Tip Tuesday: The Proper Way to Lengthen Your Backswing

In this installment of our video instruction series, Dustin Johnson Golf School Director of Coaching Allen Terrell responds to a social media question about how to lengthen your backswing. It’s a risky process if you don’t try it the right way.

 

 

Okay, so we had a question from one of our followers on Instagram on how to lengthen your backswing. It’s a very dangerous objective if you don’t try to do it the proper way.

Okay. The two improper ways of trying to lengthen your backswing. When we see a long swing, we want to make sure that this lead wrist isn’t cupping or extending, and that’s creating a long swing, so that would not be a good way. The other way that we see the wrong way of trying to lengthen their swing is they separate their arms too much, and this right shoulder goes too internal and they create a length of swing that way. Okay, that’s not the right way.

Long swings that you see on tour are from a good pivot, obviously some good flexibility, but if you see a good player with a long swing, it’s from how their body moves. One is, you cannot have a long swing if you swing back and you stay forward flexion or bent down or your chest too low. You see the guys (on tour), DJ, Bubba, Rory, you’re going to see that their trail side is very extended. Their right leg is straightening. Their chest is actually rising up a little bit. That extension gives them obviously quite a bit more than a 90-degree shoulder turn.

That’s how they have longer swings, but it’s not a goal of theirs to have a longer swing. It’s just from good body motion, so try to get that length of swing through good pivots.