By Kelly Blackburn
How you start your swing plays a tremendous role in how you finish it. After gripping the club correctly and setting up to execute a shot, the first move you make as you turn the shoulders to swing is the most important one. Not only do you set the path of your swing in the first milliseconds of the backswing, you also determine which muscles control the swing and how much energy transfers from your body to the club. In this chapter, I break down exactly which muscles you use during the turn and provide some key exercises to help golfers strengthen those muscles as they get older.
Muscling into the TurnEvery muscle group between your navel and your neck is at work during the backswing. And although no one group is more important than any other in this process, understanding the role of each major upper-body muscle group as it relates to the turn is key. Many very good players, including Bobby Jones, felt that the left arm or shoulder initiated the backswing. This was the feel they liked to get and the one thought that helped them start the turn. But, their idea was only partially correct.
Integrating your entire upper bodyA pushing action with the left side initiates the backswing turn, but it isn't just the arms and shoulders that are at work. The
Trapezius muscle, which runs along your upper back, plays a key role in initiating the turn, as does the
Latissimus Dorsi (the muscle that originates from the spine and attaches to the bone of the upper arm), or lat muscle as it's often called. Both these muscle groups are instrumental in turning the shoulders.
The
biceps come into play as the club comes off the ground and turns on plane while your forearms slowly rotate the clubface open on the backswing.
The external
oblique muscles, which run down your sides, also play a key role in the backswing, and must be flexible in order for you to make a complete shoulder turn.
Many players assume they aren't making a complete shoulder turn because their shoulders aren't flexible, when actually it's the obliques that are restricting their turn.
Upper and
lower abdominals (in your midsection) also play a key role in keeping your trunk sturdy throughout the turn. Without a strong and flexible midsection, your natural tendency is to pick up the club rather than turn it back.
Seeing why bigger isn't always betterIf power and speed in golf were based solely on strength, then the biggest, burliest muscle-bound golfers would hit the ball farther than everyone else, and golfers of smaller stature would be at a distinct disadvantage. But that is not the case at all. Take, for example, Gary Player. He's only 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds after a hearty meal, yet he has won 95 professional tournaments worldwide and is one of only five men in history to win all four professional majors. Player is proof positive that smaller golfers can generate tremendous power.
So how do they do it? How do older golfers like Player, Ben Crenshaw (who is 5'9", 155 pounds) and Mark McCumber (5'8", 155 pounds) keep up with taller, heavier, and stronger players? What about women? How does someone like Julie Inkster power drive past her husky male pro-am partners on a weekly basis? In fact, how is it that most LPGA Tour players hit the ball farther than many stronger male amateurs?
The answer is simple: All these players have harnessed the power of what's called the X Factor, building swings that maximize the leverage of a strong shoulder turn and a sturdy base. They build tension by coiling their bodies with a full turn, and they unleash tremendous energy when they unwind that coil.
Finding Your Power through the X FactorOkay, golf isn't rocket science, brain surgery, or even calculus, and anything in golf that requires a calculator with a function key is gobbledygook. Fortunately the X Factor is simple. The only reason it's referred to in mathematical terms is because you can actually calculate it, just like you can calculate your handicap. In golf, the formula is: X = Shoulder Turn – Hip Turn
If you think of your shoulders and your hips as dials on a compass, you can see how this formula works. A full shoulder turn of 90 degrees on the backswing, where a line across the shoulders would be perpendicular to the ground, minus a hip turn of say, 30 degrees, where the left heel has come off the ground and the hips have turned slightly, would give you an X Factor of 60 which is pretty good. Any X Factor over 50 isn't bad. If your other fundamentals are sound, an X Factor of 60 should allow you to generate a fair amount of clubhead speed at impact.
A: Good X-Factor |
|
B: Zero X-Factor |
A shoulder turn of 80 degrees minus a hip turn of 20 degrees, which would likely mean both feet remaining firmly planted on the ground, still generates an X Factor of 60. That means the golfer who turns his shoulders only 80 degrees but keeps his hips more firmly planted creates the same amount of energy as the golfer who turns her shoulders 90 degrees but turns her hips 30 degrees.
Avoiding common mistakesDo you see where this illustration is headed? A huge wind-up on the backswing doesn't necessarily translate to clubhead speed on the downswing. You can turn your shoulders 100 degrees, wrapping the club around you like Gumby, but if you also turn your hips 60 degrees, you have created an X Factor of only 40. That means you have built up less energy than the player with the shorter 80 degree backswing who keeps his or her hips firmly in place.
The other fatal flaw among many amateurs is picking the club up with the hands and assuming that this passes for a backswing (see picture above). It's very possible to take the club as far back as many professionals without turning your shoulders at all. All you have to do is pick the club up with your hands, and you can create an X Factor of zero. If you do make contact with this swing, the results won't be pretty. The one principle to remember about the turn in golf is that it isn't how far you turn your shoulders on the backswing, it's how big an X Factor that you can create that really matters.
The history of the X factor
Ben Hogan believed that the backswing sequence was so crucial to the success of the swing, that he listed it as one of only five "fundamentals" of golf. According to Hogan, the backswing was triggered first by the hands moving the club back, followed by the arms, then the shoulders turning, all parts working in concert to swing the club back around a steady center and a sturdy right leg. The left hip would follow the shoulders back, but the hips wouldn't move at all until the hands were above the hips and the backswing was at least half completed.
Hogan's theory, born of countless hours of thoughtful research and millions of practice shots, stated that the downswing was simply a reverse of the backswing sequence. The hips would move first, initiating the downswing, followed by the shoulders, arms, and hands. Many experts have grappled with this idea over the 50 years since Hogan first set it out in his two books, "Power Golf," and "Five Lessons," but none has been able to discount it. Hogan's fundamentals of a turning sequence for the backswing followed by an unwinding reverse-sequence for the downswing and follow-through are still considered gospel among many professionals and top-ranked amateurs.
In pure physiological terms, Hogan was more right than he could have ever known. Although he often referred to the "large" muscles of the back and shoulders and the role they played in effectively swinging the golf club, Hogan was ahead of his time in outlining and demonstrating the proper role of the back, shoulders, abdominals and obliques in the golf swing and the turning action they created. He also provided a classic living example of leverage and power created by turning the upper body around a relatively stable lower body. Hogan wasn't a big man. In fact, he was known as "Bantam Ben" because of his size, but Hogan produced tremendous power and efficiency in his swing through his turn. In the 1950s he didn't have a name for this principal. Today it's known as the X Factor.
Using the X factor to improve distanceNot surprisingly, the best X Factor in the game belongs to the best player in the world, Tiger Woods. In fact, the X factor is the source of Tiger's seemingly inhuman length off the tee. Tiger has the uncanny ability to turn his shoulders well beyond 90 degrees, and sometimes beyond 100 degrees with very little movement in his hips. This X Factor creates enormous energy that Tiger unleashes in the form of 350-yard tee shots and 200 yard 7-irons.
Like most things in the game today, nobody has mastered the X Factor better than Tiger. By the same token, older golfers are also maximizing the X factor to improve their games. Take professional Laura Baugh, for example. The LPGA rookie of the year in 1973 and the youngest player to win the U.S. Women's Amateur when she was only 16, Laura earned a reputation on tour as an accurate but not particularly long hitter.
For years she assumed that her lack of distance was due to her lack of stature. She was a size 2 for most her adult life, so it only seemed natural that she wouldn't hit the ball as far as others did. Then Laura saw a video tape of her swing, and she realized that her lack of distance wasn't because of her size. "I had this awful reverse weight shift," she said. "My hips were way out of position, and even though I was taking the club back a long way, it wasn't doing me any good. I realized that if I was going to be competitive, especially as I got older, I needed to gain some distance."
Laura went to work on her swing, focusing on keeping her hips steady while maintaining her full shoulder turn. Her X factor doubled and the results were dramatic. Laura gained upwards of 40 yards off the tee and she leapt into the top 20 in driving distance on the LPGA Tour for the first time in her career after her 40th birthday.
"I work out and stretch every day, and with this new swing I'm really long," she says. "It's a big advantage when you're hitting shorter clubs into par fours and reaching par fives in two. I'm only sorry I didn't recognize the swing changes I needed to make sooner."
Laura's epiphany isn't unusual, and there's no magical secret to her success. She recognized the need to increase her X factor in order to achieve greater distance as she aged, so she began stretching. She also worked on turning her shoulders around relative stable hips.
You can make those same changes, regardless of your age. By incorporating the stretching exercises found in this chapter with a deliberate focus on increasing your X factor, you can achieve similar results.
Stretching to Improve Your TurnSwinging a golf club correctly takes a complete effort from many muscles. Your right side is no less important than your left during the backswing. Your arms and hands are no more vital than the stomach and back. That's why golfers must work on stretching and strengthening the big muscle groups that turn the golf club. Two simple exercises can help you accomplish that.
Doing the Turn DrillThe purpose of the turn drill is to get your muscles accustomed to stretching the X Factor to it fullest. Follow these simple steps to perform this stretch.
- Place a club behind your lower back so that the grip and the shaft are wedged between your elbows and across your back. The clubhead should be on your left side, and the grip of the club on your right.
- Assume a mock address position, and slowly turn your upper body so that the clubhead points to the ground while your feet remain firmly planted and your hips stay relatively stationary (see Figure below). Laura Baugh works many hours to stay flexible enough to make this turn. Don't feel bad if you can't quite replicate her flexibility right away.
- After fully extending the stretch as far as you comfortably can, hold for a count of ten. Slowly turn out of the stretch and simulate a slow motion follow-through to your finish position (see below) Hold the finish for a count of ten. This follow-through gives you a feel for the large muscle groups working through the swing while allowing both sides of the body to be stretched equally.
This exercise is a slow action! Take at least three or four seconds to fully complete your turn. Rushing this stretch not only negates the desired effect, but may also result in your hurting yourself. As with all stretches, take it slowly and feel the sensation in every muscle group.
Trying a Standing Stretch to Expand Your X FactorFrom a standing position either in your home or on the golf course, you can do another great stretch for all the torso, arm, shoulder, and neck muscles. It's a great warm-up exercise before a round, but also a stretching drill you can incorporate into your daily routine.
In order to perform this stretching and strengthening drill, follow these steps.
- Hold the head of the club in your left hand and the grip in your right, with the club directly in front of you and your arms fully extended.
- With your knees slightly flexed, slowly turn your arms, shoulders, and head 90 degrees to the right so that you are staring to your immediate right.
- Take the stretch a little farther, trying, if you can, to look directly behind you, turning the shoulders and head 180 degrees while keeping the hips as still as possible. Hold this position for a count of ten (see below).
- fter turning as far to the right as you can, slowly turn back to the front and repeat the stretch on your left side. Hold the opposite side for a count of ten.
You should feel this stretch in your back, sides, and abdomen, and, if you work at it regularly, you can improve the strength and flexibility of those muscles.
Building a bigger X Factor is far more important in golf than how far you take the club back or how strong your hands and arms are. By working all the muscles in the upper body, you have a good chance of improving your distance, accuracy, and overall flexibility.
