Every golfer’s swing is different, but there are commonalities they share.
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Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you play smarter and better golf.
Every golfer has a little spark that makes their swing unique.
Take it Scottie Schefflerleg action. Or Hideki Matsuyama’s emphatic pause at the top. The truncated return of Jon Rahm. Bryson DeChambeaubad eyelash Rory McIlroy’s powerful swing. We could go on and on. The point is that every swing is original.
That’s part of the beauty of golf. Every player has their own way of doing things, and if they can become consistent enough, their potential is endless. As the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to crack an egg.
But while the aesthetics of each swing are different, there are some commonalities that all elite players share. In today’s edition of Play Smart, we explore one of those features — and explain how incorporating it into your game can improve your swing.
Disengage your lower and upper body
The golf swing consists of a series of parts that move together to hit the ball. The secret to mastering your swing is the correct sequencing of everything to create the perfect blend of power and control. One of the key elements of this ranking comes in the form of your queue.
Back and through is the foundation of every swing. But you don’t want everything to come back at once. Instead, you want to be able to disconnect your upper and lower body during the turn.
If you watch any high-level player, like Jazz Janewattananond in the video above, you’ll see that they turn their upper and lower bodies independently of each other. This movement is key to creating power and balance in the movement.
When you can achieve separation between these two components during the backstroke, you are creating a lot of potential energy. And when you smooth it all out on the way down, that energy is released, creating a lot of speed.
This separation is key to creating effortless power—and if you can incorporate it into your movement, you can create speed just like the pros.
