Golf Tips: Benefits Of The Early Backward Break

With the early backward break you do not get aYou are not moving it by breaking your wrists. So,
bouncing effect at the top. From the time the handssince you have brought the club back with your body
are hip high only the arms, actuated by the shoulders,and shoulders, the natural thing to do is simply to
are moving the club. The club itself is not moving fastleave them in command and start the downswing
as it reaches the limit of the backswing, and there iswith them. This is exactly what should be done-the
a noticeable but not violent pull on the hands andhips sliding laterally, and turning and rocking the
wrists when it gets there.shoulders to bring the club down.
Hence there is no rebound. The club starts downThe wrists leading at impact with no temptation to
solely in response to the shoulder and hip action-andpronate or supinate are accounted for largely by the
we are off to a late hit instead of an early one.position the early break puts the hands and wrists
Since the late hit is the true manifestation of goodinto, aided by the fact that the body is swinging the
timing, you have, right there, one reason the earlyclub during a large segment of the downswing. With
backward break promotes good timing. The fact thatthe perfect late hit, when the club catches up with
there is no rebounding from the top, and no hurriedthe hands at the last possible moment, the hands will
effort then to get the club head to the ball, is alsoalways be slightly in front at impact. The club has
why this system makes it easier to establish a good,caught up enough to strike a straight, solid blow, but
even rhythm.it doesn't get exactly even with the hands until
But, you will say, the pros have no trouble with theslightly after the ball is hit.
late break and this rebounding of the club head. No,This will vary among the top pros, but pictures of
they don't, because they subconsciously time theirmany of them, taken at impact, show the left arm
movements with it and also because they "tame" theand the club in a curving line, not a straight line. Bill
club head by keeping a tight grip at the top. This gripCasper and Wes Ellis are two examples.
is tight enough so that the club never gets awayThe fact that a solid contact is produced on the
from them. But for the average player the timing iscenter of the club face is, really, the cumulative
much more difficult.effect of many of the movements which have
The feeling that you have to move the body to getpreceded it. Whenever the hit is late and from the
the club down to the ball, has its origin in the factinside the contact is much more likely to be accurate
that for the last half of the backswing you arethan if we hit too soon and/or from the outside.
moving the club largely with your body and shoulders.