I have always believed in a simple backswing. I'm one of those guys that likes to set the club really early. I like to knife it back up in a way that feels very "one plane" to me, regardless of whether it is or not. It sets up my whole swing, and when I'm playing well it's more or less my only swing key.

Without rambling anymore, here's the move.

Deliberately turning my back on the backswing.

So some of you already do this, I never did. I swing like Fred Couples except I have half the flexability. Basically for most of my life I have cocked my wrists and swung my arms back, letting this action drag my body around. There are a couple problems with this.

First, I'm not that flexable. I can't really get that close to parallel. Not a huge problem being a bit over 6 feet tall with long arms, but I start pulling on my leading shoulder pretty good,m which sucks. And it's easy for me to over swing and break down at the top, especially if my back stiffens up, like the day after hitting a couple buckets on the range. So back to the deliberate rotation.

If I drive my arms up with my shoulders instead of pulling my shoulders around with my arms, I actually get a longer and easier swing, for some reason I don't yet completely understand. It has something to do with angles I'm sure. Something like pulling on an unmoved shoulder will never get as much rotation as turning the shoulder back into the backswing will.

So, benefits; A longer. less risky swing, so more easy power, basically, I get a better turn, but there is more.

For some reason I find it harder to break down at the top. Like when your back is really stiff and you should be swing everything 3/4, but your tempo wants to swing longer, driving the backswing with the shoulders seems to give me better feedback when I'm "hitting the wall" if that makes any sense. I don't know why.

It also fits nicely into my general golf strategy, which is simple big lines, at address, and through the swing. Somehow I feel like I'm making a simpler squarer move that's going to be easier to repeat.

Bah blah blah, it's been a long time since I've tried to encorporate a big fundamantal concept into my swing other than messing with ball position, grip and general swing plane, so I thought I'd share.

oh and a member here pointed something relevant to this out on a video I posted a few years ago, and that was constructive to some undetermanable degree. It all helps, thanks.