Beginner golf tips 29 Oct 2026 9 min read

Is an Out-of-Sync Backswing Causing Your Driver Slice?

When you cannot predict where your driver will finish, leaving it in the bag can feel sensible. Kamal had reached that point less than a year into playing golf. His big miss was to the right, and houses beside the course made that miss hard to ignore.

Andy Proudman’s priority was to get Kamal’s body turn working with his arms and wrists. His backswing had become narrow and difficult to time. A turn rehearsal, a better hip hinge and a small shoulder-alignment adjustment gave him a more useful starting point.

If your driver feels rushed and your wrists seem to do most of the work, these checks can help you understand whether the same pattern is part of your slice.

Why the backswing made driver hard to trust

There were useful things in Kamal’s swing already. Viewed down the target line, his club moved reasonably close to the plane Andy wanted during the backswing. There was some steepness coming down, but the more revealing view was face-on.

Kamal’s wrists set the club sharply while his body made relatively little turn. His upper body also moved towards his trail side. The hands and club were doing plenty; the torso was not contributing enough to match them.

Andy’s diagnosis was a backswing synchronization problem. With so much wrist fold and so little matching turn, Kamal found it difficult to bring the clubface back consistently. Trying to rescue everything on the way down gave him another timing job.

A slice on its own does not establish this pattern. Use a face-on recording to look at the relationship between your arm swing, wrist set and body turn. If your arms and club keep moving while your body contributes very little, the rehearsal below gives you a specific change to test.

Match your arm swing to your body turn

Andy gave Kamal a checkpoint: when his lead arm was approximately parallel to the ground, he wanted roughly a right angle between that arm and the club shaft. Kamal had folded the club much more sharply by that stage.

That was a guide for Kamal’s swing, rather than a position every golfer must copy exactly. The change was to involve the body more and reduce the excessive wrist action. Your wrists can still hinge naturally.

Make a slow backswing rehearsal and notice whether your chest and arms are moving together. For Kamal, the improved feeling was that his arms could stay straighter while the turn supplied more of the motion. Keep the arms comfortable; do not force them rigid to manufacture width.

There are other ways a backswing can get out of sync. If your arms keep travelling after your turn has finished, our lesson on a shorter, wider backswing explores that different pattern.

Rehearse the turn with a club across your shoulders

Taking the club out of your hands removes the temptation to create the whole backswing with your wrists. This was how Andy helped Kamal feel the body movement first.

1. Take your golf posture and place a club across the front of your shoulders, holding it there with crossed arms.
2. Keep your eyes directed towards the place the ball would be.
3. Turn smoothly away from the target, allowing your torso and hips to contribute together.
4. Return to your starting position and repeat the movement smoothly.

Andy initially guided Kamal into the turn, then asked him to reproduce it himself. Kamal felt more movement through his hips and weight through his trail foot. Andy used the back turning towards the target as feedback that the torso was participating.

Use that as a turning feel, without forcing your back to a particular finishing point. The useful test is whether your body turns more freely instead of your hands doing everything. Then take your normal grip, rehearse that same movement and hit a shot.

Andy described the wider swing sequence as turn, shift, then turn through. That explanation helped Kamal understand the rhythm. You can let those movements flow rather than making three separate stops.

Let your head move with the turn

Kamal was also trying to keep his head still. That thought was working against the turn Andy wanted.

Think steady rather than frozen. As your torso turns, a little accompanying rotation of your head and cap is natural in this rehearsal. Keep your eyes directed down while allowing that movement. This does not mean adding the sideways drift Andy had identified earlier; the aim is a coordinated turn rather than a head locked in place.

Build your posture from the hips

Kamal’s starting posture was crouched and hunched enough that Andy wanted to give him more room to rotate. He used a simple setup drill to separate hinging at the hips from bending mainly through the knees.

Start standing tall. Hold the club behind you, across the back of your hips just below your backside, as a reference for the hinge. Tip forwards from the hips first, then soften your knees. Let your arms hang down into the position from which you will hold the club.

The order matters. Dropping straight into a knee bend can leave you crouched without creating the hip hinge Andy was looking for. With Kamal, Andy first established the forward hinge and only then added a little knee flex.

Look for an athletic, comfortable position that lets you turn. Andy described Kamal’s improved spine position as more neutral; that is a different goal from deliberately arching your lower back or holding yourself rigid. Once set, repeat the shoulder-turn rehearsal and see whether the movement feels easier to make.

Check your shoulders as well as your feet

Kamal could line up his feet and still have his forearms and shoulders pointing open. With the driver ball position forward in his stance, reaching the hands and club forwards brought his upper body round with them.

When Andy asked him to adjust his shoulders, Kamal initially wanted to move his knees, hips and feet too. Check the upper body separately. If your feet are already where you want them, moving the whole stance can leave the original mismatch unresolved.

Andy wanted Kamal’s hands nearer level with the clubhead, rather than pressed well ahead. He also tested resting the driver head slightly behind the ball at address. Bringing the club and hands back helped Kamal bring his forearms and shoulders into better agreement with his feet.

The lesson description uses a phone-length gap to explain Kamal’s experiment. It is not a fixed distance you need to measure out. Keep the ball position where it belongs; the experiment moves the starting clubhead back.

Set up, check whether your forearms and shoulders match the direction of your feet, then make a rehearsal. Test the change with shots. If simply reaching the club forwards opens your shoulders again, you have found the setup habit Andy was trying to interrupt. A more closed feeling may just be the difference from your usual open position; deliberately aiming everything left is not the instruction.

Rehearse between shots and judge the miss

Kamal did not need another rapid run of balls. He needed chances to feel the new motion and then use it.

Before a shot, check the hip hinge and shoulder alignment. Rehearse the body turn, take your normal grip and carry that feeling into a practice swing. Then hit. When the old arm-dominated movement starts to return, go back to the club-across-shoulders drill and reset.

Track strike and direction separately. One of Kamal’s later shots went towards the target without being his best strike. A heel strike also prompted another rehearsal. Those are useful observations: you can see progress in one part of the shot while another still needs work.

The direction test is whether your misses become more playable. A small fade that stays in play can be useful; developing a repeatable driver shot shape gives you a clearer goal than demanding a perfectly straight shot every time.

These rehearsals use a golf club. If you are looking for other practice options, you can also browse our Training Aid products.

What changed in Kamal’s driver swing

Comparing the start and end of the session gave Kamal something more concrete than a different feeling. At address, Andy liked the more athletic posture. As the club went back, the body contributed more and the arms and club stayed better matched to that turn.

At lead-arm parallel, the club was closer to the approximate right-angle guide they had discussed. The later backswing also showed a fuller body turn and less excessive wrist fold.

Kamal reported straighter shots and a better sense of where the effort was coming from. There were still imperfect strikes, and the drill remained part of the session. These positions help explain what Andy changed; they do not establish a measured speed gain, exact impact delivery or a permanent correction.

For your own practice, look for the same combination of evidence: a movement you can reproduce, feedback from contact and a ball flight you can take onto the course with more confidence.

Get feedback on your driver swing

If you are unsure whether your wrists, body turn or setup need attention, get feedback with Swing Coach to help you choose what to work on. Kamal’s lesson shows why identifying the actual movement matters before adding more swing thoughts.

For in-person coaching, explore our Golf Schools.

The lesson used Full Swing alongside video review. You can also find out more about our home club, The Grand Golf Club.