How do you "take-away"?

[Mox]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

Well this is what the pro at my golf course is telling me to do and judging by his sexy swing i'm going to listen . I'm having trouble getting to the correct position at the top, but if I do it slowly in the mirrow from a toe up position at half way the club doesn't lie open at the top. I know people who say the club should be the same as your spine angle at the half way point, but according to my pro this isn't correct and actually in fact the previous pro at my golf club also said toe up as well. Tiger woods is toe up at half way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp1BvVQbUTQ

Not to discuss what is right or wrong, but not only is Tiger not "toe up at half way", he is also slightly open on the top.

[jbrunk]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

To start the backswing I 'step on my right foot'.




BTW,
Please do not try to copy Tiger's hand and arm position unless you have tour quality clubface control on the downswing.

[dlaville]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

BTW,
Please do not try to copy Tiger's hand and arm position unless you have tour quality clubface control on the downswing.

What's wrong with his hand and arm position? His hands are on plane with his right elbow under them giving them support like a waitor has his elbow below a tray when he carries it above his shoulder. He's text book perfect at the top.

With his right elbow and forearm in this postion they pull the shaft lengthwise when his right arm straightens in the downswing. Again, text book and uncompensated.

Hang a club by the edge of a door and you'll notice the shaft does not line up with the door edge but rather the sweetspot. This is because the clubs longitudinal center of gravity passes through the sweetspot. It's also why a club doesn't twist and feels solid when you hit the ball on the sweetspot.

At address your shaft points at one line and the sweetspot of the club lies on another about 2"-3" further out. When you take the club back the clubface rotates rotating the sweetspot onto the plane of the shaft. If you draw a line from the ball to the hosel of the club at the top you'll notice the clubface lies on this plane along with the sweetspot. When you start down both the hosel and sweetspot are started down on the same plane but at some point the clubface will rotate back to square as the sweetspot tries to seek out and align itself with the longitudinal center of gravity. You don't need tour quality clubface control, just an adherence to the laws of physics. Physics doesn't know if you, me or Tiger Woods is swinging the club, it just complies.

[mconn]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

The absolute best success I've experienced, is immediately start with rolling the forearms. I am immediately on plane. Using a friends medicus as a check, it produces an on plane backswing without any other thought. For me has has been a no brainer set up for the down swing as it also locks the triangle in the right position and up the ladder forces body rotation w/o a consious thought. Good posture is a must for everthing to fall into place.

[dlaville]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

The absolute best success I've experienced, is immediately start with rolling the forearms. I am immediately on plane.

Bingo! You don't know how correct this is and as you report it gave you the absolute best success. Most golfers have been taught to take the club and clubface straight back. This actually works against you. From the start you want to get that clubface rotating and the club moving up, back and "IN".

[BrianW]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

Rolling the hands and forearms in the takeaway is one of the most insidious things you can do, it fans the club too far inside which is the foundation of poor ball striking.

[keiko]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

Brian, you are correct. No one should try rolling the hands/arms on takeaway, this causes all kinds of problems such as too far inside, a closed clubface, OTT, and many other problems.
In my 50 years of playing and teaching, I know of no one who would advocate this, except maybe one poster on this db.

Rolling the hands and forearms in the takeaway is one of the most insidious things you can do, it fans the club too far inside which is the foundation of poor ball striking.

[jbrunk]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

Rolling the hands and forearms in the takeaway is one of the most insidious things you can do, it fans the club too far inside which is the foundation of poor ball striking.

Very good post.

[jbrunk]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

What's wrong with his hand and arm position? His hands are on plane with his right elbow under them giving them support like a waitor has his elbow below a tray when he carries it above his shoulder. He's text book perfect at the top.

With his right elbow and forearm in this postion they pull the shaft lengthwise when his right arm straightens in the downswing. Again, text book and uncompensated.

Hang a club by the edge of a door and you'll notice the shaft does not line up with the door edge but rather the sweetspot. This is because the clubs longitudinal center of gravity passes through the sweetspot. It's also why a club doesn't twist and feels solid when you hit the ball on the sweetspot.

At address your shaft points at one line and the sweetspot of the club lies on another about 2"-3" further out. When you take the club back the clubface rotates rotating the sweetspot onto the plane of the shaft. If you draw a line from the ball to the hosel of the club at the top you'll notice the clubface lies on this plane along with the sweetspot. When you start down both the hosel and sweetspot are started down on the same plane but at some point the clubface will rotate back to square as the sweetspot tries to seek out and align itself with the longitudinal center of gravity. You don't need tour quality clubface control, just an adherence to the laws of physics. Physics doesn't know if you, me or Tiger Woods is swinging the club, it just complies.

If it were that easy, I wouldn't be here talking to you sport, i'd be playing Hazeltine right now.


He's too laid off and too flat. He can play this way because he has great clubface control (even though he hits his driver all over the place).

For an amatuer to try and copy Tiger is a disaster.

[LowPost42]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

If it were that easy, I wouldn't be here talking to you sport, i'd be playing Hazeltine right now.


He's too laid off and too flat. He can play this way because he has great clubface control (even though he hits his driver all over the place).

For an amatuer to try and copy Tiger is a disaster.

If you can figure out how to move like Tiger moves, you'll be fine. If you try to hit positions to copy Tiger, I agree it'll be disastrous.

[jbrunk]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

The most common fault amatuers have is they take the club away too fast in the early part of the backswing (even pros have this problem too!)

As MCONN stated in an earlier post, the Medicus Swing Trainers are excellent feedback mechanisms for ingraining the proper take-away allowing you to swing the club on plane.

Tap Here to watch an excellent video about how to take the club away correctly.

Play well.

--John

What would be the over/under on tour pros that could swing a medicus without it hinging in the swing?

10, maybe?

[zankee]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

Hi Guys,

Just wondering how people start the take-away in their swing, just to try and get some consensus and / or ideas...

Personally, I start with a wrist break alla "4 magic moves", but instead of breaking my right wrist on the "side" I do it as if I was shaking hands, this gives me a very unusual take-away... but it's been very successful and consistent.

So how about you guys?

SCW

i like the word "take away" too many would be golfers talk about a backswing! the main thing i concentrate on is making sure it is very slow, i find it sets up the path correctly for the downswing. gotta rush off to the course

[hogan73]

Re: How do you "take-away"?

I use a method similar to that described by lowpost42 but because I have a tendency to get too flat at the top of my backswing I start my swing by pulling my right scapula back (because of the spine tilt at address this feels like I'm pulling the scapula back and up away from the ground).

My hands and arms are passive and the scapula pulling movement turns the shoulders, hands and arms into a great top of backswing position. Once fully coiled I just unwind the body around to the left as hard as I want and the arms and hands follow and square the face without any manipulation.

Players that get too steep with the shoulder turn might want to tweak this slightly by feeling that the scapula pulling direction is more horizontal than my method but a bit of trial and error in a mirror should quickly resolve this.

It takes a little bit of time to fully trust this takeaway but try it in a mirror/window and see how good the top of backswing position is.