Why You Need This: In this video, you'll discover the 2 keys to start your downswing.

I'm often asked...

"How should you start your downswing?"

This is a really important question because if you don't start your downswing correctly...

...it's easy to fall into some bad habits like casting your club or coming in over the top.

Let's get started...

Key #1

Start your downswing by opening up your hips.

Try this...

Put a golf ball in your left pocket...

And focus on pointing the ball out to your target.

Opening your hips is crucial since it allows your arms to freely swing through.

Key #2

As your hips are opening up...

You need to focus on pushing into the ground with your left leg.

This will help you rotate through your shot...

And it'll help you stay in your posture.

Watch this video now to start your downswing the right way...

And get a smoother, more powerful swing!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 3:10

Video Transcription:

Hi guys. This is a question I get all the time, is how should I start my downswing? It seems like it’s a problem a lot of people have.

We get to the top of the swing, we really want to rush that downswing, we start casting the club. We lose a lot of distance, really, really frustrating, we’re not getting the speed that we want to have.

In a good golf swing, or an ideal golf swing, we want to be nice and smooth at the top. What will really happen, if you watch the really great pros out there like Rory McIlroy, or Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Ben Hogan, whoever you want to pick, they’re all doing the same thing.

As we start the downswing our hips and our lower body are starting first. As we’re doing this, we’re shallowing out this golf club. So it’s shallowing out, taking the loft off, getting this left wrist nice and flat, maybe a little bit bowed if we can like we talk about in The Move section on the website.

Then once our lower body’s leading the way, then we go ahead and swing on through. So I’ve got two really good drills, two really good keys that are going to help you t focus in on this.

Number one, we’re going to go ahead and take a golf ball, or if you have some change, put it in your left pocket. So now we can see that golf ball sticking out of my left pocket, kind of on the left side here.

The very first move I want to do as I start my downswing, is I want to point that golf ball out toward the target. That’s the feeling that I’m going to have.

I won’t get quite this open as I start the downswing, but that will get me rotating it open to get that pointing out toward the target.

So if we look at this as I go to the top, I’m really winding up, getting a good full turn.

You can see now this golf ball is kind of facing out toward the camera, the first move down is I’m going to keep my hands, let them shallow out, but I’m going to get that golf ball pointing toward the target. Then I can go ahead and swing on through.

The second key is relating with how we use the ground and how we can get our body mass, our momentum going through the shot so we can get hat really heavy-hit shot. We’ve got to get our body weight into the shot.

So we’re going to do this by what I call Kick the Clock. You can imagine, here’s 12:00, and I’m going to imagine that 3:00 is back here, 6:00 is behind me, 9:00 is right here.

Well, as soon as I start my downswing, as I’m turning my hips open, as I’m getting this golf ball or my change in my left pocket facing the target, I’m going to push out toward 10:30, like I’m going to kick into that clock as hard as I can.

I’m really going to put some pressure into it. Let’s imagine you’re going to put twice your body weight into that shot.

So as soon as I start down, now I’m here, I’m loaded up, my legs are bent, and I’m going to push as hard as I can out toward 10:30. It’s going to do couple things for me.

Number one, it’s going to help me to rotate open through the shot. Keep things moving all the way through to a good, full finish.

Number two, if we go this way, imagine this is 12:00, 10:30 is out this direction, now it’s going to help me to clear this hip out of the way so I’m rotating open and staying in my posture as I’m coming on through the shot. Keep those two keys in mind.

Point your change toward the target, and kick the clock out toward 10:30, you guys are really going to be able to rip some of those golf shots. That’s a great way to start the downswing.

There we go guys. Swing nice and smooth but powerful. Kick that clock for some more distance.