How to Improve Your Golf Swing Takeaway

The “takeaway” is the first move in the golf swing, and it can often be overlooked by golfers. However, a good takeaway is essential for a smooth, natural swing that produces consistent results.

But the term “takeaway” doesn’t really match what we’re trying to do in order to produce that natural, smooth swing. For many golfers, the takeaway can cause too many swing thoughts. This leads to you being too slow, too careful, and overthinking the beginning of your swing. When this happens, there is a lot of built up tension as you’re trying to get in the right positions.

But it doesn’t have to be this complicated! Instead of focusing on too many thoughts on the takeaway, let’s just swing the club away.

Swing The Club Away

Golf is a game that can be overly complicated but it can be made simple if you just let it happen. This is why changing your mindset from taking the club away to swinging the club away, can give you a simpler, better feel with that motion. But how can you get into the swing right away, rather than getting caught up in the details of the beginning few feet of the golf swing?

Let Your Arms Be Followers

If you want this to become a natural motion, you have to build up muscle memory for it. To do that you can start by doing a few drills:

• Get your club out in front of your lead foot and swing the club back. When you do this, you want to feel like your arms are doing none of the work but your body, legs, core, and hips are doing more of the work. 

• Let your arms be followers. When you do this, you’ll reduce clubface manipulation (where you’re twisting the clubface through your swing) and handsiness in your golf swing. You’ll want to let your arms hang, feel the weight of the club, and let it be heavy as you make some small swinging motions back and forth. When you do this, you’re letting your arms respond to your body motion. 

As you’re practicing this motion you’ll start to notice your arms naturally go nice and high while keeping length in your swing! This will eliminate breakdowns in your backswing and keep your hands quiet, allowing you to keep your clubface square through impact.

Trying This In Practice & The Course

This is a swing thought that you should definitely take to your next practice session and even out on the golf course. Keeping continuous motion allows your body to make more natural movements rather than starting from a dead stop like most amateur golfers do. 

The next time you’re out on the range or on the tee, give this a try in your practice swing. Remember that you want to start your club just outside your lead foot and take a few swings back and forth, starting your momentum in your swing early.

After you’ve taken a few back and forth swings, now it’s time to step up to the ball. Take your stance and start by taking a few waggles to get your momentum started. As soon as you’re ready to go, pull the trigger and get your swing started!

Conclusion

If you want to develop a nice smooth golf swing, stop “taking” the club away and learn to swing back the club more freely, naturally, and swiftly. You’d be surprised how much this will improve your ball striking with every club in your bag. When you’re hitting longer, straighter shots while lowering your score, you’re bound to enjoy your golfing experience even more.

If you want more tips and drills like this, you’ll want to check out our vault of over 400+ videos in our training vault.