Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
If you’ve ever watched Jon Rahm play golf, you’ll know that he has a unique swing. With an extremely bowed wrist and short backswing, his move is hard to miss. But while his swing may look unorthodox, it’s extremely effective — evidenced by an impressive CV that includes a U.S. Open title and a green jacket from the Masters.
“Just swing your swing,” Rahm once said. “Do what you can do. That’s the best thing.”
Back in 2021, Rahm revealed that the reason for his short backswing is a birth defect that left him born with a club foot. Because of the ailment, doctors “pretty much broke every bone in [his] ankle and [he] was casted within 20 minutes of being born from the knee down.” He continued receiving treatment throughout childhood, and it left him with limited mobility in his right ankle.
This also caused Rahm to lose stability in his right ankle, which meant that taking a long backswing would leave him off-balance on the downswing.
“As a kid, I had a strong grip, I would over-swing and just try to hook hammer everything,” Rahm said. “[So] my swing coach in Spain, Eduardo [Celles], forced me to never get past shoulder height.”
Hence, the short backswing was born. Check out the video below for more insight into Rahm’s short backswing, and read on to learn how it can help your swing.
How to stop over-swinging
Taking the club back past parallel may make it feel easier to generate more clubhead speed, but often times, it can actually cause you to lose power and create poor contact. This is something that I struggle with from time to time and can attest that making a backswing past parallel introduces some disastrous shots.
If that is something that you struggle with, try the drill Rahm worked on as a kid.
“[Celles] loved having me feel like I was taking the club [to parallel],” Rahm said. “And then swing as hard as I could.”
By doing this, it forced Rahm to use his big muscles to drive the swing. It also created a more compact move, better face control and more consistent contact.
