How To Get Backswing Depth For Better Ball Striking

Today, we’re going to be talking about depth in your backswing.

 What is depth?
Depth can be seen as the position of the club head at the top of the swing, in relation to the ball or a point on your body, e.g. your trail ankle.

 Not enough depth – Move the club back to the top of your backswing and freeze your position. If you were to hang an imaginary stick from the end of the golf club, the stick would fall outside the line of your feet.

 Too much depth – The opposite would be true, whereby your arms would go around your body, and at the top of the backswing the end of the golf club would be situated well back behind your heel.

 The correct amount of depth – At the top of the backswing, you want the head of the golf club pointing down directly over your trail ankle.

 If you get this depth position right it means you don’t have to make compensatory movements on the way down through your downswing.

 The Problem

 Not enough depth
This will cause your downswing to be too steep, potentially resulting in a slice shot or the club head causing a big divot in the ground.

 Too much depth
This will generally tend to make you hit too far behind the golf ball, leading to some fat shots. Otherwise club would just slightly miss the ground, rise, hit the equator and then you would hit some really low shots off the bottom of the club.

 Therefore, getting your golf club into a position where you have a functional amount of depth, is going to greatly help with achieving more consistency with your ball striking.

 The Solution
Try this simple drill:

1. Starting off with a straight body and from a level plane, swing back and stop when your lead arm is across your shoulder plane and the head of the club is over your right ankle.
2. Ensure that the club shaft is still flat, your lead wrist is flat, and your left arm is also flat.
3. Make a number of slow rehearsal swings, repeating this action to get a feeling of how to get the club back to where it would achieve this optimal depth position.

Summary:

If your club is too far out at the top of your backswing (insufficient depth) you are likely to slice your shot on impact. If your club is too far behind you (too much depth) you may end up hooking the shot.

 So, swing to the top and stop. See where the end of the club is. You want it to be over your trail ankle.

Practice this simple drill to remove these inconsistencies in your striking by finding a good depth position each time.

Watch the full video here: