Fix Your Early Extension
Whether you’re new to golf, or you’ve been playing for years; chances are you know what Early Extension is. This is the most common swing fault among golfers and one that has a SIGNIFICANT impact on power and distance control.
In the simplest terms, early extension occurs when your hips thrust towards the ball on your down swing. This typically causes the golfer to “stand up tall” upon impact, which eliminates the lower body rotation and causes the hands to take over before the ball is hit.
Depending on the timing of your hands, this can cause misses in either direction – which nobody wants! If you have misses in both directions – look no further.
On top of this, it can significantly decrease clubhead speed, ball speed and distance. Everyone wants to hit the ball further – this very well could be a significant reason you’re losing power.
What Causes it?
There are a few functional issues that typically coincide with Early Extension in the golf swing:
1. Pelvic Rotation – If you are unable to dissociate your lower body from your upper body, this is going to be a huge problem. Get yourself into your golf address posture, crossing your arms. Can you rotate your hips side to side without moving your upper body? Even if you can, there is a good chance that your endurance with this movement is poor.
2. Glute strength – I’ve been assessing athlete strength at all levels for the past 10+ years. I know for a FACT that most athletes have weak hips. It doesn’t matter what level they perform at. Working on unilateral glute strength is extremely important to maintaining the posture in the golf swing – lunges, squats, bridges and plyometric work will help immensely with this.
3. Core strength – Similar to what I’ve listed above: most people simply have weak cores relative to the rest of their body. The inability to stay flexed forward and rotate in this position is directly correlated to early extension. Core work is paramount to a functionally sound golf swing.
There are other factors, which is why it is paramount to get a proper movement and strength assessment. Any golf coach will tell you – Their job gets significantly easier if the mobility and strength needed to get you in the right position is present. However, golfers think that working on one “swing fix exercise” or “repetition” will solve the problem.
IT. WILL. NOT. WORK.
I promise you that improving your functional mobility and strength will put you on a path to your lowest scores. Invest in this. You will blow away your friends with the improvement you’ll make and hit numbers on the course you’ve only dreamed of.
