Perfect your takeaway by grooving this feel during the backswing

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

The first move in any golf swing — the takeaway — is absolutely crucial. What you do during the beginning of your swing has a huge impact on how you deliver the club at impact, so it’s important you get it right.

If you watch certain pros, you’ll notice they always rehearse their takeaway before they swing (think Justin Thomas or Xander Schauffele). If they are so obsessed with this move, then shouldn’t you be, too?

With so much importance on the takeaway, it’d be wise for you to learn how it feels to perfect this move. And lucky for you, there’s an easy way to groove a perfect takeaway by using a feel popular among the pros. LPGA Professional Gia Liwski explains more below.

How to groove a perfect takeaway

You can learn a lot about the golf swing by watching pros when they are on the driving range. Take, for example, what Liwski noticed last year when she was on the range at an LPGA event.

“All of the girls were connecting their lead lead arm with their chests,” she says. “What we would see is that lead arm work into the chest.”

Essentially, you will feel your lead arm go back and across your chest — eventually touching it — before you begin turning the rest of your core during the backswing.

“It will feel like your lead arm is working inside,” Liwski says. “Because you’re working toward your body and connecting to your body, which is your power source.”

By feeling your lead arm connecting to your body, you can then turn the rest of your body to the top of the swing. This helps keep you in sequence during the backswing and allows you to be in a great position to begin your transition from the top down into impact.

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