By Kim Jeong-kyoo
Korea Times Golf Columnist
The golf swing is a series of actions and reactions involving the body, hands, arms and club. The most efficient way to improve your swing is to develop and ingrain a proper takeaway. The success and failure of your swing greatly depends on your takeaway. What happens in the first 30 inches during the backswing sets the stage for everything that follows.
Allowing the club to get out of position during the takeaway necessitates compensations somewhere during the swing to get it back on plane.
For a proper takeaway it's essential to get the club to move away from the ball straight along the ball-target line with your left arm only without allowing any other parts of your body to move until the end of the takeaway where your hands are in front of the right thigh. Keeping your body stable and quiet at the start of the backswing provides the club with a chance to gain momentum that promotes correct swing path and plane. That also facilitates reaching an ideal top-of-the-backswing position without a conscious effort. You will feel a nice and tight tension on the inside of your right leg.
Also, you need to make sure that the clubface is perfectly square when the clubshaft is just parallel to the ball-target line and horizontal to the ground. It should not be hooded or fanned.
It’s a general belief that the club's toe needs to be pointing straight up at hip height going back. To accomplish this you need to roll your hands to the inside, opening the clubface. When that happens, you need to compensate later to square the face at impact, which rids your swing of consistency.
The correct toe position at hip height is tilted slightly toward the ball-target line so that the club's leading edge matches your spine angle. That's square. From that position you can easily achieve a square clubface position at the top of the backswing and deliver the club squarely to the ball. The clubface is square at the top of the backswing when it is parallel to your left forearm.
Recreational golfers tend to take the club away from the ball on a path that is too far to the inside of the ball-target line. They use too much hand action, fanning the clubface wide open.
Also, they tend to lift the club with their hands and arms without turning their body.
For a square position halfway back, it's essential to swing back to hip height without any hand or arm rotation so that the logo on your glove points out. The logo pointing up at this point means you've spun the face open.
For a proper takeaway you need to improve your address position. Be sure at address that you have a triangle created by your hands, arms and club. Let the butt end of the club point slightly left of your body center so that your left hand is in front of your left thigh. Your hands need to be on the straight line from your left shoulder to the clubhead. When you look down before starting to swing, your hands should obstruct the view of the left foot.
A proper grip is also crucial to a good takeaway. Hold the club in the fingers of your left hand, adopting a neutral grip or a tad strong grip so the Vs formed between your thumbs and forefingers on both hands point toward a spot somewhere between your right shoulder and ear.
Set the clubface square to the ball-target line with your body aligned parallel to it.
The proper feel for the good takeaway is that the club is going straight back from the ball. Even when you feel you are moving the clubhead straight back, it in fact works to the inside as your body turns.
Thin or tall golfers swinging on an upright swing plane need to abstain from hinging their wrists at the beginning of the takeaway. The wrists will hinge naturally later at a proper moment.
To check to see if you are making a correct takeaway, swing the club to the waist height and stop. At that point your shaft needs to be parallel to the ground and to the ball-target line. If the clubhead is outside the ball-target line, turn your chest more for a better pivot. If it's inside the ball-target line, minimize your hand action swinging the club back.
To develop and ingrain a good takeaway, take a normal address position. Hold your hands about six inches apart with the palms facing each other. Swing back, making sure that you maintain the distance between your hands. This helps you swing your hands, arms and shoulders in unison, preventing the takeaway errors that are committed when the arms and shoulders move out of synchronization.
Also to learn a good takeaway grab a putter and make the backswing required for a really long putt. All you have to do for a good takeaway is to make that same takeaway with other clubs. That makes it possible to feel the clubface remaining square to the arc of the swing.
Similarly, set up normally with a 7-iron. Remove your right hand from the handle and extend your right arm parallel to the ground and the ball-target line. Now make a normal takeaway with your left hand and swing the shaft into your right palm. That way you can get the correct feel of the proper path and plane during the takeaway.