Starting Down with your Upper Body First?

One of The Most Common Swing Faults (if not THE Most Common), is starting the downswing too soon. In other words, the Upper body begins to start the downswing too early – and not give the Lower Body Time Enough to Shift and Rotate FIRST!

Obviously, anxiety of hitting the ball throws off everyone’s timing, but there’s another factor which you  don’t hear a lot about; and that is Muscle Tightness throughout the body – and usually tightness in the Right Side of the torso. 

Why the Right Side you ask?  Because most people are right handed and by overusing this side of the body for decades, the muscles will usually tighten up and actually overpower the weaker Left Side Muscles.

Think if you were to shoot a rubber band across the room and you looped the end of the band on your forefinger.  If that Rubber Band is Brittle and Tight, you’ll have a tough time pulling the band back.  Therefore, it will want to ‘Start Forward’ before you give it a chance to wind up.  However,  if the Rubber Band is very Pliable (or Flexible), it’ll have no problem storing up energy and expanding.

An excellent Swing Tip is to KEEP THE LEFT SHOULDER BEHIND THE LEFT KNEE UNTIL AFTER IMPACT.  Doing so will automatically allow your Lower Body to Start Down First and establish the proper Sequencing.

And of Course, THE BEST WAY to keep all of your body parts functional  is to increase your flexibility – especially as you get older.  (And Yes, you CAN increase your Flexibility even if you’re older!