Why You Need This:

In this video, you’ll learn how to eliminate your early extension…

And maintain your posture through contact for more power in your swing.

This is the second video in the Stop Your Early Extension course…

…which focuses on your flexibility and posture.

One of the movements that throws most golfers off is body tilt.

Your body needs to tilt a bit sideways…

But most of us tend to think that we’re not flexible enough to tilt and maintain posture through contact.

Now I’ve met with physical therapists who showed me exercises to test how flexible you are…

And the results of some of those drills implied that I don’t have enough flexibility to maintain my posture through contact.

Well you know what?

Of course it helps to be super flexible like Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, etc…

But you don’t need to be super flexible.

In this video, you’ll discover the simple movement in your downswing that will help you maintain your posture through impact.

This movement allows you to maximize your power with a full straight-line release.

So watch this video now to stay in posture and hit with more power!

What's Covered: The side bend or tilt that is happening during the golf swing to get the best contact.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 7:55

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, great to have you back. Work on that posture, getting rid of that early extension, getting you that good, clean contact. Staying down and through those shots every single time.

Now one of the things that really throws people off is how your body has to actually tilt a little bit sideways. A lot of people think man, I’m just not flexible enough to stay in my posture.

That’s what I was told, I’d have doctors, or not doctors, but I’d have physical therapists and those kind of people tell me to do these little exercises where I’d drop my hips back and I’d see how far I could bend this way.

I’m really inflexible, that’s about as far as I can go until I round my back. If I round my back I can get a little farther down there, but you know, I don’t have very much flexibility in my hamstrings.

They’d have you do motions where you say OK, well hold your hands up this way and see how far you can squat, and if your hands start to go forward, you’re not going to be able to stay in your posture.

A bunch of this stuff that I can kind of see where they’re going with it, I think it would help you, the more flexible you are. If you see really flexible players like Rory McIlroy, or Adam Scott who’s super flexible, Dustin Johnson.

That makes it a lot easier to stay in this posture, in these positions, but just because you’re a little inflexible doesn’t mean you can’t get in these easily and without some pain.

So the first move we talked about in the last video as we started to shift forward there, we didn’t want to get this hip bumping forward. So as my hip bumps forward, now as I try to stay in my posture I really can’t rotate my hip on through there, it’s really locked up.

As I go this way,  you see that my hip bumps forward and now I can’t really rotate my hips out of the way. As I keep my hip back, now it’s automatically easier to rotate my body out of the way.

Let’s pay attention to, let’s imagine here’s contact, and now let’s go just past contact. This position is where I really want you to focus in on.

The first thing we’re going to talk about is our side bend. So if you look at my right shoulder, it’s pretty close to my right hip. There’s a bit of a curve there, and my shoulder’s kind of working down toward the right side of my body, the right side of the ground.

My left shoulder is actually working back up out of the shot. So my shoulders are going to naturally turn on a circle, as my shoulder comes up and out then this is going to move up and back to keep me in that posture too.

So if I’m doing this, and I’m more level, all of a sudden I’m going to come out of my posture. If I can do this and stay in my side bend with my right side, my left shoulder feels like it’s working back up out of the way. Now it’s easy for me to stay in that posture.

Again, that’s only possible if we did what we did in video number 1 in this series, where we talked about moving this hip out of the way.

So go ahead and pause about waist high with your hands, and I want you to really feel like your right side is down, and your left shoulder is up. That’s where if you put your club across your shoulders again, you’re really going to be able to feel that type of a motion there.

Now when you do this at contact, this is also where a lot of people get confused, is that if I pause at contact, it’s going to appear here that my shoulders are pretty square to the target.

So my hips are about 45° open, I look like my shoulders are pretty square, but what happens is if I drop my left arm back off, you’re going to see my shoulders are actually open a little bit. My chest should be slightly open at contact.

If we’re going this way, if I’m hitting toward my golf bag, now as I come on through, let’s pretend I’m here, my shoulders are there, well I’m going to be at impact about 40°, about 30° open.

It depends on the player, some players are…I think the Tour average is somewhere between 20° and 30° open. Some are a little bit more, some are a little bit less. It’s not about the exact number.

My shoulders should be slightly open, but as my left shoulder is protracted, which means that it’s moving forward across my chest this way, my left shoulder moves in that way as it’s protracted.

That’s what’s going to keep me looking like my shoulders are pretty square even though my sternum is a little bit open there. So that’s really key to feel that as you’re coming through and getting into that release to stay in your posture and still look like you’re staying down and through the shot.

So making sure that your right side, you’re getting some side bend, your left shoulder is working what feels like up as you’re coming through the ball. That’s also going to help you with your release, we talk about the straight line release.

As this shoulder moves up, the grip end up of the club moves up and then that club releases more out in front.

If my hands are down, now I’m going to be kind of pushing through the shot, and I tend to release a little bit too early. So this ties exactly in with what we’re doing with the straight line release, too.

Then finally here, I want you to get the sensation that you’re almost, if you’re used to coming out of the shot, you’re used to standing up, your chest goes back and you tend to throw the club toward the ball, that would be this type of a motion, a little bit of a casting motion.

If you watched our lag section, you know we want to be increasing lag and we’re not going to let that go until the straight line release up here.

I want to make sure I feel like, the sensation for a lot of you guys out there that are getting this early extension, is almost like you’re going to be hitting the ball behind you.

So as you start to open up, again as I mentioned, my sternum, my chest, is actually a little open. My hips are open, and my ball is a little bit behind my body. If went and did this to the extreme, here’s what I want you to do.

Go ahead and open your hips and shoulders up 90°, and then feel where you’d be at the ball here. That would be way behind you. So if I’m looking at it from this direction, that would be this type of a motion.

Again, this is an extreme exaggerations so you guys can feel this, I’m going to be all the way open like this to the target. Now the ball feels very much behind me, because my body is actually lined up like this.

I’m almost hitting the ball to the side of me, or what would be in reality since my hip, my chest I open 20° or 30°, it’s kind of like doing this, turning 20° or 30° open, and then hitting the ball here when it’s at the side of me.

That’s what I’m going to be doing as I’m coming into contact, because of the alignment that my hips, or my chest, my hips, my shoulders, all that is in at contact.

You’re going to feel like the ball may be a little bit more behind you, and that’s perfectly OK.

To get this down, we’re going to tie all these pieces in together here, and what you’ll notice is as you start to feel that club almost feeling like it’s a little bit more behind your body, notice how it’s so much easier to get that forward shaft lean that we talk about.

Notice how it’s easier to get into that straight line release position up here, where the club is releasing in front of your body.

Let’s go through these positions, get in our reps so that we can really ingrain this. Number one, I’m going to go ahead and take a good backswing, I’m using the hips just like I did in video number 1.

The second thing, or the first thing I’m going to work on in this video, making sure this right shoulder stays down. We’re going to go a little past impact, my right shoulder is down, my left shoulder is working up.

I’ll start to feel how if I grip it in the bottom three fingers, how that would get me in my straight line release position. My chest is a little open at contact, but because my left shoulder is protracted, now I’m actually looking like I’m pretty square with my shoulders.

So there I’m staying in my posture, and then finally, if I do this correctly, I’m goint to feel like I’m hitting the ball almost a little bit behind my body, almost like my body’s coming in like this, and I’m hitting it behind me.

I’m exaggerating there, we’re not going to do it nearly that much in a real swing, but that’s going to be the sensation for you guys that are used to standing up and flipping.

So I’m going to do 100 reps getting those sensations, right shoulder down, left shoulder up, chest slightly open at impact as I’m coming through there, and then I’m going to feel like the ball’s a little bit behind me.

100 reps pausing, another 100 reps taking some nice, smooth practice swings. There we go, feeling that position. Then number three, I’m going to do 100 reps mixing it back and forth from hitting golf balls and getting some slow-motion swings between each golf ball.

There we go, hit that one nice and solid, stayed in my posture well. Work on those things, you’re going to get better lag, better straight line release, better forward shaft lean. It’s all going to happen. The system’s going to start to tie in with this posture section, also.

So good luck to you guys, work hard. I’ll see you all soon.