LONG GOLF: Long's Downswing and Backswing Exercises

To start working on Long's Golf Swing or the Exercises, you need only provide the proper grip and a fairly normal wrist action. The rest will be developed by the exercises and instructions.

If you are a rank beginner, see the end of this page for instruction on creating the wrist movement. Learn the grip from a teacher or pictures. Using the wrist movement exercise can help with the grip formation.

If you have no patience for teaching yourself, have someone else learn it and teach it to you. Most professionals could easily teach it if they want to. There is a Pro in Duisburg Germany using a version of the downswing exercise with excellent results. If you wish to have lessons please contact Long Golf.

The Downswing Exercise is based on a number of realizations. The first is that the correct swingplane can be found using a continuous back and forth motion. If you watch tour players waiting to hit, you will often see them swinging back and forth continuously. They are not only staying warm, they are inadvertently finding their swingplane, among other things. The backward part of this motion, from the end of the follow-through to the start of the downswing, bypasses the imperfection of real backswings, allowing a pure downswing to emerge. The second realization is that short hard continuous swings create correct body movements in the hitting zone. The short hard continuous swing is hard to screw up. It can coordinate the body very quickly and strengthens the weak muscles. The third realization is that longer swings can and should be built from shorter swings. The full swing by itself is easy to do wrong. Because the short swing is more accurate, it makes sense to create the long swing by gradually extending the short swing. The fourth realization is that swinging gradually harder exposes weaknesses that can then be corrected.

The Backswing exercise is based on the realization that the downswing should come before the backswing in the learning procedure. The normal procedure is to make a backswing as best one can and then try to make a downswing that works with the faulty backswing. This creates a downswing that is too distorted from the ideal. While ultimately you must hit a ball with the backswing coming first, it is more logical to build a good downswing and then make a backswing to fit it. Now that the Downswing Exercise has provided a way for learning a good downswing independent of any backswing, we should learn the downswing first. That is why the Backswing Exercise immediately follows the Downswing Exercise, and begins at the top of the Returnswing (the beginning of the downswing).

Long's Golf Swing advocates that the address angle created by the distance of the hands from the lower torso should be the same for all clubs except the putter.

Long's Golf Swing is relatively easy to create and recreate. When there is more than one way to make a swing work well, the author has chosen the way that can be measured either at address or during an exercise. For example, if you have a swing in which your head moves away from target during the backswing, as was the custom in the last few years, it is very difficult for you to know if the amount of movement is the same every time. The same thing applies to the head during the downswing. If the feature choice is instead to keep the head in one place throughout the backswing and downswing, it is quite possible to know or measure if this is accomplished. As a result it can be practiced and improved upon quite easily.

Regarding features of the swing, "if you can't measure it, you can't maintain it."

The author has found that certain features of a good swing can best be found, or found exclusively, with exercises. One such feature is the swingplane.

Therefore, if we have a choice between swing features, we pick the features that are either measurable in the normal swing, produced automatically by exercise or other feature, or produced by measurable exercises.

For a quick introduction to the exercises, scroll down to The Downswing Exercise and after that to The Backswing Exercise.

To do these exercises you need to memorize and follow the rules. Admittedly this requires a lot of effort if you do it alone, and less effort if you have a qualified teacher. It should be much easier for a golf teacher to learn and teach the exercises. They should be able to learn it quite quickly as they are versed in most of the concepts used in it, and they are practiced at teaching. Teachers who wish to try this method are encouraged to do so, and contact us for help or to give feedback. They may print out this page and give it to their students as an aid.

The short continuous swings also function to develop strength and stamina at the same time that they teach swing technique. They can also function as a home training method which is relatively safe to use indoors, because the clubhead does not go above waist level. It is still somewhat dangerous for people, pets and furniture, so be careful with it.

Golfers can experience the force of the Exercises by doing them opposite-handed (left-handed if you are swinging right-handed normally.)

What follows is a long discussion of the swingplane. Unless you are interested in theory, please scroll down to the exercise instructions.

A main component of a consistent swing is finding and using the one and only swingplane that sends the club directly to the ball without warping the plane. If the swingplane is too upright or flat then the club must follow a spiral path to reach solid impact. The difficulty of creating a spiral path is that you must not only accelerate the club in the general direction of the ball, you must also alter the path above or below the plane on which the club is already traveling. This ain't easy to do, as you have to fight momentum by just the right amount.

The common way to find a swingplane in the world of golf is trial and error. One can send the clubhead over the ball and under the ball, adjusting the flight path each time until hitting becomes more regular. But the path may still be spiral. How does the golfer find the swingplane without a spiral path? The golfer might experiment with flatter or more upright swingplanes and find that one works better. This could be the plane with a less spiral path. How to be sure of it? There is no way to be absolutely sure, but the downswing exercise does indicate one plane only, and it is the same plane each time the same setup is used, and the accuracy depends on a careful but feasible use of a "returnswing," a reverse direction swing that actually throws the club to the top of the swing. This seems to be as close as one can get to the correct swingplane.

The backswing is virtually impossible to describe in detail and yet without one properly executed, we cannot start our downswing with regularity. This is another reason to learn the golf swing with an exercise or two that can be described, as we claim to offer here, rather than attempting a swing that cannot be described. In the quest to find a repeatable measurable golf swing, the best method is to practice the downswing separately from the backswing, and put them together later.

Unfortunately, the golf swing as a physical system is so complicated that it is extremely difficult to understand much less describe, with words or pictures. That is why the language used by nearly everyone is most often inadequate to the job. Even if the golf swing is mapped into a computer and all the physical forces are calculated, and certain swing variations are found to be more repeatable, the human golfer is no better off unless the knowledge can somehow be transmitted to him. This is done mostly by describing positions and feelings. Unfortunately, the language of the golf swing is still in its infancy.

A person who loves precision in language would no doubt be reduced to tears by discussions of the golf swing. The only remedy for this is to keep trying. Keep trying to improve the language and the understanding of the swing.

While finding a measurable, repeatable, swingplane is valuable, there are also other important matters, including the realizations mentioned above, which will eventually be discussed here in more detail.

The use of short continuous swings as described below in "The Downswing Exercise" is extremely valuable. The short swings are expanded into longer swings. The mechanism of the continuous short swings are that they generate a complete correct movement with little room for error, and they become part of longer swings. It is a good idea to even practice hitting balls with the short swings as an additional or even an integral part of the Exercises, although this is not yet called for in the instructions below.

Setup: (address):

When you do the Downswing Exercise or just swing back and forth continuously, you tend to swing in one swingplane. Whether you use this swingplane in your actual hitting is another matter. You might actually swing flatter or more upright. By using the exercises correctly, you can practice the swingplane that you actually use, or you can learn to use the swingplane that you practice. This will increase the reliability of your swing the solidity of contact.

Reliability is also enhanced by using the "same" swingplane for all your shots, except putting. Although the inclination of the swingplane in space varies with the length of the club, the geometry of the swingplane in relation to the torso can remain the same. Basically, the author proposes that the swingplane should change with the torso angle, the latter being the amount you bend over. This is beneficial and increases reliability because the coordination of the muscles is better when the same geometry of the upper body is used over and over. To do this, the swingplane is first referenced to the spine or torso, and held near constant, regardless of which club used, or the lie of the ball, and then the unit of the club/arms/torso is adjusted to the ball or strike point. This means having the same attitude or angle of the torso to the ball for all setups, including all clubs except the putter and optionally the chipping club. Otherwise you are adapting continually, using or needing different upper body geometry for different clubs, or different swingplanes for the same club at different times. The part of this torso attitude that is easiest and most fruitful to control is the arms-to-torso (AT) angle, yet few golfers do it. Arms-to-torso angle is the angle at address between your arms and your torso. It changes when you move your hands closer or further from your body. One way to measure this is to measure the distance from your lower torso to your hands in the address position. If the AT angle changes without a corresponding adjustment of the swingplane, off-center or off-line hitting is practically guaranteed. With a few back and forth practice swings, using the principle of momentum which forms the basis of the Downswing Exercise, you can experience the relationship between swingplane and AT angle and see how the swingplane changes. It flattens as the angle increases (the hands move further from the torso) and gets upright as the hands come closer to the body. You can measure this angle and keep it the same. It looks kind of funny to measure it, but that is a small price to pay for better golf. Over time you can automate it by feel, and measure it less often. Just keeping the same AT angle by feel is better than changing it on purpose or haphazardly. Most golfers aren't concerned with this angle although they must compensate for it, at least unconsciously. They may have been told to keep their torso bent over the same amount for all clubs, or to let the arms hang straight down at address for all clubs, both of which would create a different AT angle and swingplane for each club. Having so many different angles reduces the general performance of the golfing public. Keep the angle between arms and torso the same for all clubs (not including putting). Instead of changing this angle for different clubs, you bend over more or less depending on the club's length. The shorter the shaft length, the more you bend over. This will develop a single geometry and "groove" for all your clubs. To have a chance of getting this angle reasonably the same all the time, you have to measure it often enough to develop a sensitivity to it, and then check it occasionally. You can measure the AT angle as a distance between the lower belly and the edge of the left (forward) hand (for right handed play). There is no perfect distance or angle that I know of, at least for now, although there are some issues that are under consideration. If you are already the owner of a golf swing, you can use the angle that you already have, or one of the angles if there's more than one, at least to start with. If you prefer to keep using different AT angles for different clubs, you can still use the downswing exercise and enhance your ability to create the right swingplane for each club and angle. You may discover that you have a tendency to use a flat or upright swingplane. You may have been trying to use the same swingplane for different AT angles. If the latter was the case, you probably had some clubs that worked better than others, where the angle matched the swingplane. If you use an angle that places your hands outlandishly close to or far from your body, you might consider changing that. With this exercise you could even choose the swingplane or top position you like and then find the AT angle that goes with it (reverse engineering!).

Whenever you are measuring the AT angle, as described below, the clubhead should be held in midair at address, instead of on the ground, so your hands feel the weight of the club. This will help create a more accurate clubshaft-to-arms angle. This in turn will make a more accurate angle between torso and ball position, which was the objective all along, as part of the quest for solid ball contact. There is a way to check the clubshaft-to-arms angle without special tools. Using one of your clubs, take the address position you would like to duplicate, then loosen the right hand's grip enough so the club can slide through the fingers. Then pull the club with the left hand, sliding it through the right hand while preserving the axis of the club, until the grip butt touches the belly. Remember the spot on the belly. Next time you want to check your clubshaft to arms angle, do this little test after first checking the arms to torso (AT) angle.

Once you have chosen an AT angle for your setup, and tried it in the exercise, or you have done the exercise without a particular angle, and you like the swingplane you are experiencing, you need to measure the AT angle so as to keep it the same between clubs and over practice sessions. If the angle is not too great, you can use your right hand (speaking of right-handed players) to measure it and recreate it whenever needed. Using the hand to make the measurement, spread out the fingers to a maximum like a fan. Put the thumb against the lower belly, just above the groin, and then see if one of the other fingers fits exactly against the smallest finger of the hand holding the club. If there is still a gap, then make a measuring stick from a piece of wood or plastic or , if nothing else, estimate the gap by eye. After establishing this measurement, take the address position with a short iron, and make the AT measurement at the same time that you tilt your torso-arms-club as a unit, up and down, as if the club were getting longer and shorter. Thus you can feel the effect of keeping the AT angle the same with different clubs. This also teaches how to maintain the angle when you go from a practice swing with ground clearance to a swing with ground contact , or to a swing on a sidehill. Keeping this angle the same does not mean that all your swings will feel exactly the same, but it reduces to a minimum the variations in the feelings, and it means that the muscles of the upper body are working to produce the same directions and positions of the arms and club, in relation to the torso, for every club and lie.

Once the setup is more or less automated, keep measuring the grip to belly distance whenever you begin the exercise and occasionally before hitting.

Use a good grip, preferably the Vardon. Avoid a hook or slice grip. Study carefully some good pictures of the grip. Two knuckles (not counting the thumb knuckle) should be visible on the left hand (for right-handers) in the address position. Beginners should place the forward hand (left hand for right handers) in the approximate correct position on the grip and then assume the top of swing position with the shaft nearly horizontal over the right shoulder (for right handers). Then place the other hand on the middle of the shaft and pull down. Next, adjust the left hand's position until it can withstand the greatest right-hand force.

A square stance is not mandatory but it is easiest to measure. You can use a club to line up your feet.

Width of the stance: wider for longer clubs. Try a narrower stance and see how it makes you swing easier (or lose your balance). Adjust your stance width to "just enough" to keep your balance at the particular force levels you use.

Make sure your spine is as straight as possible. This increases swing repeatability and accuracy. A relaxed curved spine is too easy to change during the swing. I prefer to keep my head up as well, as part of the spine straightening.

Each part of the body should be either relaxed or at a repeatable tension level. There will be tension in the spine. The hands tension should be set for the backswing beginning. The shoulders are in tension holding the arms and club at ready, in the air. Etc.

Knees are of course bent slightly. If they are bent too much, however, the vertical position of the upper body becomes easily changed by small changes in knee bend.

Weight is shared equally between the two feet, except on specialty shots. You should try putting more weight on the heel than on the ball of the foot. This can improve balance and stability, reduce swaying. It lends an elegance to the swing. The ball of the foot, when it is not too heavily loaded, is able to send strong signals about weight transferring forward and backward. This helps one avoid movement forward or backward.

Turn the rearward foot far enough outward (splayed) so there is no rotational force on the rear leg during the backswing and downswing.

Hold the club so its sole is slightly off the lawn, mat, or carpet. Do not hit a ground surface for this exercise, as it disrupts the clubhead trajectory that we want to create and control. (Holding the club in the air also creates a smoother takeaway in actual ball striking). If you don't have a surface that is safe to accidentally hit with a club, increase the distance between the club and the surface by standing more upright.

During the swing:

The hands, wrists and forearms should move in the classic form. The leading forearm rolls as it moves, and the back of the leading hand stays approximately in the plane of its forearm. On the follow-through the forearms cross.

Keep your head in one location. This is advice only and is optional, but recommended. Current golf teaching has advocated or allowed moving the head away from target and then back, but a recent trend is to move it toward target and keep it there. The author prefers something measurable, hence keeping the head centered, which is a compromise between the aforementioned methods. The head can turn but not move out of location, except at the end of the followthrough. So until the swing is full, you can keep your head in one location. You can watch your shadow, your reflection in a window, or at two lined-up objects, one close and one far, in order to see if your head moves. The quick short swinging movement of the Downswing Exercise automatically teaches a swing without head movement until a longer slower swing length, say 3/4 length, is reached, at which time head movement may creep into the swing, but should be avoided, except in the followthrough. As most people's head sits slightly ahead of the torso center axis, on the backswing the torso will traverse somewhat toward the target, which is desirable for most golfers. Having the torso mass slightly forward makes it easier to keep the entire body mass in the best position on the downswing.

The hips should not travel (traverse) away from the target during the backswing. They turn but don't traverse. The exercise should make this happen automatically but you should check it occasionally.

Keep the forward or leading arm straight until well after impact. This should happen automatically, but make sure anyway. (The forward arm is the left arm for a right handed player and the right arm for a lefty). If the forward elbow is bent at the top of the backswing (which it should not be), when will it straighten? A bent elbow is another unnecessary movement to control. A small amount of bending is OK and normal. Some persons with limited flexibility in the torso or wrists may need to bend the forward elbow somewhat more in order to get a longer backswing or a delayed clubhead.

Do not consciously start or lead the downswing with any isolated part of your body--not the legs, hips, arms, or shoulders, particularly the shoulders. Start the downswing with all parts together. This does not apply to the leaning of the entire body, as some players have to more toward the target even before the downswing begins. It is always important to have a measurable goal and the measurable goal here is to have all parts changing direction at the top at the same time. The short swings of the Exercises will teach this; hopefully the practice is not lost as the swing is lengthened. But someone with the habit of leading with the legs or hips or shoulders might revert to their habit in the longer swing and so need to work on this. (Theory note 1) Also, the wrist bend should reach a maximum at the top of the swing, not before or after the top.

Another feature that is adjustable, unfortunately, is the shoulder turn in relation to how far the hands go back on the backswing. If the hands go back farther because of the bending of the forward elbow, or because the forward arm comes very close to the chest, and the shoulders turn less, as if often the case, it becomes more difficult to make the downswing without "coming over the top" and producing a pull or slice. There can be a loss of distance as well, as the hands take a path down that is on a shorter radius than would be the case if the shoulder turn were fuller.

Timing: make your hands and clubhead go past the setup position at the same time, in case they do not do so automatically. Adjustments to this are described below in the section called wrist bending.

The shoulders turn about the spine without raising or falling in relation to the torso. You can check this by turning to the top position with the arms hanging loosely, setting the shoulders at a relaxed and equal height in relation to the torso, and then placing the arms and club into position without moving the shoulders.

Warning: While this exercise is good for your golf, it is hazardous for persons and animals that get in the way of your club. A person or pet who gets into the club swingplane could get a devastating if not fatal bashing, so be extra careful. For example, don't swing in the dark or next to an open door.

The Downswing Exercise

The Downswing Exercise promotes a steady head location, a correct swingplane, length of swing, wrist hinging, timing, balance, and other body positions throughout the downswing. The exercises are done without hitting balls until the last step.

In the above described address position, start moving the club back and forth slowly without stopping,about 20 centimeters (8 inches) total distance, or about 10 centimeters (4 inches) on each side of the impact point. To be correct, the hands must move forward when the clubhead is moving forward, and back when the clubhead goes back. The shoulders, arms, and club work as a unit. There is no actual wrist bending at this stage, although it may appear so; actually the club shaft is able to move from side to side in the hands. Furthermore, the hands and clubhead should pass through the address position at the same time; this will hereafter be referred to as correct timing. Watch closely where the clubhead passes in the impact zone in both directions, (but keep your head up in the correct position.) As the club moves, it leaves traces or streaks, in your eyes or brain, that illustrate the clubhead path. You can put a bright adhesive backed paper, such as masking tape, on and over the clubface to brighten the trace. If you can't see that, you can put bright tape around the shaft just below the grip, which is even easier to see because it is moving slower than the clubhead. Produce the proper trace in both directions, with the clubhead passing through the address position on both the backswing and the downswing, and make sure it's not inside-out or outside-in, (that is, it is moving directly toward the target at impact point, not to the left or right of it. Before and after the impact point the traces will appear to be inside the line to the target. You can purposely swing inside-out and outside-in to improve your perception of the proper line. By the way, the line to the target is parallel to the line across the shoe tips when you have a square stance. It works best to have a real line to line up to, such as a golf club or the the edge of a golf mat). Be sure to accelerate the clubhead up to the impact point. Gradually increase the speed of your swing, but not the length yet, while working on keeping the path and timing. Keep the high speed for a few seconds before going on to the next part of the exercise. This short swing will coordinate the muscles for this part of the swing and initiate the proper movements upon which to build the rest of the swing.

When you are doing the preceding movement properly, you proceed without stopping and increase the swing length to around 40 cm (16 in), or 20 cm (8 inches) on each side of address position, at the same time returning to a moderate swing speed. As you get the clubhead path and the timing right, increase the speed gradually. When you have done the best you can at this length, slow the swing and add another small increment of swing length, around 20 cm (8 inches) on each side of address. Gradually speed up. Then slow it, add length and speed it up gradually. Continue repeating this procedure, each time adding a small amount to the swing length, until a full swing or a chosen swinglength is reached, except for the following changes. During this incremental buildup of the swing after the swing length reaches about 4:30 and 7:30 on the clock, allow the "followthrough" to be longer than the downswing. This allows a more gradual and controlled deceleration of the arms/club system. The part of the swing that goes from the end of the followthrough to the beginning of the downswing is called the Returnswing. After 4:30 and 7:30 on the clock, make the Returnswing slower than the downswing. This allows more control and visibility of the path.

If you are just beginning to use this exercise, it is highly recommended to limit the swing length to a half swing. Hit balls with the half swing. Also do the Backswing Exercise, in the fashion described below, but do it for this half swing length. You could even divide the Exercise into swing lengths of one-third, one-half, two thirds, and then full swing, with ball striking for each one. This procedure is highly beneficial.

Moderate the Returnswing speed so that the momentum it creates on the downward part is just enough to carry the arms/club system, without additional force, through the up part of the swing to the top. The top means the position where the downswing begins. Too much momentum on the Returnswing would require that excessive force be used to slow the arms and club near the top. Not enough momentum turns the swing into a sequence of moves that are too difficult to control, losing the great benefits of controlled momentum. Right now there are two opposing concepts of the proper speed of the Returnswing approaching the top. The first and less persuasive is that the arms and club should be "floating" momentarily at the top, without noticeable force required to stop them. The other is that the speed going up to the top, in the exercise and in a real backswing, should be high enough to require some force to stop the system, the benefit of this latter method being that tensioning for the downswing may happen more easily and accurately, and that a proper torso turn and an unstinted complete swing length may be more likely to occur. When checking to see if you have the best swingplane, however, experiment with a higher Returnswing speed in the region near the top, even though you have to stop it abruptly.

Wrist bending or hinging should occur and increase gradually as the swing length grows during the exercise. The usual amount of wrist hinging for a full swing is somewhere between 80 and 90 degrees in relation to the forearm. The amount of wrist hinging may need to be adjusted as described below under timing. Although it is not mandatory, there is often some benefit to postponing some of the wrist bending until just as the top is reached, requiring a short waiting period in the body. This waiting period, which is not static but a very slow motion movement, can be used as a slow transition and rebalancing in preparation for the downswing. It often includes a slight movement of the hips toward the target, and in those who "move off the ball" (move away from the target on the backswing) a move back to center or beyond, of the entire body.

You can choose your swing length. There is an absolute maximum beyond which you cannot go without violating a principle such as hip location or forward arm straightness. This maximum length is usually too long and difficult to control for average shots from the fairway. Unless body stiffness has made a long swing impossible, you may have too long of a swing. Maybe for drives for extra distance with the modern 460cc head you could develop a swing with maximum length, but it is more difficult to control.

If at any time your muscles get too tired, and you must stop to rest, then you must restart from the beginning.

You can sense and judge the timing of the hands/clubhead arrival at impact because you have practiced it just moments before, with the shorter swings you took. If you have observed proper timing at each stage of the exercise, then your goal is already achieved. However, with an actual swing to hit a real ball, there is a tendency to swing harder than during practice. This can change your timing. That is why you may wish to use maximum force on the downswing when you reach the very end of the Downswing Exercise, and it wouldn't hurt to use maximum force at the very end of each swing length increase, just to make sure the timing is right. (As noted below, you can find the proper swingplane and top position without using full force). In case your timing is wrong, it can be adjusted by five separate means: 1) the amount of wrist bending, with more bending for more delay of the clubhead in relation to the hands,, 2) the speed of the arms on the downswing, with more speed delaying the clubhead, 3) the force applied to the straightening of the wrists on the downswing, with less force delaying the clubhead, 4) the swingweight of the club, with more swingweight delaying the clubhead, and 5) the length of the swing, with a shorter swing delaying the clubhead. Say for example that the clubhead arrives at impact position before your hands. Furthermore, if you cannot or do not wish to change the force applied to arm movement or wrist bending, and you don't want to adjust the swingweight of your clubs or shorten your swing, then the only option is to use greater wristbend at the top, in order to delay the clubhead. The opposite applies if your hands arrive at impact before the clubhead (i.e.., use less wrist bending). Another method, probably the most common in everyday swinging, is to choose the maximum amount of wrist bend (which is usually and should be achieved at the top) say 90 degrees between the upper arm and the club as measured in the swingplane, and choose the swing length, and then limit the force applied to either straightening the wrists or pulling the arms down. Which one of the latter is limited depends on which one is stronger than the other.

After you have become proficient in this exercise, you can use abbreviated versions to find your swingplane in a few seconds without having to go through the entire exercise. This comes in handy during practice and play, when warming up or changing clubs, taking a sidehill lie, or whenever you need it. (By the way, when finding a sidehill lie, measure the AT angle first). You can skip the very shortest swings and lengthen the swing quite quickly to full length, showing the top position. Also you don't need full force to find the swingplane. Rather, a slow downswing can give you more accuracy in checking the path correctness. Once you have the proper swingplane, you can experiment with different downswing speeds or gradually work up to the speed you want to use in shot making, while honing the factors that are affecting your swing. The original exercise with the short powerful swings is recommended however, for finding the best positions at each stage of the swing. Without checking at full power, you must rely on memory for the correct amount of wrist bend and force relations between wrist straightening and arm speed.

A shortcoming of the Downswing Exercise is that after the swing reaches about 3/4 length, the clubhead path can deviate without the golfer being aware of it, if the club is moving too fast to see. If the swing is slowed for awhile, the clubhead path can be checked. But the best way to deal with this is to put a piece of reflective tape on the clubhead or somewhere on the shaft, even near the grip. Against a dark background, this tape can usually be seen.

Checkups (the following items should happen automatically, but you could do a checkup to make sure you are doing them.)

In the ideal swing, the force to straighten the wrists is applied from the beginning of the downswing, even though the wrists do not actually straighten until later. The wrist straightening occurs slowly at first but speeds up automatically during the downswing. It is the inertia of the club and the pulling of the arms that keeps the wrists bent during the downswing.

If you lean over during the backswing you are likely to hit fat and on the toe of the clubhead; conversely, if you straighten up you are likely to top or shank the ball. That is why the head location, actually the torso angle, should stay the same. The short swings in the beginning of the exercise encourage the head position to remain stationary.
It is not clear (at least to the author) whether it is better to lift the forward heel on the backswing or to keep it planted. Each has advantages and disadvantages. If you have time, you can try different ways to see the effects. If you do raise the heel, it can be helpful to not set the heel immediately on the downswing, but rather to pivot on the leg in its raised position. Under full swing conditions, the heel may not settle to the ground until after impact. I want to give credit to Bob Kessler for this helpful technique. Keeping the heel down throughout the swing may make it easier to monitor and keep ones balance in the front-back direction.
If you generate high enough speed with a full swing, the forward arm stays straight during the follow-through until the rear arm crosses over it around waist level.
You should notice that most muscles in the body do not reach a high exertion level, even at full power. On the downswing, force applied to turn the hips and torso back to the ball is quite low at first, so as to avoid "coming over the top." The only muscles to use maximum or near maximum force would be the muscles that move the arms and hands.

The Backswing Exercise

The Backswing Exercise is a repetitious movement that develops the backswing. It is at least as important as the Downswing Exercise. A backswing is effective to the extent that it creates the position, movement, and feel at the top that leads into an effective downswing.

Golfers love to smash a ball so there is a tendency to under-practice the backswing and concentrate instead on the downswing because it provides more muscle feeling, but also because it comes before the Backswing Exercise and must be learned first. The danger here is that a bad backswing will prevent the golfer from reaching the correct top position and top tensions that are required to start the already known and practiced downswing of the Downswing Exercise. This means the golfer is back to the old way of making a downswing that compensates for a bad backswing. The solution is to practice the Backswing Exercise enough, if not more than the Downswing Exercise.

You should start the Backswing Exercise by first doing the Downswing Exercise well enough to find the correct top position and then transition into the Backswing Exercise without stopping. You may need to avoid swinging hard on the Downswing exercise so as to have enough energy left to do the Backswing Exercise. In that case the amount of wrist bending will have to come from memory. When you have reached the correct top position, you make the transition into the Backswing Exercise by reducing the force applied to the downswing and then ending the "downswing" at the address position, again with hands and clubhead arriving simultaneously to impact position. Reverse direction and then continue with a backswing at medium speed back up to the exact same top position from whence you just came, and without stopping, return to address, make a backswing, and repeat for maybe five to ten repetitions, after which you hold the address position for a short moment, creating the feeling of being ready to begin the backswing, and then doing the backswing, up to perhaps ten times. etc. until you are too tired, or you feel that the top position might be wrong, or you have memorized the swing. If you think the top position might be wrong, repeat both Exercises. The top position is not only a position but a tension pattern of the muscles. It is an internal snapshot of the conditions that occur at, and just before, the point of reversal of the swing direction. When the top position is achieved perfectly in the backswing exercise, the Downswing Exercise could then begin just as accurately as if it had been happening all along.

The wrists bend or hinge gradually on the backswing and the downswing part of the Backswing Exercise, and as mentioned above, reserve a bit extra of the bend for the last moments of the backswing.

For the Backswing Exercise, use a speed that gives the greatest control. Too slow at the top makes it difficult to start the downswing. Too fast is also difficult to control. This exercise will "program in" the backswing like nothing else.

The Complete Swing

Make a complete swing, from address to followthrough, after doing the two exercises. If that seems to be fine, then hit a ball using the same swing and power as in the practice. When successful, repeat. If something goes wrong, either try to hit another ball or try to correct the swing with one or both Exercises. Continue with this pattern until you have established a new swing that works.

Learn to waddle. If you are having trouble making your hitting swing copy your practice swing, try this technique of waddling up to the ball. First place a ball into its hitting position. Then make your practice swings slightly away from the ball. Find your address position using the exercises in full or abbreviated form and then waddle up to the ball without changing your body position. Just waddle or shimmy into position by moving you legs but not your upper body or arms. This helps preserve the feeling just created and hopefully the movement as well.

You should be sure to check the distance between the hands and body as you address a real live golf ball. If you move your arms closer or further from your body, you will be swinging on a different arc from the practiced arc, and reduce the chance of a solid straight hit.

Lightly pat the ground with the clubhead at address to verify the height of the clubhead from the ground. It should be just a fraction of an inch, enough to place the weight of the club fully in your hands, but not far enough to create uncertainty as to the height. When hitting a ball off a tee, place the sweetspot directly behind the ball but not close enough to cause worry about knocking the ball off the tee.

Use this exercise to develop some short swings, especially if you are having trouble with the full swing and when you hit balls; it is quite likely that it is better to develop a short swing before the full swing. A short swing is easier to do correctly. Most people have not used a short swing as much, so it is more amenable to change. You need a short swing for pitch shots and trouble shots anyway. It even works for chip shots. Rank beginners can especially benefit from using short swings first.

If you cannot hit a ball correctly with the Exercise movement that you have practiced, because your old swing takes over when you try to hit balls, then do the Exercise before each shot (during practice) until your old swing is suddenly not interfering. If that does not work, try to change a short swing instead of a full swing, before moving on to the full swing.

If you become "paralyzed" at address and cannot begin the backswing in the way you have practiced it, try switching your gaze away from the ball and back to the ball. As your gaze refocuses on the ball, begin the backswing. I think this is preferable to a forward press.

Remember that you can warm-up and find your swing at any time, without hitting balls, using abbreviated or full versions of these exercises.

A Very Important Variation of the Exercises: The Combo

Here is a variation that allows equal practice of the downswing and the backswing in one exercise. The backswing should get as much practice as the downswing, as it is at least as difficult to do as the downswing. It also refreshes, in ones mind, on every cycle, the top position, so you know you are starting from the right place, and you get the feeling of approaching the top properly, or at least the way you want, with the returnswing. Approaching the top with a real backswing is much more difficult than doing so with the returnswing.

To do the Combo, first do a a Downswing Exercise either in full or in an abbreviated version, depending on your proficiency. Then without stopping, do one cycle of the Backswing Exercise (down-to-address and then a backswing) and then, again without stopping, do one cycle of downswing/Returnswing, and then continue with these two cycles as you work on your swing. The Combo may be better than to do than the actual Backswing Exercise, at least when trying to duplicate the top position.

Have fun with this and enjoy better and better golf.