While pros make the golf swing look easy, if you’ve ever played a round of golf before, you know it’s anything but simple. The golf swing is a complex motion that happens at high speeds with a variety of clubs; all while battling the elements and hitting from different types of lies.
Needless to say, the golf swing is quite complicated for most players. However, when you break the complex motion down into five key checkpoints, it makes it much easier to understand.
Today, we’ll dive into the five critical stages with easy tips to help you build a more reliable golf swing. You can reference this article when learning golf terms and researching the anatomy of a golf swing—no “what’s a downswing?” or “how do I set up my golf swing?” google searches necessary. We’re going to go over all of those terms here!
The Five Components of the Golf Swing
The five stages of a golf swing include:
- Setup
- Takeaway
- Backswing
- Downswing
- Follow through
The setup and takeaway set the stage for the rest of the swing. We’ll focus more on those two areas before providing easy to apply tips for the last three parts of the golf swing.
Setup (Address Position)
How you set up the ball – your address position – is the foundation to a good golf swing. The way you hold the club, your posture, alignment, and other factors directly impact your takeaway.
The first part of a good address position is your grip.
How you hold the club will impact if you hit slices, hooks, or relatively straight shots (learn more about slice vs. hooks here). Not to mention it’ll impact your ball striking and distance too.
Once you have the proper grip, the next areas to focus on include:
- Stance: Your stance width will change based on the club and shot you’re hitting. Longer clubs require wider stances and shorter, greenside shots require a more narrow stance.
- Posture and weight: Your posture should remain the same for all full swing shots. This includes a straight back, slight bend in the knees, and weight evenly distributed between both feet. You’ll want slightly more weight forward when hitting an iron or wedge for better contact.
- Ball position: Similar to your stance, this will depend on the club you’re hitting. Longer clubs should be played more forward, while irons and wedges more toward the middle of your stance.
Finally, don’t forget to check your alignment. If you set up closed or open to your target, you’ll have to manipulate your swing to correct it, which will lead to some bad habits on the course.
For a helpful visual on how to get the perfect rotation, starting with the right setup, watch this YouTube video:
Takeaway
Once you build a good foundation, the rest of the swing is much simpler. Next up is the takeaway, which is the first part of backswing.
You want to keep the clubhead low to the ground and start back with a good tempo. Not too slow, not too fast. Your arms and shoulder work together to create a one piece takeaway.
The most important part of the takeaway is keeping the clubface square, so the club moves straight back along the target line. If it gets open, a slice and steep downswing can occur. If it gets closed, a hook is likely to happen.
Tempo is also very important to creating power and not rushing the swing. If your takeaway needs help, make sure to check out the StraightAway by David Leadbetter. This easy to use training aid helps grooves a consistent takeaway to build a better backswing.
Backswing
The third part of the golf swing is the remainder of the backswing. This is where you load up into a powerful position and transfer weight to your trail side.
Here are the key elements to a good backswing:
- Shoulders rotate 90–100 degrees to create torque.
- Hips rotate roughly half the amount of the shoulders and weight shifts to the back leg.
- Keep the club on plane so it’s aligned with your target through the swing.
- Club should get close to parallel on full swing shots and slightly less with irons and wedges.
There shouldn’t be a deliberate pause at the top of the swing. It should be a natural motion to transfer your weight to your lead leg as you begin the downswing and uncoil your body.
Downswing
The downswing and transition is the fourth part of the golf swing. This happens in a split second and is set up based on your takeaway and backswing.
Here are some elements of the perfect downswing:
- Weight shifting from back to front foot.
- Rotating your hips toward the target as your hands and arms come down to bring the club toward the ball.
- The club will get into the slot and hopefully create lag so you have a more inside to outside swing.
- Wrists stay hinged until the last second before impact, where the clubhead is released.
- Yours should begin to come up, so your body can rotate through the shot.
The right tempo is key and you don’t want to “hit” the ball but instead swing through it.
Leading with the trail arm in the downswing is also a helpful tip to keep in mind: this YouTube video from coach Eric Cogorno covers this crucial motion:
Follow Through
The final stage of the golf swing is the follow through position. Here are the components of the last part of the swing:
- Good balance.
- Chest facing your target.
- Club finish over your shoulder.
- Arms fully extended toward the target.
- Weight on front foot, back heel off the ground.
Your follow through can help you learn a lot about your golf swing. For example, if your feet slide around too much, you might not have a wide enough stance.
Building Your Golf Swing
If you read this far, you’re well on your way to developing a more consistent golf swing.
It starts by understanding the five components and addressing one issue at a time. Most of the time a swing flaw can be fixed by changing something at setup – grip, posture, alignment – or takeaway.
When you have a solid starting position with an on-plane takeaway, it’s easier than ever to make a full backswing and create lag on the downswing. Which should lead to a balanced, controlled finish position.
If you aren’t sure which part of your swing needs help, check out Swing Fix AI. Using the Performance Golf app, you can upload a video of your swing and let artificial intelligence provide solutions. Our proprietary software will analyze your swing, find the biggest flaw, and help you fix it with proven advice.
Or, if you prefer a golf coach to evaluate your swing, learn more about 1:1 VIP coaching. You can upload unlimited videos of your swing, they’ll analyze it, provide solutions and offer support along the way.
