The No Backswing Golf Swing

Aug

2007

The “No-Backswing” Swing

Posted by Double Eagle in Ball Striking Tips, Practice Tips

Stack and Tilt Golf Swing Videos by Medicus Golf

Uh oh, another golf swing revolution.

Golf Digest has cornered that market on the stack and tilt swing, so Golf Magazine came out with a revolution of its own in the September 2007 issue. This time, it’s the “No-Backswing” swing.

The concept has been developed and studied by Top-100 teachers Dr. Jim Suttie and Dr. T.J. Tomasi. This isn’t a new idea. When I was first learning the game almost 15 years ago, a pro demonstrated this to me as a drill to get the feeling of swinging down from a proper position. However, Suttie and Tomasi have taken it to another level, including a study of its effectiveness.

The basic premise is that about 70% of swing faults of around 90% of golfers occur in the back swing. Those faults compound because they build on top of each other. A flaw during the back swing is very difficult to recover from.

The answer: start the swing at the top.

Of course, the “No-Backswing” is somewhat of a misnomer. After all, the club has to get up there somehow. But instead of a fluid move starting from address and moving through impact to the finish, the no-backswing swing starts with the left arm (for a right hander) parallel to the ground with the wrists fully cocked. From there, you do a move called “The Pump” where you get into the traditional top of the back swing position. From there, just hit the ball.

The full instructional article is available online at Golf.com, including a video of how to do the swing.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is the study that was conducted to test the effectiveness of the technique.

In the first experiment, 29 golfers of varying skill levels were tested by having them hit five balls with their regular swing and then five with the no-backswing swing. To me, the results seem unremarkable, but GD declares, “Nonetheless, the data indicates that the No-Backswing Swing works and has distinct advantages over the traditional way of swinging the club.”

The second experiment is the one I find most remarkable. In it, they asked reader Pat Sexton, an 8-handicap, to learn, practice, and play with the no-backswing swing for two weeks.

When he returned for follow-up testing, he gained 6.2 mph in club head speed, 10 mph in ball speed, and nearly ten yards of carry. Also of note is that his dispersion pattern tightened by almost 4 yards.

I’m having trouble deciding whether I favor playing like this. I really wanted to try it out tonight at the range, but I’ve been having some soreness in my foot that kept me on the couch.

I will say that I definitely agree with the point that a large number of swing faults happen well before reaching the top of the backswing and the errors can definitely compound making it difficult or impossible to recover prior to impact.

I suppose there’s not much to be lost by starting the swing at the top. After all, the energy is stored in the body’s coil and doing the coil and downswing in a single move doesn’t really increase the amount of stored energy. At that point, it’s simply a matter of timing and tempo. The “pump” move keeps you from having to start the downswing from a static position.

I’m definitely interested in giving it a try. Has anyone tried it, and if so, what are your thoughts? Can anyone think of any downsides?

After I get a chance to try it for myself, I’ll report back. Your homework assignment is to do the same.

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There are currently 15 responses to “The “No-Backswing” Swing”

1
The Happy Rock said:

That is awesome, despite looking weird on the course.

I will definitely try it, anything that helps me swing more like baseball makes me happy!

No you just have to mentally prepare for the Happy Gilmore jokes and tee box snickering.

Posted on August 23rd, 2007 at 11:10 am
2
Double Eagle said:

I’d live with heckling in exchange for consistency. After all, when one of those 70% of swing flaws pops up and I top the ball 20 yards, I’m not exactly feeling great.

Posted on August 23rd, 2007 at 7:32 pm
3
Joe D. Segovia said:

I just recently tried the single plan golf swing and it started out well. Osmosis set in and I quickly went to manure. It got so bad I quit the game out of frustration. I read about the No Backswing backswing in golf magazine. I studied it and tried it out on a local nine hole course. I was utterly amazed. I have never hit the ball as far and as accurate as I did tonight. The first couple of times it was extremely awkward. But once I got used to the swing I scored very well. I ran into a couple of friends on the course and they asked me what the hell I was doing. I explained and with an audience watching me, were very impressed with my drives. They also wanted to know where I learned about this unusual swing. Hey it looks dorky but I love the results.

Posted on August 29th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
4
Double Eagle said:

Can’t argue with results, Joe. Glad to hear it worked out for you.

Posted on August 29th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
5
Fixit said:

I just started hitting the links this year, so I’m a novice, to put it mildly. I can hit it long and accurately on rare occasion, but I’m wildly inconsistent with all of my irons. Don’t even get me started on my hybrid 3 and 4; I can’t hit those AT ALL.

Yesterday, I got home from work early and I decided to hit a few in my back yard. I pulled out my 6, got into the No-Backswing position, and hit it into the tree in front of me, better than I’d ever hit that or any other iron. That was the very first ball. I repeated the process 1/2 dozen more times and hit the same spot on the tree consistently on all of them.

I thought “Fluke!” so I grabbed my hybrid 3, expecting to be as bad as I’ve ever been (possibly even worse), then started UNLOADING into the woods. I hit one bad shot, but that was because I was so excited that I rushed one.

Out of 14 balls, I hit 13 long and arrow-straight, with no previous exposure to the swing. Needless to say, I became a big believer instantly.

Posted on August 30th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
6
Double Eagle said:

You’re going to need to buy some more balls, Fixit.

What I’m interested to know is whether the no-backswing swing will be effective if you return to your previous normal swing.

If you’re bypassing 70% of swing errors and getting into a proper position at the top, will that position become ingrained to the point where you could go back to using the full backswing and just feel where things aren’t right until you end up just doing it correctly.

Of course, the question is, what’s the point? If the no-backswing works as well or better, then why bother ever going back?

Posted on August 30th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
7
Mike Pedersen Golf said:

I think the swing for any amateur is Zach Johnson’s. He has a very compact swing that is so much easier to repeat. So many golfers think they need to make this FULL backswing, and yet most of them don’t have the physical capability to get there without a lot of tension and effort. We all know what tension does to the golf swing.

Swing within yourself like Zach does and watch your game explode!

Posted on September 23rd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
8
TP Golf Online said:

I agree with the initial research sampling of hitting 5 balls with a regular swing and 5 with the no-backswing backswing. Seems the data can get skewed to fit results they already had in mind.

It is a good drill and there are others like it that get golfers to get into “preset” conditions.

A downside I can see is how will the average golfer get into the starting position. I have not read the article(s) and I just watched the video so I do not know all the details. But like address if they don’t get into the correct position (proper wrist cock, having the shaft on plane, etc…) they may not be fixing the problem and they may be avoiding problem altogether.

Posted on November 25th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
9
Double Eagle said:

The article (available online) does a nice job of showing the average player how to get in a good position with respect to plane, wrist cock, etc. There are some good photos showing the proper positions.

Posted on November 25th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
10
Golf Carts for Sale said:

I have to tell you that as bizarre as it looks, what a difference. They are going straight where I want them to go and further, might have to go up a club size.

Posted on February 29th, 2008 at 2:06 am
11
Nomad said:

The go to swing: No backswing back swing.
I read this months ago in one of the golf magazines. Thought it was stupid till I tried it. What it does for me.
1. Slows me down (Don’t need to swing hard, the downward strike will make the ball fly)
2. Sets me up in the swing position.
3. Helps build up more coil.
4. Loads up the back leg.
I take it a point further. I’ll drop my arms low in the swing in the slot to the 7 or 8 oclock position twice with wrist hinged while shifting my weight to the front foot a bit. I rotate and shift my hips to the front foot during this time. Two practice pumps same motion then I coil back and swing.
5. This helps put he club in the slot and lag the club through impact.
6. Helps rotate hips
7. Sets up for downward strike due to the two practice hinge pumps to the 7 or 8 oclock position
8. sets up for nice follow through with hips and arms rotated forward which I don’t get on the normal swing. Usually cupped and a chicken wing.

This swing helps just take your time and who cares what others think. It works and your ball will jump.

Posted on June 21st, 2008 at 12:30 am
12
tj tomasi said:

This is a great site — kudos

tj tomasi

Posted on July 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
13
Double Eagle said:

Thanks!

Posted on July 14th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
14
Maurice Huet said:

I have learning to play Golf over the past couple of years and read everything I can to improve my game and realize that most people just follow what they are told, but do not really try to understand the physics behind the reasons. I am a mechanical designer, not an engineer, but understand that club head speed is a main factor in determining ball travel. I believe that acceleration of the club head is controlled be the speed of acceleration and the time that you have to accelerate. If you accelerate over a longer period of time, your club head speed will be greater, and therefore the ball will travel further. Therefore, a longer back swing will allow for longer drives. I realize that the accuracy may be affected. However, to match this drive with a shorter back swing, a person will have to use more energy to accelerate faster, in order to match the final velocity, thus also sacrificing accuracy…..what are your thoughts on this manner

Posted on August 8th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
15
Double Eagle said:

Maurice,

I generally agree with your thoughts.

Generating club head speed is the primary factor in distance. In general, you’re right that a longer back swing makes this easier. With a longer swing we have more time to accelerate and build club head speed, and it certainly requires less effort. But, equally important is width. If the swing arc is smaller (like when the hands are too close to the right shoulder at the top of the back swing), then physics dictate that the same amount of effort will produce less club head speed than if the swing arc is as large as wide as we can possibly make it.

I might argue that the primary factor in people lacking distance isn’t usually swing length. I’d bet width is a more common problem followed by a bunch of other swing flaws.

For someone with good strength, the reason is usually one or more swing flaws (like inadequate width) that prevent optimal acceleration of the club in the down swing or that cause the club to decelerate too soon. There are many, many flaws that can contribute to this.

In the case of seniors, however, swing length can be a primary factor, as they are not as strong and flexible as they once were.

Of course, a longer back swing provides diminishing returns when over-swinging occurs and players get the club too far back. It works for some players, such as John Daly, but for most people, it comes with a price (consistency).

Posted on August 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pm