Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in
America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Meet your new instructor.
Fix Your Early Extension
Subscribe now to watch the full video.
While it is more common for golfers to stand-up or come out of their posture in the backswing, some players will struggle with lowering or dropping as well. That is not to say that some amount of lowering is not expected; the average drop in the backswing for a PGA Tour player is roughly 1 to 2 inches. However, if you are dropping more than this during your swing, it is most likely due to a lateral sway or an excessive amount of torso flexion or side bend. For students that fall into these patterns, I will have them get a little more visual awareness, whether it is through something like a pool noodle or mirror, and focus on making a centered pivot while adding some torso extension. This simple combo will usually go a long way to fixing this pattern and the compensations it can cause.
Tags: Early Extension, Standing Up, Sway, Backswing, Drill, Intermediate
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
This video is discussing dropping your head in the backswing.
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So while the more common air is to have a loss of posture and really stand up, some
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:13,000
golfers get concerned with dropping their head too much in the backswing.
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,000
And so I'm going to discuss the couple common ways that that might be showing up in your
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,000
swing.
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:27,000
The real problem here, because the tour average is that the head or the upper body, so
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,000
looking at kind of the center of their sternum or their upper neck, this area right
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:38,000
around here, tends to drop about an inch to two inches during the backswing.
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:45,000
That's partly because of the rotation around this side tilt, the fact that the ribcage
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000
is wider this way.
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:54,000
And as the hip goes back, so as I'm loading into that in-step of that right foot, that
00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:00,000
hip will tend to go back just slightly and that hip going back just slightly comboed with
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000
the left shoulder going down.
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:08,000
It creates a little lowering because if I stand in a golf posture, so like this, there's
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000
two ways that I could lower using my spine, there's two ways that I could lower.
00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:22,000
One would be to drop down by flexing forward like this and two would be to drop down by
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,000
leaning to the side like this.
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000
Rotation won't have any effect on my head drop.
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:34,000
So what usually happens is if my head is dropping down, then either I'm side bending a
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:40,000
lot and having a big sway kind of off the ball with my hip like this, or I'm staying
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000
flexed forward too much and I'm not getting enough of that extension to keep my chest closer
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:47,000
to the same height.
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,000
Those can both be a problem.
00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000
One of the kind of cousins to this move is too much movement towards the golf ball.
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,000
And I see that some golfers who complain about their head dropping down, lose sight of
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,000
that being a bigger air.
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:07,000
So what usually happens in that case is when they go into the backswing, their weight shifts
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:08,000
way into that right toe.
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
You may even see the heel come off the ground.
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
And so when I shift into that toe kind of like this, I'm really loading a more of a jump
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:17,000
movement on the way down.
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:23,000
It's almost like I'm getting in my toes ready to explode as opposed to loading more
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:30,000
of a rotational movement by getting enough depth and kind of sitting into that hip as I
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,000
rotate into my full top of backswing position.
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:43,000
So if you're dropping down usually what I work on is working on that extended position
00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:48,000
and using a mirror in the down the line to just make sure that I'm feeling more of this
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,000
backswing shoulder plane kind of like this.
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:57,000
You'll see if I do nothing but flex forward then from the face on camera or from the down
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,000
the line camera, you will see my head drop during the backswing.
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:08,000
The other option which I think is far worse is if I have more of that sway into my toe,
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:14,000
I'm really getting loaded this way and I'm drifting almost forward that way.
00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,000
That's a bigger problem because that tends to create a major compensation during the
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:19,000
downswing.
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:24,000
So whether you struggle with too much down or too much forward the solutions pretty much
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:30,000
the same using some pool noodles getting a little bit more aware and doing some of these
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:36,000
backswing shoulder plane or pivot drills should help you figure out where you are in space.
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000
It'll help you work on keeping that upper body a little bit more centered, work that
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:48,000
into slow motion transition and then full speed transition drills will help you overcome
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,000
what's going on.
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:56,000
Oftentimes that lowering is actually a symptom of the fact that you really want to early
00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:03,000
extend and you really want to jump on the way down and oftentimes by working on the early
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:08,000
extension pattern on the way down you'll actually correct the upper body diving down
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,000
in the backswing either that or it'll be controlled enough that it's no longer a major
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:13,000
problem.
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:19,000
So work on trying to keep your upper body at about the same height, little drop during the
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000
backswing but if it drops down a lot use that as a diagnostic to try and figure out
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,000
why the why may be the bigger issue that you really need to solve.
