How to Turn in a Golf Backswing

A powerful and consistent golf swing starts with one move: a good backswing turn. Forget about lifting the club with your arms, true power comes from coiling your body like a spring. This article will show you exactly how to do that. We'll break down the backswing into simple, actionable steps, moving from the role of your core and hips to the feeling of a full shoulder turn, so you can stop arm-swinging the club and start using your body to generate effortless distance and accuracy.

The Huge Misconception: Lifting vs. Turning

Before we build the right motion, let's clear up the single biggest mistake I see golfers make in the backswing: they think it's an "up" motion. They see the club go up in the air and assume their job is to lift it there with their arms and hands. This leads to a weak, disconnected swing that relies entirely on timing to produce a decent shot. You end up chopping down on the ball, losing power, and struggling with consistency.

The golf swing isn’t up and down, it’s a rotational action around your body. Think of it more like a discus thrower coiling up than a woodchopper lifting an axe. Your big muscles - your chest, back, and hips - are the engine. Your arms and the club are just along for the ride. When you get this concept right, everything changes. You tap into a source of power you didn't know you had, and the swing starts to feel synchronised and effortless.

Your Core is the Engine: The One-Piece Takeaway

The backswing turn begins the moment the clubhead moves away from the ball. The key here is to initiate this movement with your core, not your hands. This is often called the "one-piece takeaway" because your shoulders, arms, hands, and the club all move away together as a single, connected unit.

Here’s the feel you’re looking for:

• From your address position, feel like you are turning your chest and belly button away from the target.
• Let your arms simply respond to this torso turn. The triangle formed by your arms and shoulders should stay intact for the first few feet of the swing.
• Avoid picking the club up early with your hands or wrists. The clubhead should stay low to the ground and move away from the ball in a wide arc.

A great checkpoint is to swing the club back until it’s parallel to the ground. When you look at its position, the clubhead should be directly in line with your hands or even slightly outside of them, and the butt-end of the grip should be pointing roughly at your belly button. If you see this, you’ve successfully started the swing with your body’s rotation.

The Sequence of the Turn: Hips, Shoulders, and Arms

Once you’ve mastered the takeaway, the rest of the backswing is a continuation of this rotational sequence. It's not three separate moves, but one blended motion where different parts of your body contribute at the right time. Let’s break down the feeling for each key area.

1. How to Turn Your Hips Correctly

Your hips are a major source of power, but they need to turn, not slide. A common fault is the "sway," where the hips slide horizontally away from the target. This kills your rotation and makes it almost impossible to get back to the ball properly.

Instead, focus on rotation. A great visual is to imagine you’re standing inside a narrow barrel or cylinder. As you start your backswing, your right hip (for a right-handed golfer) should feel like it's turning back and away from the ball, moving deeper into the barrel, not pushing against the side of it.

Drill to an Anti-Sway Feel:

Place a golf bag or stand a chair just outside your right hip at address. As you practice your backswing, your goal is to turn without bumping into the object. You should feel your glute muscle engage and your weight load into the inside of your right heel. This simple drill trains you to rotate your hips cleanly and maintain your angle, setting you up for a powerful and consistent downswing.

2. Completing the Shoulder Turn for Maximum Power

The shoulder turn is where you truly store energy. Your goal is to get your lead shoulder to turn well past the golf ball, until it feels like it’s over your back foot. For many amateurs, this feels like an exaggeration, but it's the signature move of a powerful coiling motion.

Here’s what to focus on:

• As you continue to turn your hips, let that rotation pull your shoulders around farther.
• Your objective is to get your upper back facing the target.
• You should feel a stretch across your lats and upper back. This tension is the stored power you'll unleash in the downswing. Don’t be afraid of this feeling, it means you're loading up correctly.

Flexibility can be a limiting factor here. Don't force yourself into a position that causes pain. A proper turn within your range of motion is far better than an over-extended one that leads to injury. Even a smaller, well-sequenced turn is more powerful than a long, disconnected arm swing.

3. What the Arms and Wrists Do

So if the body is doing all this turning, what are the arms doing? Mostly, they're just going along for the ride. As your body rotates, your arms swing up naturally. Because of the momentum of this arc, your wrists will also begin to hinge and set the club. You don't have to consciously *think* "hinge my wrists now." It happens as a natural reaction to the swing's motion.

In the initial takeaway, there's very little wrist hinge. As the club gets to about thigh-high, you’ll feel the weight of the clubhead naturally start to create an angle in your wrists. By the time you reach the top of your swing, they should be fully hinged. This creates a powerful lever that you can then unload into the golf ball.

Focusing on the body's turn allows the arms and wrists to fall into place. When golfers try to consciously manipulate their arm position or wrist hinge, they often disrupt the entire sequence.

A Final Checkpoint at the Top

When you've completed your turn, you should feel stable, loaded, and ready to go. Here are a few signs you're in a great position:

• About 70-80% of your weight is on your back foot, specifically toward the inside of your heel.
• Your lead shoulder is behind the ball, and your chest is pointing away from the target.
• Your left arm (for a righty) is relatively straight but not rigidly locked.
• You feel a sense of tension or "coil" across your back.

From this loaded position, all that's left is to unwind and let the power flow through to the ball. But it all starts with that big, body-powered backswing turn.

Final Thoughts

Remember, the golf backswing is fundamentally a turn, not a lift. By initiating the motion with your core, rotating your hips correctly, and allowing your shoulders to make a full coil, you load your swing with effortless power and set the stage for far more consistency. Focus on feeling your body turn away from the target, and let your arms and the club come along for a powerful ride.

Seeing your own swing is a huge part of improving, and sometimes you need instant feedback to know if you're actually turning instead of swaying. That’s where tools like Caddie AI become incredibly helpful. We designed it to give you the kind of on-demand analysis that can build the right habits. You can get feedback on your swing mechanics, asking what a specific move should feel like or even getting an analysis of your alignment and body position to make sure your backswing is on the right track from the start.