Welcome to Play Smart, GOLF.com’s regular game improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
If you’ve ever watched Jon Rahm play golf, you’ll know he has a unique swing. With an extremely bent wrist and short recoil, his moves are hard to miss. But while his swing may look unusual, it’s very effective – evidenced by an impressive CV that includes a US Open title and a green jacket from the Masters.
“Just turn around,” Rahm said. “Do what you know how to do. That’s the best.”
Back in 2021, Rahm revealed that the reason for his brief comeback was a birth defect that left him with a club foot. Because of this disease, doctors “break every bone.” [his] ankle again [he] she was discarded within 20 minutes of birth from the knee down.” He continued the treatment throughout his childhood, and it left him unable to walk properly in his right ankle.
This also caused Rahm to lose stability in his right ankle, meaning that taking a long backswing would leave him off balance on the downswing.
“When I was a kid, I was very tight-lipped, I was over-swinging and just trying to hammer everything together,” Rahm said. “[So] my skating coach in Spain, Eduardo [Celles]it forced me to never go beyond shoulder length.”
Thus, a short retreat was born. Check out the video below for more information on Rahm’s short back, and read on to learn how it can help your swing.
How to stop excessive swinging
Moving the club back past the alignment may make it easier to generate more clubhead speed, but more often than not, it can cause you to lose power and create poor contact. This is something I struggle with from time to time and can attest to the fact that doing the accompanying regression presents some disastrous images.
If that’s something you have trouble with, try the machine Rahm worked on as a child.
“[Celles] I like to feel like I’m taking a club [to parallel],” Rahm said.
By doing this, it forced Rahm to use his big muscles to drive the swing. It also creates joint movement, better facial control and consistent contact.
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