Why You Need This: Today, you'll discover "Eliminate Early Extension Forever | Stay In Posture"

Do you struggle with flipping the club?...

...not only does it make you wildly inaccurate, but it takes tons of yards off each shot.

Typically, flipping the club is just the result that happens when you lose your posture in the downswing (often called early extension).

If you want fix your issues, I've got a simple step-by-step plan to end the root cause of your flip...

…and you’ll start smashing the ball with near-effortless power right down the fairway!

 

 

 

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Quentin Patterson    

Video Duration: 14:03

Video Transcription:

Quentin Patterson: Early extension. This is a huge killer of a lot of golf swings. This is when our hips move toward the golf ball coming into impact which forces us to have to flip the club to get to the ball, and we just lose a lot of compression when we do that.

So how do we eliminate this? I have a great seven-day plan that’s going to allow you to get rid of this early extension for good.

First, let’s understand a couple of terms. One is bend. Bend, just to think of it simply is, is just making the angle between your upper body and your lower body smaller. So this would be bend.

Extend would be the opposite, where we’re making the angle between the upper body and the lower body bigger.

This what’s happening in the golf swing. We are bending at address, and I tweaked my back yesterday, so I’m not going to be making any swings.

Throughout this video I’ll be showing some slow-motion footage of Clay Ballard’s swing, he’s the founder of Top Speed Golf, fantastic golf swing. You’ll be able to see a lot of things I’m talking about here.

At address, we have some forward bend, a little bit of forward bend. As we go up to the top of the swing, we’re actually extending a little bit.

A lot of people don’t realize this, because our shoulders are turning and tilting, but we’re actually extending a little bit as we go up to the top of the swing.

So if you imagine if we didn’t extend at all at the top of the swing, our backswing would look like this, right? That would be no good.

We also don’t want to extend too much, because then our backswing would look like this, and that would lead to a whole ‘nother host of issues.

If we’re keeping our head fairly steady, then we’re going to have a good amount of extension as we go up to the top as we’re staying in our posture there.

Now in the start of the downswing, we actually have some bend. This is where most people go wrong. They extend up to the top of the swing, and then they continue to extend in the start of the downswing.

A lot of times this feels really powerful, but in reality, what we’re doing is we’re just throwing that club early. We’re trying to get power at the wrong time.

We want to get power really through impact and the way that we do that, is to bend initially in the start of the downswing, reduce that angle between the upper body and the lower body, and then extend through impact.

That’s how we really get that power, that’s how you see the Tour players, they’re covering the ball, they’re getting that compression, and they’re getting that effortless power that we all see.

So how do we get rid of this? Well, I’ve got a seven-day plan for you, like I mentioned.

Day one, what we’re going to do is we’re going to put a club across the shoulders here. You can do this at home. A lot of this seven-day plan, it’s 15 minutes, you can do at home before you even go to the range.

I think it’s already great to get in some home reps, because it just makes it easier, you’re not wasting so much time on the range buying all these balls and not getting anywhere.

You get in the work in at home, and then go to the range and you’re going to get a lot more done if you do that.

So the first thing we’re going to do is at home. At home here, what I want you to do initially here, day one, 15 minutes, put the club across your shoulders here, and I apologize if this is hitting the mic.

We’re going to put our club across the shoulders here. A little bit of forward bend at address. As we go up to the top, we’re going to extend a little bit, and we’re going to keep our head nice and steady.

As long as you are keeping this club tilted down, and keeping your head steady, you’re going to be extending the right amount.

If your head moves a lot off of the ball and your shoulders get level, or your heads move kind of toward the target, and our shoulders kind of get angled down a little bit too much sometimes, then we’re extending too much.

If we keep our head steady and keep those shoulders kind of tilting down a little bit, a little bit on the other side of the golf ball, you’re going to be in that good position. So we’re going to go up to the top, and we’re going to pause.

Now we’re going to come down in the start of the downswing here, and we’re going to bend into the ground.

So I want you to really exaggerate this. I want you to try to make this angle between your upper body and your lower body. I want you to feel like it’s 90°.

That’s not really as much as what happens in the golf swing, but I want you to feel that because I want you to feel almost like you can’t exaggerate this too much.

If you’re someone who goes like this, you can’t exaggerate that too much. In reality, if you do which is probably not going to happen.

But if you do, once you get toward the end of this, if you’re actually overdoing it, you can always ease off of it. It’s so much easier to overdo something and then ease off of it, than to try to do something little, by little, by little.

I would try to really, really exaggerate it. It’s really going to move the needle with your improvement a lot faster.

So when we’re coming down here, I really want you to bend down and get those hips back to square. Now what you’re going to notice here, is that my shoulders are still pretty closed off.

This would be this point in the golf swing. So my shoulders are still closed off, you’re going to have that kind of angled down a little bit in front of the golf ball, and then from here, you’re going to stand up and through.

Now when you extend up and through, what we want to make sure that we do, is we keep this end of the club, this butt end of the club or the front end of the club, I guess, pointing down toward the ground. Pointing down toward the golf ball.

You want to almost feel like your shoulders are turning like a Ferris wheel. If you look at the slow-motion video of Clay’s swing, you’re going to see how Clay’s shoulders are staying a little bit steep as they’re coming through.

They’re actually steeper than they were at the top of the swing. This is a trait that you’re going to see in almost every single Tour player. That’s what we want to feel like.

Now the shoulders aren’t really turning like a Ferris wheel vertically like that, but again, this is something that you’re probably going to need to feel to get closer to where you want to be with it.

So really feel like you’re keeping those shoulders angled down. What we don’t want to do is come in here and pause and then just kind of stand up and extend. That’s not what we want to do.

We want to extend and have those shoulders kind of angling downward. Like I said, I tweaked my back a little bit so I’m not doing that as well as I should, but I think you get the idea looking at Clay’s slow-mo video there.

So that’s day one, 15 minutes before bed, when you wake up, when the news is on, whenever you want. Get that 15 minutes in, or more if you want to, but really just need to take 15 minutes with it.

Now day two what we’re going to do, is we’re going to take the pauses out of there, and we’re just going to do some really slow, fluid reps.

So really, really slow initially here, and we’re going to go up to the top, nice and slow. We’re going to bend down and extend up and through.

I want you to take on the first one, I want you to feel like you’re taking like 10 seconds to do it. That’s how slow you want to go.

Then as you get better with it, try to work it up a little bit faster, a little bit faster, a little bit faster. Try to get to where you can at least do it at 50 percent speed, somewhere in that area.

That’s day two. 15 minutes, just adding some fluidity to it, trying to build up the speed.

Day three, is where we’re going to try and work this up to full speed. Again, we’re at home, you don’t want to have to go to the range, you can do this in the office, wherever you want, wherever you’ve got a little space.

You’re just going to go up to the top, and try to start off where you left off the day before, and try to work up to getting to full speed with it. Getting those proper motions.

Really what you have to remember is bend at address, extend a little bit at the top, bend in the downswing, and extend through impact, and keeping those shoulders tilting down throughout, head steady, you’re going to do really, really well with this.

Now once we’re up to full speed on day three, getting these nice club across the shoulders in, now we’re ready to get the club in the hands and try to do the same thing.

We’re going to start with the pauses again. Again, you can do this at home. If you have some space, do it in the backyard. If you have some space in your garage, you don’t have to go to the range to do this.

You can work on this at home. So again, another 15 minutes, let’s get the club in the hands now. A little bit of bend at address, we’re going to keep our head steady, tilt our shoulders down, and get a little bit of extension at the top.

Then we’re going to really bend down, right? So this is that hips back to square, really bending into the ground here, and then we’re going to extend up and through coming through just like that.

So go nice and slow with it, do it with the pauses, 15 minutes. That’s day four. All right?

Day five, just like we did in day two with the club across the shoulders, now let’s add some fluidity to it. I want you to take literally what would be almost like a 10-second swing initially, doing this movement with no pauses.

You can start out with a couple pausing ones, but we want to work toward where we’re getting at least 50 percent in a fluid swing.

So we’re going to go up to the top here, we’re going to go nice and slow, we’re going to bend down and extend through. I really want you to kind of brush the turf.

I didn’t do a good job there of brushing the turf, but I want you to try to brush the turf. Imagine where the golf ball would be, imagine impact as you’re doing this. So try to work up to 50 percent on day five doing the nice, fluid swings.

Day six, you probably guessed it, right? We’re going to try to work up with these practice swings, work all the way up to full speed doing these practice swings.

So start out at 50 percent where you left off the day before, and again, just kind of work through. You can do some pausing ones, some slow ones initially, but we want to work through, up on day six, we want to work up to getting up to basically full speed where we’re staying in our posture.

As you’re doing this, I want you to imagine that you are really exaggerating it. I want you to imagine what’s going on at impact. I want you to hear the sound of the golf ball, see the ball flight.

I want you to imagine how it’s going to feel when you hit it, how the divot’s going to fly. I want you to kind of imagine these things. It may sound silly to do that, but it really goes a long way in your improvement and being able to take this to the range.

That’s what day seven is. Day seven is you’ve done your work at home, you’ve done your 15 minutes a day for six days, so hour and a half or so. Again, that 15 minutes is just a suggestion.

You can do more than that, but that’s what you want to do to work up to there. Get all your work in at home, so that way when you go to the range, it’s much, much easier.

Now you’re at the range, and you have an idea of what you need to do. Now what I don’t want you to do, is just start hitting balls right away and expect it to click right away.

What I want you to do is, I want you to work, do a practice swing where you know you’re getting it first, and then right after that, step up to the golf ball. I’m going to get warmed up on the range here.

I’m going to get ready to go, and now I’m going to try and do my swings. I’m going to start out with probably like a 50 percent swing, where I’m making sure that I’m getting in my right positions here.

I’m bending and extending, and everything looks good. Then I’m going to work up to full speed. Once I get a full speed one, I know it’s good.

If a golf ball was there, I know what would have been a good strike, I’m going to step into the golf ball and I’m going to do the exact same thing. I’m not going to change anything at all.

Don’t be afraid of what happens with your contact. That one first one, it might be a disaster. You might shank it, I hate to say that, but you might chunk it. Something bad may happen, that’s OK.

Don’t be afraid of it, that’s the first one that you’ve tried after doing these drills. Your body doesn’t quite know how to move this way and hit the golf ball yet. But you just have you work through it.

So let’s say on the first one here, I come in and I feel like I do everything, I stay in my posture, and I chunk the ball. I hit behind the ball, six inches. That’s OK. On the next one, I’m just going to try and do better than that.

On the last one, I chunked it, I’m going to feel like I’m hitting more in front of the golf ball now. I’m going to imagine that divot in front of the golf ball.

I’m going to make sure I get another good practice swing again, and then I’m going to step into the golf ball and I’m going to do the exact same thing.

You’ve just got to keep working through the adjustments. This is how you work through improving things in your swing. So do that seven-day plan, and I’m telling you, you’re going to eliminate your early extension for good.

All right, so you’ve made it all the way through this seven-day plan, you’ve got to the range, and now you just can’t make it translate on the range.

You’ve done all this work, but you just can’t stay in your posture, you just can’t do it. You have this thing that’s fighting you. Well, most likely what that is, is because you’re coming down steep.

What that means is, in the start of the downswing, you get this club shaft kind of vertical. This is what we would call steep. You’re getting that bend in the start of the downswing when that club is steep.

From here, you don’t have a lot of options to hit a very compressed golf shot. Basically, what you’re going to tend to do, is you’re either going to come over the top, hit a big pull slice, or you’re going to stand up and you’re going to flip anyway.

The reason for that is if you watch, if I stand up, if I lose my bend and I extend early, look at what the handle does.

The handle moves out that way, the club head works more behind me and now I can have a functional golf shot. I’m swinging on plane now, but the problem is, is that I’ve have to stand up out of my posture to make that happen.

This is what we would call a compensation. We don’t want to make compensations. We want to be able to use the seven-day plan that we just had and be able to stay in our posture and be able to really compress the golf ball.

What we need to do, what we need to add to this, is we need to add The Move. What The Move is, is a course that we have on the website.

You’ve probably seen it, but basically what it is, is where we’re shallowing out the club in the start of the downswing, and we’re also squaring that face early.

We’re using some wrist angles that allow you to square that face earlier, so that way you’re not coming in with the face open, you have to flip the club and stand out of your posture at the last second.

So we want to shallow that club, we want to square that face earlier, so that way we can stay in our posture, use these new understanding that we have for how to bend and extend in the swing to our advantage, and really compress the ball.

What I’d recommend doing if you’re really having trouble staying in your posture, if you’re seeing that steep downswing, or you’re seeing the face is very open in the downswing, you have to flip into contact to get the face squared up, I highly recommend working through The Move course.

Now this course is included with your membership to Top Speed Golf. All you have to do is click the Instruction tab at the top of the screen there, and click the Top Seed Golf System, and then click The Move.

Get started on those drills after you’ve done your seven-day plan here, and get to where you’re shallowing up that club and you’re getting those compressed shots for good.

So, keep up the hard work, play well, and I’ll talk to you soon.