WEBVTT

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In this analysis video, we're going to go over the swing pattern early

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extension.

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Early extension is when the pelvis moves in towards the golf ball and typically

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the thorax raises.

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It is easier to see on 3D, but on video, there are a couple different ways that

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we can look at it.

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First, we can look at if we go to the top of the swing,

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if we were to draw a line along the tailbone or along the backside because you

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can't really

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see the tailbone at this point. So somewhere close to that, you can also look

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at it by drawing a line

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on the forehead. During the downswing, those two points should stay relatively

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the same

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in the ideal situation, but there are a variety of reasons why players early

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extend,

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which we'll go through in this video. But here, you'll see one where the upper

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body is doing the majority of the early extending, and then on the left, you'll

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see one where the

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lower body is doing the majority of the early extending. Of the swing patterns

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that we're discussing,

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early extension is by far the most prevalent among high level golfers and is

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even common on tour.

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So here we have Bill Haas on the left, and you'll see during the majority of

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the downswing,

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that upper body is working away from the golf ball. Here we have Jason Duffner,

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and you'll see a

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similar movement where that upper body or head is working away from the golf

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ball. And now here

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on the left, we have Paul Casey demonstrating more of a lower body driven early

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extension,

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where his head still stays relatively up against the golf ball, but his pelvis

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clearly moves in

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towards the golf ball. Now, one of the things that you'll see with the upper

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body is the tour level

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early extension tends to have a more subtle lift of the upper body, where the

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amateur version

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tends to have a more exaggerated lift of the upper body. Here's an example of

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that

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single digit handicap golfer doing more of a lift as his thorax moves backward

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as his pelvis moves

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forward. There are a variety of reasons why players will early extend, and that

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's where we'll

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spend the bulk of our time today. From a power face and path point of view,

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there are a variety of

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reasons why golfers will early extend, and a lot of benefits that it can cause

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for the golf swing.

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Let's first look at power. This early extension movement is very similar to a

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vertical jump or a

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deadlift, which are both very powerful movements for the hips and back to

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create speed. So,

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a golfer that is not going to create a lot of speed from their trunk rotation

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may overuse their

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lower body in order to create or in order to create as much speed as they

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possibly can.

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Here's another example of a golfer doing it more from the back bend point of

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view,

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where the golfer on the right is doing it more from the hip extension point of

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view.

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From a face, or sorry, from a path perspective, early extension is one of the

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easiest ways to

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shallow out the club. The more that the posture gets vertical, the more that

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the chest is going

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to be pointing out away from the golf ball. The more that you were to bend

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forward,

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the more that the chest would be pointing at the golf ball. Either way, the

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more that you stand up,

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the more that you early extend, the more that it is going to shallow out the

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club, which helps

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account for a lot of overly steep movements such as a steep arm plane or a

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forward lunge with the

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upper body drifting on top of the golf ball. There are a variety of reasons why

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you would want to

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shallow out the path from the body's point of view instead of doing it from the

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arm's point of view,

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but this overall pattern of doing it more from the body tends to produce the

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common ball flight

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pattern of the early extension. Early extension tends to have an overly into

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out swing path,

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which tends to produce thin shots, fat shots, difficulty with wedges, but

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typically a very good

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driver of the golf ball. One of the other major reasons why a lot of golfers

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early extend is

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early extending will cause your arms to line up more with the golf ball impact,

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which tends to

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create a fast closing or a fast amount of face rotation. This face rotation can

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be very helpful

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for a golfer who tends to leave the club face more open. So you will bring up

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an example who is

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what I think is one of the more clear examples of why early extension will help

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you close the face.

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So here we have a golfer demonstrating some more late early extension. So if

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you notice

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with those first two examples, it was straight from the top of the swing that

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we saw a pronounced

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movement of the body. Here he could look like he's going to stay pretty much in

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his posture and then

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as he gets down close to the release, you will see that stand up move. The

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reason why, or the

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reason why I would believe based on the 3D and video data, is if we were to

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take a look at the club

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face during this early part of the downswing, you'll see that it is closing

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very very slowly

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to the point where he gets down to about waist height and it's still pointing

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relatively straight

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up and down, but it's been pointing straight up and down for the majority of

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that early downswing.

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So his hand motion is doing more of a release almost under plane and this early

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extension or

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standing up as you see will start to cause that club face to close very very

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quickly.

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So the club face is still in a fairly open position down here with only a few

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feet before

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the golf ball. The only way he's going to get it to close is if he gets his

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arms to line up,

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which the easiest way he's going to do that is if his body stands up. And we

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can compare

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that club face rotation to a golfer who does it more from more gradually and

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more from the hands.

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So if we were to look at Adam Scott here and we'll take him to where club faces

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are relatively

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clear to see, you'll see that the club is kind of following a little bit more

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of a gradual

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closing. So when we get him down to this point here, Adam Scott has the golf

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club pointing more

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or less at the golf ball, right? You can see that the club face is pointing in

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the general

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direction of the golf ball, where this amateur has the club face pointing much

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further out to the

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right. If I were to guess, I would say that it's probably a difference in say

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20, 30 degrees in

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terms of closure. So he's going to have to close the club face very quickly,

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where Adam can continue

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to gradually close it until he reaches point or contact with the golf ball. Now

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let's look at the

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face on view now that we know what the club face kind of looks like. So we know

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that in Adam's case

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it's gradually closing and we can see pretty hard with the blur of the club,

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but we know that this

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was about the point where the club was pointing more or less at the golf ball.

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We know that with

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this amateur, you can clearly see the club face is still pointing out at us.

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And if he were to

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get his hands ahead with more body rotation, that would actually open the club

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face even more,

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and he would have a high likelihood of shaking it, or at very least hitting it

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very far to the right

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hitting the club face. Because Adam has gradually closed this club face, he can

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have forward shaft

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lean and he can have his hands ahead, but still have the club face pointing in

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the direction of the

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target. The golfer on the left is going to stand up during this last phase, and

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if you look at his

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head compared to the top of the screen, you'll see there's the early extension

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in order to get it

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to quickly close during this last little interval here. As a result, the way he

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's getting it to close

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is by having his hands dead in line with the club as it approaches impact,

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which is what will

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get the club face to rotate and close the fastest. One of the common

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combination movements with early

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extension is going to be the cast movement. So if a player does not necessarily

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forward lunge,

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or sometimes even if they do, they're going to need to create a shallow

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movement to

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take away or to increase the space between their chest and the golf ball.

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Because this right arm

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is going to be extending in the cast pattern, if the golfer was to stay all the

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way or to maintain

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their posture and stay down and cover the golf ball, they would tend to hit

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behind it, especially if

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they were to include the normal shallowing move of side bend or axis tilt. So

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what frequently happens

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is a golfer will cast and now their hands get a fair distance away from their

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body. As a result,

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they're going to have to stand up to prevent the club from hitting the ground

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and to quickly

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shallow out the swing at the bottom. So if you decide that this is a pattern

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that you want to work on,

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here's a little bit of guidance. If you tend to see the early extension happen

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quickly from the top

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of the swing, it is most likely going to be either a power or a path issue. If

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you tend to see the

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early extension happen later, such as this golfer is doing it right there, it's

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tending to be more

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of a face closure and maybe a path. If it tends to happen gradually through the

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entire downswing,

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similar to the Jason Duffner, then it is most likely going to be a way of

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helping to control the path.

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Now, there's Jason Duffner demonstrating that gradual early extension to help

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bring the path

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in the direction that he wants. Now, the typical pattern for early extension is

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going to have

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an overly into out path, which is going to cause golfers to struggle with the

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pull hook. Chances are,

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if any golfer struggles with big hooks or big pull hooks, it's usually a path

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that's too into out

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with a clubface that's closed. Now, the struggle is if you're going to try to

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get out of the early

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extension pattern, as we've seen, you're going to have to learn to close the

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clubface a little bit

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earlier, and which will help allow you to have forward shaft lean inside bend.

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That forward shaft

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lean will delay the closing of the clubface that you are now doing earlier.

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That combination,

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which you'll see in the drills, is what helps get you to maintain your posture

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a little bit better,

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which helps control your consistency of contact and the consistency of your

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path through the ball.

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So the more that you can get that handle ahead by staying down, the more that

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it will help eliminate

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that fear of the snap hook. As you will see with this golfer on the left, if we

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measure the distance

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between the chest and the golf club, you can see that the furthest that's going

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to be is when his

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arms are straight. Now, as I've talked about in the follow through position,

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most tour golfers are

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going to reach their furthest point somewhere out around here. But those who

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early extend will

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frequently hit this furthest point pretty much as they're making contact or

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slightly after.

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If he was going to get his hands a little bit more ahead,

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basically, he needs to create some slack. And the only way he would create some

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slack is if his

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upper body was closer to the golf ball that would allow his hands to work ahead

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and still make

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contact with the golf ball. So hopefully that helps clears up this complicated

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issue of early

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extension. There's a variety of reasons why golfers do it. Most of them are

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good, but the overall

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pattern can cause some limitations when you get to an elite level. There are

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lots of single-digit

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golfers who struggle with this early extension. And to the degree that they do

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it, it's the major

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reason why they have trouble or reach certain plateaus and have trouble with

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iron consistency,

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wedge shots, and fearing the hook.