What the Good Golfers are Doing
One of the most common swing faults in the game of golf today is “standing up” throughout the shot- this is happening not only in the back swing but more importantly during the downswing. This is a big Taboo!.
A quick look at all the good players will show them compressing their bodies and putting force into the ground. This in turn generates power and consistency through the golf swing motion. There are two easy ways to monitor whether or not you’re “standing up” or maintaining a proper forward bend.
The Drill
Place an alignment shaft or some other object right behind you so that your left glute is pressed against it. If you move away from the shaft or towards the ball, you are standing up (or as Biomechanists say, Hyper Extending). If this is happening, you’re immediately throwing power away and will almost assuredly uncock your wrists prematurely.
Another way to check to see if you’re standing up is to draw a horizontal line on the top of your head. If you’re raising up through the line you are hyper extending.
A look at nearly all tour players show them actually going down through the shot.
The Goal
What we want during this drill is for your right glute to press against the shaft on the back swing, and the left glute to return and press firmly into the shaft. On that note, if you recall in Ben Hogan’s Book, ‘Five Lessons’, he used an illustration of an elastic band tied from his left hip to the wall; whereby on the down swing, the band snapped the hip back into the wall.
Roger Recommends:
For additional videos and drills like this one purchase a copy of Roger Fredericks Reveals the Secrets to a Fundamental Golf Swing and to help generate more power in your swing I would recommend you purchasing the Power Swing Fan.
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Hi, I’m Roger Fredericks and I’m coming to you from the beautiful Omni La Costa resort & spa, right here in north county San Diego. Another gorgeous day.
I'm actually on the championship tee of the 17th hole of the Legends course. Which is halfway through what they call "the longest mile", that's the last 4 holes on the legends. A lot of history has been made here
Now one of the most common faults i see in golf and any other teacher for that matter, is what they call hyper extending (coming up this way and standing up). We see that not only the downswing but also on the back swing. Once you start coming up here it is very difficult. And once you start coming up in the downswing and come up this way, look what happens to the hands. They start to come high and throw the club away and lose a ton of power.
What you want to do is to stay in your spine angle, there is a lot of talk about that too. A simple drill that i like to have you incorporate is to get something and you take your setup. Right now, I have this alignment shaft right on my left glute right in here. So I take a practice swing, if I’m hyper extending, I’ll stand up and move away from the shaft, we do not want to see daylight there.
What I want to do is actually stay down and bump the shaft this way. So, when I do that my upper body kind of bends forwards and comes down there, and it keeps the hands nice & low. So, make sure when you do this. No 1 the most important thing is keeping the shaft right behind, so it comes down right in the middle of my bicep, to make sure that you're actually bumping the shaft this way and staying down into the shot.
You could do this drill anytime. At home, office, golf course. Get your cart and bump the cart, whatever it takes. Staying in your spine angle and come down. And on this whole topic here probably the no 1 reason that people do stand-up is because of lack of flexibility primarily in their hips. So, get on my flexibility program, do a little bit every day and you'd be amazed how much better you're going to feel not only on but off the course
Thanks for tuning in