THE GOLF SWING

The normal golf swing has three basic components: 1) the backswing,  2) the forward swing or downswing and 3) the follow through.  Each of these components of the golf swing shown below are illustrated for a right hand golfer:

The backswing.  Starting with your weight evenly distributed, the backswing begins with your weight shifting to the back right side of the body.  This causes the left knee to slightly bend and places most of your body weight on the right foot.  The right hip then actively begins to externally rotate (clockwise) further to the right.

Next, the left shoulder girdle turns in towards the midline of your body until the outside of the left shoulder moves directly under your chin.  This action is caused by contractions on the left side of the body, namely in the lateral rotators of the spine, pectoral muscles and  serrratus anterior muscles.  This movement allows both arms to swing upwards  past your right shoulder without any interference.  This movement also causes your left elbow to pronate along with a slight supination of the right elbow.

The backswing is completed when both wrists are cocked (adducted) over and past your right shoulder.  Throughout this motion the pelvis is also being counterbalanced by several incredibly strong muscle groups on both sides of your body, namely the hip abductors, hip adductors, hip flexors and hip extensors.  See Figure 1-4.

The down swing or forward swing.   Begins by shifting your weight back towards the left side. This causes your hips to rotate to the left (counter-clockwise).  This action is followed immediately by contractions on the right side of the body, namely the lateral rotators of the spine, pectorals and serratus anterior muscles.

At about the same time this is happening, your arms are being drawn downward and forward.  This action is initiated by the arm extensors on the left side of the body (teres major, latissimus dorsi and posterior deltoid) and is accompanied by extension of both elbows.

The downswing is complete when both wrists un-cock (abduct) and both elbows are fully extended at the moment of impact.  See Figure 1-5.

The follow through.   This is basically a continuation of the contractions that were generated during the forward swing, namely the contractions that took place in the external hip rotators and arm extensors on the left and lateral spine rotators on the right.  It ends at a point where both hands are over the left shoulder.  See Figure 1-6.

Section 2 contains the instructions for performing the exercises necessary to increase your clubhead speed,  ball velocity and driving distance.  Read through them very carefully as they are designed to help you perform the exercises correctly.  Section 3 contains the actual training exercises designed to target the specific muscle groups involved in the golf swing that were just discussed here, and Section 4 illustrates each of these muscle groups in greater detail.  The program finishes up with Section 5 which outlines your overall training instructions along with a progress chart and weekly training schedule.