How to Put Backspin on the Ball

By Steve Silverman

Putting backspin on the ball can be a great move for an amateur player who is showing significant improvement with his play around the greens. If you hit your pitching, gap and lob wedges with consistency, your game will show significant improvement when you learn how to stop the ball with backspin.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step 1

In attempting to hit the ball with backspin, play the ball slightly back in your stance. This will feel a little awkward at first, but hitting 30 balls at the practice range should get you accustomed to hitting the ball one ball width closer to your back foot.

Step 2

Use your gap wedge or lob wedge when you are trying to put backspin on the ball. You can also try your pitching wedge if you don't have one of these clubs. You need a club with significant loft, and that's why the lob or gap wedge is advisable.

Step 3

Take an upright stance when you want to put backspin on the ball. Bring your feet about an inch or two closer together and your knees should not be bent as much as usual.

Step 4

Take a swing with a steep angle of descent. Keep your eye on the back of the ball and try to focus on the back center portion. Make sure you hit the ball first and you take only a small divot after you hit the ball. If you take a divot prior to contact you will not be able to put backspin on the ball.

Step 5

Finish high with your hands on the follow through. After making contact with the ball, make sure you bring your hands up to shoulder height. Having speed on contact with the ball will assure maximum rotation, which leads to backspin.

Tips & Warnings

Hit the back of the ball first. Do not take a divot before contact.

About The Author

Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who's Better, Who's Best in Football -- The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.