The way the body winds and unwinds is called coil. The body must move in a synchronized motion so that the arms and club are moving in harmony and not against each other. This might seem elementary but it’s surprising how often the body, arms, and club start to fight one another during the winding movement of the backswing and follow-through.
The arms need to swing in a plane so that there is a clear path where the club can move freely around the body and without being blocked.
The proper swing has more of a round component than many people realize and than what many people use. Perhaps because they’re aiming for the ball and so see it as a direct path, their swing too often has hard angles which result in a jerky motion and a poor coil and uncoil movement. The tendency to want to smack a ball with force and power is very difficult to overcome, but the way the body coils and uncoils is very important.
A barrel roll is often encouraged in golf; this doesn’t mean turning the entire body around the way it does with swimming. Instead it means imagining that you’re swinging inside a large barrel and are following the curved lines. This will help the body to coil properly as you twist gently around and then to uncoil as well since you’re still following that curve with your follow-through.
Some golf instructor shy away from the barrel illustration because many golfers take it too far, swinging too far back, but if you simply concentrate on the round shape of the barrel as if you’re inside of it, you’ll improve your coil and uncoil abilities. This will give you great control and you’ll be less likely to hook or slice when you hit the ball.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7c7c7249-f01c-40ee-ab8a-8694c709f81a)