The Proper Golf Swing Sequence – The Secret of the Pros
If you want to become a good golfer, you’ve simply got to understand the key fundamentals of the golf swing, and in particular, the Kinematic Sequence for a good golf swing.
The Kinematic Sequence is simply an efficient sequence of motion in a skilled golf swing. You can read more on the technical details at MyTPI.
There are efficient sequences of motion in other sports that involve throwing motions such as pitching a baseball or throwing a discus. You can find them in martial arts movements as well, from simple punches to more complex spinning kicks.
These motions are often taught by breaking them down into small sections, particularly if they are very complex movements like the golf swing.
The fact of the matter is this…until you get this right, you will struggle to shoot low scores. This is why it makes no sense to me to teach someone to improve their swing plane if they can’t this sequence down.
So, no matter how much you work on your golf fitness, strength, flexibility, etc., you won’t hit the ball consistently well until you get this right.
No matter how many lessons you have, and whether you get fitted for that expensive set of clubs, you won’t become a good golfer until you get this sequence down.
And guess what? Having a good Kinematic Sequence has nothing to do with developing a visually perfect golf swing. Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk have very similar Kinematic Sequences, according to the folks at My TPI.
And another thing…if you’ve got injuries that result in some restricted movement, you can still learn this sequence.
I’ve seen a golfer paralyzed from the waist down who can generate 115 mph clubhead speed because he has the proper sequence for what he’s working with.
So, with all that in mind, let’s get to it!
The Proper Golf Swing Sequence
Before I ever put a golf club in a beginner golf student’s hand, I teach them the appropriate body movements, or, golf swing sequence. I typically have them hold onto a ball instead of a golf club.
The golf swing is simply too complex to learn with a club in hand. Beginners often become overwhelmed intimidated by all this new information they are learning, i.e., grip, stance, posture, alignment, takeaway, backswing, downswing, follow through, etc.
When I studied the martial art Pai Lum, we would learn a new form about four or five moves at a time. In some of our workshops we might learn a new form, but these workshops lasted 3 to 4 hours.
The regular class sessions were not that long, and learning a new form might only be a small portion of the class. Therefore, it would typically take us about two months to learn a new form.
The golf swing is much like a Kung Fu form. The entire body gets involved, yet at different parts during the swing.
The upper and lower body must move in the proper sequence to develop maximum efficiency and power.
If the body moves out of sequence, then there is a loss of power and accuracy. This is similar to most any athletic move, from throwing a baseball to throwing a discus, or even a jumping, spinning kick.
In all of these other activities, the athlete learns a piece at a time, never the entire move at once. Yet, for some reason, that is how the golf swing is taught.
Not here though. If you want to make significant improvement in your golf swing, it is critical that you learn the golf swing sequence.
Golf Swing Sequence – Back Swing
The back swing is the most complicated part of the golf swing, and now in todays instruction, many instructors do not even completely agree on how the body should move and how the club should swing.
I guess that is why tour players often switch teachers and coaches.
In regard to how the body moves, there are some basic fundamentals. The weight shifts modestly to the back foot as the shoulders and hips turn.
The arms must then lift, and to keep the club on a decent swing plane, there must be some rotation in the forearms. I am not worried about the action of the wrists at this point, because I am only concerned with how the body is moving without the club in our hand.
In order to learn how to move the body properly in the back swing, I break it down into smaller parts as follows:
Weight Shift
Starting from a standing position, with your feet shoulder width apart, and weight evenly distributed, I want you to simply shift your weight to your back foot.
As you do this, be sure to flex the knee slightly as you shift the weight onto that leg. Also, try to maintain the tension on the inside of your leg, rather than shift the weight too much so that the weight gets outside of your back foot.
Do this a few times, then move on to the next step.
Weight Shift, Then Turn Hips
Unfortunately, here is where things get complicated. Yes, believe it or not, adding a turn in the hips, AFTER the weight shift is problematic for some people, and this is the first reason why people struggle with swinging a golf club.
Once you have shifted your weight onto the back foot, I simply want you to turn the hips, up to a 45 degree turn. It is ok to let the shoulders and the head turn with the hips at this point. I dont want things to be any more difficult than the need to be.
Unfortunately, some people are unable to turn the hips with a LEVEL rotation. Some, instead, tilt the hips. This is what causes a reverse pivot in some golf swings, or a change in spine angle in others.
When you turn the hips after shifting the weight, you should maintain the knee flex in the leg you are shifting the weight onto. You should feel the weight inside your back heel, inside the thigh and in the glute.
For a right handed player, this would be the right heel, right thigh and right glute. Also, do your best to not lean either way with your upper body.
Repeat this sequence at least five or six times. If you struggle with it, then keep doing it until you get it right. Remember, shift the weight first, then turn the hips.
Shift and Turn at Same Time
Ok, now we are going to start mimicking the golf swing a little bit. In the swing, we dont do things piecemeal. There is a flow, and everything starts together. At the beginning of the swing, the shoulders start turning, the weight starts shifting and the hips start turning as we take the club away from the ball. At this point, we are not yet concerned with the upper body.
So, as you shift your weight onto the back foot, turn your hips at the same time. Again, be sure the turn of your hips is level. There should be no tilt in the hips at all. Also, be sure that your weight does not shift outside your back foot.
Your back knee should not point outward much at all. You want to feel as if the back leg is being used as a brace, and therefore, you should keep the weight to the INSIDE of the leg.
Again, feel the weight on the inside of the back heel, inside the thigh and in the glute. Be sure to hold the position for a few seconds to get the right feel.
Golf Posture – Shift and Turn
Now that you are beginning to get a good weight shift and hip turn all at once, its time to get into the golf posture. Without getting into too much detail at this point, just get into a comfortable, athletic position where the knees are flexed slightly and you have a slight bend at the waist.
I would also suggest holding onto a basketball at this point as well. This will be used in the next few moves. Let the arms hang naturally under the shoulders with your hands holding onto the ball.
These photos show the balanced, athletic stance with the ball, and then the weight shift and turn. The shoulders have turned as well, and now the center of my chest is essentially over my back foot.
Shift, Turn, Lift the Arms
Now we are starting to really complicate things. This is where most beginner students, or golfers with significant difficulty maintaining the spine angle struggle. As soon as we start to lift the arms, things go awry!
This is where flexibility issues may come into play, or some issues with core strength. Many people are tight in the shoulders, and have trouble lifting their extended arms above shoulder height. They then compensate by tilting their hips which results in the back shoulder rising above the front shoulder, and their spine leans toward the target. This is the reverse pivot. Now the student is in a poor position to make consistent contact with the ball.
Some students lack the core strength in the lower and middle portion of the back. They are unable to maintain their spine angle when trying to lift the arms.
They then straighten up in the back swing, which means now they must change their spine angle again in the downswing in order to hit the ball. This also leads to inconsistent ball striking.
In this drill, it is not necessary to lift the arms above shoulder height.
Most people can get them to exactly shoulder height and that is fine. The whole point to this drill is to be sure that the spine angle does not change.
Shift, Turn, Lift, Rotate
The final piece to the back swing puzzle is the rotation of the forearms. This mimics what happens in the golf swing with a club in our hand. At the top of the back swing, the left hand (for right handed players) should actually be on top of the ball, as seen in the photo.
If we were swinging a golf club, the left hand would be on top and the club may actually feel like it is resting in the palm of the right hand.
In order to get a solid foundation into moving the body properly, the student should piece these moves together as I have shown. If there is one step in the overall move that proves difficult, more time should be spent on that step before combining them into one swing.
Golf Swing Sequence – Down Swing
Most golfers try to make the downswing far more complicated than it needs to be. This is because they are trying to hit the ball, rather than just letting the club swing.
They end up out of sequence by leading with the upper body rather than the lower body. This leads to poor ball striking.
Once we reach the top of the back swing while swinging the ball, the next move starts by shifting the weight, from the ground up, from the right foot into the left foot.
The left hip will shift a little toward the target as a result. As this occurs, the arms simply start to drop. Unfortunately, most people want to turn the shoulders too much at this point, when in fact there is little shoulder turn at all from the top of the back swing. We simply turn the shoulders in the downswing to
impact, as much as we did in the back swing.
At impact, the center of gravity has dropped a bit since the top of our back swing. Our weight has shifted almost entirely to the front foot and there should be flex in the front knee.
The hips at this point are turned a little past the original set up position, and the back of the left hand should be square to the target. Notice how my chin is pointing straight at the center of the ball.
The key to this exercise is to learn how to move the body from the top of the back swing into impact. The bottom line is that the lower body does the bulk of the work, and the upper body just follows.
Golf Swing Sequence – Follow Through
The follow through move is simply a further rotation of the hips as a result of the momentum carried in the downswing. It is no less important, however, as the shape of the follow through can dictate the shape of the shot.
Ideally, after impact, we reach the point where we have the most extension with the arms. We then finish in a balanced position with all of our weight on our front foot. There should be no arching of the back as in the old Reverse C position.
That is essentially how we break down the golf swing sequence so we can train the body to move properly in the golf swing.
Taking the club out of our hands makes this quite a bit easier. As I already indicated, this breakdown of the swing should be practiced daily until the student is able to perform each part of the swing well. Then, the entire swing should be practiced with ball in hand before moving on to using a club.
Below are more videos that show you the movement patterns in the golf swing from a couple different perspectives.