If you've ever looked at a map, you've probably noticed all those little squares arranged as a grid. Each of those squares denotes a specific location. Exact coordinates you can reference to communicate exactly where someone or something is.
It's something you can do with your golf swing, too. It actually used to be pretty common to film pros swinging in front of a grid as a way of getting reference points for how their body and club move.
As technology has improved over the years, it's uncovered even more details about how much golfers move their body as they swing.
One of them being the two-to-one backswing ratio.
How the two-to-one ratio works
The ratio comes courtesy of Golf Digest Best in State Teacher Mike Granato, one of the masterminds behind Athletic Motion Golf.
It's pretty simple: Your lead shoulder (which is the shoulder nearest the target, which means left shoulder for right-handed golfers) should move almost double the amount across as it does down between the setup and the top of the backswing.
So, if your left shoulder moves an inch down from where it started at setup, it should move at least two inches across. Ideally more.
"Two and a half to one is a safe range for most golfers," Granato explains. "Even three to one, you'd be right there with the best players in the world."
Many amateur golfers don't do this. Most golfers underdo it, Granato says.
"They just dive into that left side and right off the bat. The left shoulder rarely ever gets to the ball, much less behind the ball," he says. "That position means they're limiting their ability to rotate their spine, so they'll just keep turning and turning their hips."
That, in short, is a recipe for an over-the-top swing, and consistency issues.
There are golfers who overdo the ratio. This usually comes in the form of excessive turn or hip slide, so again: Somewhere between two-to-one and three-to-one is the sweet spot.
Some examples…
I pulled a few random examples and you can see it when you impose a player's top or backswing position over their setup.
Notice how Lee Trevino's shoulder goes one tick down and a couple across here.
Gary Player goes a little more down than most, but he still looks safely in the ratio.
1997 Tiger Woods is very much in the ratio. His shoulder hardly dips at all, but goes a mile across. It's how he hit it so far.
Move your lead shoulder a little down and a lot across. That'll put your backswing in a good position, and set you up for a better downswing. It's easy to track, and it's what the best players in the world do.