Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The initial part of a stroke, in which one moves a racket or club, for instance, to the position from which forward motion begins.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun sports The preparatory stroke preceding that which produces contact with the target. Normally associated with sports using an implement such as a bat, club, racket or stick.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

back +‎ swing

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Examples

  • He closed with a par, getting a break when given relief on his second shot because his backswing was affected by a tree stake.

    USATODAY.com - Kite beats Fergus in one-hole playoff 2006

  • Duffers like me know you can't ground your club in a hazard, but knowing that brushing a reed on your backswing is a penalty, with no effect on the outcome of the swing, is to have a sturdy grip on the Rules of Golf.

    Yahoo! Sports - Top News 2010

  • Duffers like me know you can't ground your club in a hazard, but knowing that brushing a reed on your backswing is a penalty, with no effect on the outcome of the swing, is to have a sturdy grip on the Rules of Golf.

    Yahoo! Sports - Top News 2010

  • When slicing the golf ball, it is likely that you will experience trouble with the initial stages of the backswing, which is you are leaving the correct plane early.

    ReadABlog.com New Blogs and RSS Feeds 2009

  • Tebow said eliminating the loop or "backswing" in his motion only took a matter of weeks and now he's adjusting his footwork for the three -, five - and seven-stop drops he'll be making in the NFL.

    Tim Tebow arrives in Denver, ready to become an NFL QB 2010

  • When the clubface was open—a foundation of the Haney swing is the fanning of the club on the backswing, meaning tremendous forearm rotation was needed on the way back to the ball—the result was the right-to-right ball fight that had come to plague Woods and was painfully evident in the final round at The Players.

    Unplayable Robert Lusetich 2010

  • Tebow said eliminating the loop or "backswing" in his motion only took a matter of weeks and now he's adjusting his footwork for the three -, five - and seven-stop drops he'll be making in the NFL.

    Sports News : CBSSports.com 2010

  • Among his big revelations, he says, is that there is no such thing as a "backswing" in golf.

    Colorado Springs Independent 2009

  • Talking trash during an opponent's backswing would be as accepted as talking trash in basketball.

    The Radical New Vision of Golf John Paul Newport 2011

  • Instead, a large hand catches my forearm mid-backswing.

    365 tomorrows » 2009 » February : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009

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