If you want more clubhead speed, better ground force utilization, and a more athletic golf swing, then you need to understand Rory McIlroy’s swing trigger. In this video, Mike Granato & Shaun Webb from Athletic Motion Golf break down the patented left leg straightening move that helps open the pelvis, create early stretch, and generate explosive speed in the backswing — without getting the club stuck inside.
This subtle but powerful move is one of Rory McIlroy’s hidden superpowers. It adds dynamic motion before the club even moves, helping golfers activate ground forces earlier and build speed efficiently. Most amateur golfers start the swing from a static position — and that’s costing them distance. By incorporating this simple trigger, you’ll create better sequencing, prevent early inside takeaway issues, and increase overall swing efficiency.
We also discuss:
– How dynamic players use early movement to build speed
– Why the fastest golfers have the best “brakes”
– How ground reaction forces start BEFORE the club moves
– Why calibration at setup matters
– How to practice this trigger without overdoing it
If you struggle with getting the club too far inside, lack speed, or feel “stuck” early in your backswing — this Rory-inspired move could change everything.
Try it. You’ll probably overdo it at first (that’s normal). But once you dial it in, your swing will feel more athletic, fluid, and powerful.
This is one of those rare moves that’s rarely talked about — but absolutely game-changing.
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Video Chapters:
00:00 – Rory’s Hidden Swing Superpower
00:15 – The Left Leg Trigger Explained
00:45 – Why Starting Static Kills Speed
01:30 – Preventing the Inside Takeaway
02:10 – Insurance for Dynamic Players
03:00 – Setup is Calibration (Not the Start)
04:05 – How Ground Forces Really Work
05:00 – The “Brakes” Concept for Speed
06:30 – Live Demo at Game Speed
07:30 – How to Practice This Without Overdoing It
08:00 – Why This Move Adds Effortless Speed
#golf #pga #athleticmotiongolf #amg #golftips #improvegolfswing
14 Comments
🎁 Add up to 25+ Yards on your next Drive with this FREE DRILL: https://athleticmotiongolf.com/distance
Dr Kwon has entered the chat! It feels natural starting from past the ball, but from address it's definitely more difficult and this is a great concept to tackle the start of the swing
Great video! This reminds me of the video with Dr. Kwon where he has the swinging back and forth drill to show how generating momentum is part of the start of the swing but the way you guys showed it in connection with the ground was a great reminder for me and just helped me realize I was forgetting a very important piece in my swing
Feet closed, hips and shoulders open? Damn, I never knew that about his setup.
Do you implement this trigger move on iron swings as well? Thanks
I wonder if a little forward press and a slight bump left would have the same effect. The straightening of the leg feels a tad awkward but a slight increase in weight on left leg and little bump forward with hands feels good and a lot of old timer pros did that.
With this "trick" i tend to take the cub massive inside
Isn't this a forward press that includes the left leg motion? That fast move to the top is a rebound, off of that move.
Interesting video. Are you guys still working on the isolated arms in the downswing video?
The timing of this is so wild because Tony from Lion Golf just did a kind of retrospective on his own swing. and I commented on this very thing. I said that a consistent differnence that I could see from his (very good) swing to that of many tour pros was that his lead hip was getting out towards the target line faster. I then mentoned that many of them started by adding bend in the trail knee (so straighening the lead) to make the club travel on a wider arc around the body, and moreso with longer-shafted clubs. You can definitely add quite a bit of power this way if you can learn to sequence the turn with the movement of the shaft which I think is the difficult part of it if you aren't clear on how you personally are applying the leverage to the shaft in relation to your own sequence.
Rory is also timing the vertical rise and fall of the shaft with his bodily vertical forces alongside the horizontal forces he creates by going wider and a little outside in the early going with driver (for example) and having the huge shoulder turn with extraordinary trail arm extension that he has. You can see the real culmination of this when his lead arm is parallel on the way down, the clubhead is still more than a foot above his head and the shaft is only about 8 inches from the trail side of his head, (from the front view) while he still has great trail arm width and the clubhead seems to be falling back to his center. This is all the product of synchonizing the momentum of the body with respect to rock and roll,, rotation and up and down (adding in response to the fact that the lower body is moving horizontally if all that wasn't enought) with the forces on the shaft in these 2 dimensions and Rory balances the 2 about as well as anyone. However, you cannot do this if you don't know and sense where the club is going in these 2 senses. and the fasterr you do attempt to synchronize them, the tighter the tolerances get, meaning that your knowledge and sense of where the shaft is going becomes more important.
This ability to understand and sense and respond to the momentum of the shaft with the rest of your motion is greatly undertaught in golf IMO, perhaps due to the emphasis on positions. However, it is deffnitely the crux of what tour pros are able to do that averrage golfers greatly fail at, the way that I now see it. I was always excellent at this when I was young but would struggle at times especially under pressure because those subtle responses to the shaft would begin to be mis-timed or a certain amount of slight form change would occur, as self scrutiny and the consequent tightness would ramp up. I having been drilling into this a lot lately and I now clearly see the small changes that tend to occur in my swing and how they relate to synchonizing my motion with that of the shaft. I used to think of those changes as a black box and uncontrollable which led to frustation and a bit of defeatism and now I see that they are clearly understandable and largely preventable with the right awareness and set of precautions coupled with appropriate drilling and muscle memory development. Cheers.
I found out how important that trigger move in the opposite direction is by swinging the club back and forth when I was doing the 9 to 3 drills a few years ago. When I figured out how best to do it for my swing, it was a definite game changer. Thanks for reminding me how important that trigger move is to your swing. Cheers.
I've been putting a slight forward weight shift in my swing before starting the backswing, most pronounced in driver, for almost a year now, and have been driving the ball very long and pretty straight. I feel like it really helps to get the body moving early in such a way, and introcing dynamism.
Words can be confusing, but this overhead camera is the real deal. Many thanks!
Does the same apply for irons?