Keeping The Radius Is Key For A Great Takeaway!!

I will often talk about the importance of the first position when trying to achieve consistency. You can see this to be true on Tour when you take the best players in the world and look at the similarities in their takeaway. They are all very much the same with some minor differences. You will see that when the club reaches parallel to the ground that the clubhead and the hands will form a straight line with some body turn and the 'toe' of the club roughly pointed to the sky.

Now the other big part to this which can sometimes get overlooked is the radius from the body during the takeaway. Put simply you want to make sure that the distance from the body to the butt end of the club is maintained during this movement. This ensures complete connection. Now after the first position the arms will move away from the body as the club reaches the top of the backswing as the left arm needs to form a 90 degree angle with the shaft.

Now if the radius does increase during the takeaway, it can cause a multitude of path and striking issues. Now in terms of path, if the club gets pushed too far away from the body, it can cause the path to flatten severely on the downswing causing 'hook' shots or block 'shots'. It could also causes a steep swing depending on the rotation of the body. In terms of striking issues, if you move the club away from the body, then you might lead in with the heel at impact causing 'top' shots or 'shanks'.

Now when the radius decreases too much which is far less common, the swing starts to lose its width. This means that the arms stay too close to the body causing the arms to often break down at the top of the swing. The result will be that you will lose a lot of power as well your impact area will be compromised as your hands will often 'flip' during the strike.

Therefore when working on the first position and the radius, just make sure that as you start the movement that the left arm and hands are starting to move across the body whilst the clubhead is staying in front of the hands. It will feel odd but you will then feel what it's like to ensure the shaft and the clubhead finish in the ideal position when the club reaches parallel to the ground.

If you need any further help in understanding the first position just contact myself at David Waters Golf.