The takeaway drill that ruined this golfer’s backswing (and how he fixed it)

We love a good drill around these parts, and the good news is that we feature lots of them. But before you start diving into all the drills you can find floating around the world of social media, remember that they’re not all created equal. There are lots of drills that’ll work — and others that’ll do more harm than good.

Like the one you see below, where the golfer sandwiches the clubhead between two golf balls: The one you’re about to hit, and one right behind the golf ball.

Traditionally, this is recommended as a drill to improve your takeaway, especially if you tend to take the club away on the inside on the backswing. But our friends at GOLFTEC, with its new OptiMotion technology, explain the unintended consequences of the drill.

As you can see here, the drill helped get the golfer’s takeaway moving in a good direction, but it also led to him cheating his backswing turn. He was lifting his arms, rather than turning his arms around his body.

By removing the drill and focusing more on turning his arms around his body, while tilting his shoulders, the golfer was able to make a much more powerful backswing — adding a whopping 28 degrees of shoulder turn, along with 27 degrees of hip turn.

All of which is to say, pick your drills wisely! Golf is hard enough as it is without sabotaging your own swing.

Watch the full video below, or sign up for your own GOLFTEC lesson right here.