14 min read

Beginner

Does the Golf Swing Change by Club? What Actually Differs

New golfers are told they only need one swing, then watch a professional hit up on a driver and down on a wedge and conclude they were lied to. Both things are true, and the reason is simpler than it looks.

10 min read

Intermediate

Ball Flight Laws: Club Path vs Face Angle Explained

Two measurements decide where every golf shot finishes, and neither of them is how the swing looked. Learn to name them and the ball stops being mysterious.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Backswing: Takeaway, Halfway Back and the Top

A backswing cannot hit the ball, but it can make hitting it properly impossible. Here is what happens between address and the top, in the order it happens, and what breaks at each stage.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Downswing: The Transition and the Sequence

The transition is the shortest part of the golf swing and the part that separates good ball strikers from everyone else. It is also the part almost nobody practises directly.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Follow Through: Finish Position, Extension, Release

The ball is gone before the follow through happens, which is why golfers ignore it. It is also the clearest readout of everything that came before, and it is free.

11 min read

Intermediate

Golf Impact Position: What Happens at the Ball

Impact is the only moment in the golf swing that touches the ball, and it is the one moment you cannot steer. What you can do is change the four things that produce it.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Swing Plane: On Plane, Flat vs Upright, and Drills

Almost every argument about swing plane is two people using the same word for different things. Sort out which plane is being discussed and most of the confusion disappears.

12 min read

Intermediate

Golf Swing Tempo: The 3 to 1 Ratio and How to Train It

Everyone gets told they swing too fast. Almost nobody does. The problem is nearly always the change of direction, and that is a different fix entirely.

11 min read

Intermediate

Hip Rotation in the Golf Swing: Turn, Clear, Stay Down

Hip rotation is the most talked-about and least understood part of the lower body. Almost everyone who is told to turn their hips does something else entirely.

11 min read

Intermediate

How to Increase Swing Speed: The Four Things That Work

Swinging harder is not the same as swinging faster, and most golfers who try to add speed add effort instead. The four things that actually change club head speed are all slower and less exciting than that.

12 min read

Intermediate

Lag in the Golf Swing: What It Is and How to Keep It

Lag is the most photographed position in golf and the most misunderstood one. It is a result of something else, and golfers who chase it directly usually end up with tight forearms and a block to the right.

11 min read

Intermediate

Weight Shift in the Golf Swing: Pressure, Timing, Drills

Most golfers who are told to shift their weight try to move their body sideways. That is not what the good ones are doing, and it creates a second fault on top of the first.

12 min read