28 golf digest | issue 4. 2020 Photograph by Dom FurorePlay BioGolf by David Leadbetter
T
he closer you examine
tour players’ swings, the
more subtleties you’ll dis-
cover. One such move is so indis-
cernible in real time, you have to
replay it in slow motion or see a
3-D rendition to verify what’s hap-
pening. But it is happening, and
it’s a big reason the best players
can generate so much speed when
they swing down into the ball.A Little ExtraThe secret movetop golfers makefor more speed“When the left shoulder stops,there’s still some work to do.”When you think of coiling
during the backswing, you prob-
ably think it’s the rotation of the
upper body against a stable lower
body. But that’s only part one
of how a tour player coils. Part
two happens near the top of the
swing, and it’s hard to see. As a
good golfer’s lead shoulder (left
for right-handers) stops rotat-
ing away from the target and the
torso dips a little toward the ball,
the right shoulder keeps coiling.
If you thought of the shoulder gir-
dle as one unit across your upper
body, you might be surprised to
know you can dissociate one side
from the other. The left shoulder
resists while the right shoulder
continues to move. Many ama-
teurs turn the shoulders together
in the backswing and downswing,
leading to swing-path issues that
cause them to hit slices and pulls.As you near the end of the
backswing, you want the pectoral
(chest) muscles on your side of
the body farthest from the target
to continue to stretch (above)
while the rhomboid and scapula
muscles on that same side of the
upper back contract.
A good drill to rehearse this
dynamic action is to make a back-
swing, stop at the top, and then
try to coil a little farther with your
right shoulder. If you feel your
pectoral muscles on the right side
really stretching, you’re on your
way to learning how to make this
secret power move.
—with ron kaspriskedavid leadbetter is a Golf Digest
Teaching Professional.