The Secret of the Golf Swing is the First Move Down

Now you are ready to start the downswing. You have arrived safely at the top and now you need to return to the bottom in one piece.

1. When you are ready to start the downswing, the very first move is for the right arm to begin to straighten out and return to the exact same position it started in. The right arm has to start to come unhinged as soon as you begin the downswing.

1a. Right Arm Begins to Straighten

1b. Right Arm Unhinges

1c. Right Arm Straight

Many people have written about this topic. As a matter of fact, it seems like every time anyone goes near this subject, the entire golf world throws the four letter word “cast” at you. The terms “cast” or “casting the golf club” were used in the 60’s and have escalated to the point where if you mention any other way of swinging the golf club down other than “pulling on the handle” or creating drag and creating a tight angle with your arms, the golf world is ready to pounce on you.

The good news, bad news is the terms “pulling on the handle” and “creating a tight angle” have kept me very busy for the past 25 years. If you are trying to practice the above mentioned phrases, I feel very confident you’ll end up hitting too many shots to the right. The ability to hit a golf ball squarely with the correct timing has more to do with how many hours you can dedicate to the game than it does with how hard you can pull on the handle of the golf club.

Your ability to create clubhead speed lies in the speed you can swing your hands, arms and golf club not in how fast you can pull the grip end of the golf club. Clubhead speed is created from you generating width in the right arm on its journey back to the golf ball.

Swinging just the hands, arms and golf club back to the golf ball with maximum clubhead speed independent of the lower and upper body is not the answer either. Swinging the golf club back to the golf ball on the correct path with maximum clubhead speed is the combination of the hands, arms and golf club swinging in conjunction with the lower body moving out of the way and the upper body turning back towards the target. The upper and lower body CANNOT swing independent of each other.

As the right arm begins to unhinge:

2. The left hip moves one or two inches towards the target

2. Left Hip Moves Towards Target

3. Then the left hip should start to turn out of the way so the hands, arms, and golf club can have a place to swing to after impact.