There’s this visual from an old Golf Digest article that I can’t get out of my head—because it’s great.
It comes courtesy of David Leadbetter, and you can see it below.
The legendary teacher is pictured with an exercise band running from his left toe to his right shoulder.
Notice on the left side, the band is tight. On the right, it’s loose.
That band isn’t just for show. It represents how an important part of our bodies is designed. Specifically our oblique systems, which power our ability to bend and turn.
As Golf Digest Best in State Teacher Jonathan Yarwood, who worked alongside Leadbetter for years, explains:
“Basically, the internal mechanisms that run across your body diagonally in an X-like fashion. If this leg flaps around or your body dips down, these posterior slings don’t get taut and tight. When you stretch your lateral obliques, you start to turn on the inside of your body, which allows you to create some torque. It encourages a faster change of direction, which creates a better kinetic chain and creates more arm speed and club speed.”
It’s the stretch that creates speed. Amateur golfers generally rob themselves of that stretch because various parts of their body collapse:
- In the example above, Leadbetter demonstrates how the stretch disappears when the left leg collapses. When the left leg excessively bends, it creates a classic reverse pivot. It sends the body towards the ground, and loosens the band because of it.
- Often you’ll also see amateurs collapse their arms at the top of the backswing. Again, it almost makes them appear as if they’re shrinking towards the ground on the backswing, which again, robs them of a powerful stretch for more speed.
Swing thought: Stretch towards the sky
This, in many ways, is the superpower in Scottie Scheffler’s golf swing. For all of his quirky and idiosyncratic moves, Scheffler hasn’t just spent years with his coach, Randy Smith, working on the technique of this. He trains relentlessly in the gym with his fitness coach, Dr. Troy Van Biezen.
It’s how he’s come to create a huge stretch throughout his entire body on the backswing: His right leg remains bent as he makes a big hip turn into it, and he stretches his arms far from his body.
He’s not just turning on the backswing—he’s stretching. It is, in many ways, the engine of his golf swing.
When you don’t stretch, you don’t just lose speed; it can cost you consistency, too. Muscles work efficiently when they stretch and contract, which makes sense, because that’s how they were designed.
It’s an essential reason Scheffler’s golf swing works so well, and why his feet move the way they do on the downswing.
After he stretches and turns up and to his right on the backswing, he contracts down. Then, after he hits the ball, it’s the same move, reversed. He starts stretching and turning up and to the left. And when he does this so hard, and so much that he literally lifts himself off the ground. His feet slide as his body lifts towards the sky, and for a brief moment, the best player on the planet becomes weightless.
It’s the true sign of an important move, well made. It may look a little funny, but the next time you see it, remember that there’s a little something you can learn from it.
