DOES IT CAUSE EARLY EXTENSION?

Does ground force cause early extension?

Okay. I’ve been making a few videos on the subject of ground force reaction, particularly, how to use the ground through the impact zone underneath your left foot. So I’ve been using the drill in these videos left foot only, and then how to feel that vertical force coming through the impacts area, feel like you’re almost thrusting upwards. Now, a few people, when they’ve watched the videos, and have seen the benefits, but at the same time they’ve asked the question, will that not cause early extension? Will this upward movement not cause early extension?

So let me just sort of clarify something, and I thought it was important enough to make a sort of individual video on that subject. These videos I’m making are based on people who are not using the ground correctly through the ball. So, what I mean by that is if you’re a player who through the impact zone, your left knees buckled, you still got a lot of bend in your left knee, that means you’re not using the ground correctly. And, hopefully, from that you can see when you’re buckling your left knee, there’s almost no vertical force. That actually makes it very difficult to rotate the left side. So, almost virtually impossible for your left hip to sort of be rotating out of the way.

And the correct hip rotation in the pelvis and this glute clearing out of the way is a very big component about not early extending. This is a very important component about being able to maintain your angles through the ball.

So, just in that, hopefully, you can see that the correct use of the ground is actually very important to be able to rotate your pelvis, which is part of being able to maintain your angles. When I’m saying this left food only drill, obviously, you thrusting up, there’s a straightening of the left side. That left knee straightening as a result, allows the hip to clear, allows the hip to rotate, maintaining your postural angles.

Now, if you’re somebody who’s already doing this, you’re using the ground correctly.  You’re pushing up, the left side straightening, the left hip rotating, and then you try to take this drill and practice it, well, actually, you don’t really need to. This part of your swing is already okay. You have this component. And maybe if you’re already doing this okay, and then you try to add more of this into your swing, perhaps that can create early extension.

Just on the early extension subject, I do think it’s overrated. I’m not saying that it’s not important to maintain your postural angles through the ball, somewhat, but there’s many, many good players, particular good drivers of the ball, who come out of their angles a little bit. They’ve got so much ground force reaction that they do actually come out of their angles a little bit. So don’t get obsessed about having to maintain your postural angles precisely throughout the whole swing. That might be very…might be possible with a sand wedge, but really, to hit a driver with a lot of speed, it might not be possible, and maybe it’s not a good thing. So, I think people out there, yet, cannot say to you confidently that you must not early extend especially with the longer clubs when you’re trying to create some speed.

So, hopefully, that’s cleared up. Basically, if you don’t have any of this component, any of this ground force reaction in your swing, you’re buckled, actually trying to create some of this vertical force will allow the left side to straighten, allow your hip to clear, that will actually encourage you to maintain your angles.

If you’re already doing this well, well, the tip really wasn’t for you. If you’re practicing it, maybe it will encourage you to come out of your angles a little bit more, but simply you didn’t need to be doing it. So, make sure that you need to be working on this component before you actually start working on it. And as I said, lastly, maybe don’t get too obsessed about this early extension. There’s many players, especially with longer clubs, do come out of their angles a little bit. I don’t think it is as big a fault as many people make it out to be. Hope that’s cleared it up, and hope it will help you identify which category you’re in. Do you need to work on it, or do you not? And as always, thanks for watching.