Tilting vs. Turning in the Backswing

The thing that makes poor golfers look like poor golfers, is a poor pivot. Even the ‘untrained’ eye can see the larger and slower movements of the golfer’s body and whether or not a particular golfer’s action looks correct. Like watching a figure skater, the viewer rarely looks at the faster moving components like the skater’s feet and blades, but can see every unbalanced herk or jerk of a poorly executed move and identify the ‘obvious’ grace of a champion.

Torso tilt, or axis tilt, is one of the most important elements of a perfect pivot, but is only one of many. The motion of feet, knees, hips and shoulders all play important roles in the Pivot. Master these movements and great golf is much more likely to be within your grasp. Do a poor job with your pivot and you will fight your hands, arms and club the rest of your golfing life like a kid that doesn’t want to leave the toy department. And just like the kid will do to you, the poor pivot will make you look bad too.

The first step is a good grip and set-up.  Next is getting the concept of an effective pivot right in your head. Simply stated, you want to ‘pivot’ around your spine on the backswing and then tilt so that when you pivot around it on the downswing, the force from that pivot-through motion will guide and power the club on the correct track to, and through, the ball.

When the backswing is done correctly, the head will move slightly to the golfers right from its address position.