I'm SITTING DOWN during the downswing...UHG!

[Stacey_E]

I’ve recently started rebuilding my swing. I’ve hit a handicap floor where my scores aren’t dropping like they were. I know I need to change some things about my swing to get better. To that end I’ve videoed myself and noticed two bad moves I am trying to eliminate.

1.) I take the club back way too flat and inside. I’m trying to do a couple things to help get the club going up more. I always had an upright stance and have since added a little more spine angle and a little more knee flex. Also I’m trying to make sure my hands are hanging directly down at address and not reaching for the ball. I’m getting the club going a little more upright and the shots are coming off higher and straighter. I was playing a low pull, now the shots are mid/high and either straight or a slight cut.

2.) This is the part I just can’t fix …..I’m actually sitting down during my downswing. I see a lot of people standing up and losing their spine angles. My problem is the opposite. My spine angle is perfectly intact to the top of the swing. But if I were to draw a line at my chin at address, that same point is where the TOP of my head is at impact. My spine angle is coming down just a tad, but the real source of the problem is a massive knee bending during the down swing. By flexing my knees more at address, I have cut the problem in half but I still drop way too much in the down swing. I’ve tried getting as low as possible at address, the reasoning (however flawed) being that if I was naturally going to be that low at impact, I should go ahead and get that low address. Possibly I’m on the right track but to get any lower at address feels very awkward. Maybe that is because it is a new move?

Either way……
Does anybody have any tips for controlling my knees bending and dropping my posture during the downswing? Could I be able to fix this with a setup change or a swing thought?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

[DrivingRangeJunkie]

Heres an easy fix (or at least what I think is always easy) : Keep your head still during the entire swing. If your head is moving up, down, etc, it means other parts of your body might also be moving, so if you keep your head still, you keep your body still and you hit clean shots.

[DeanS]

This is how I analize my own swing, tell me what you think.

Swing Analogy:
Think of a spring fixed at the bottom and loose at the top. When the spring is coiled tighter the inside of the spring is compressed while the outside of the spring is streched. The center of gravity remains centered and the springs diameter becomes smaller. Because the spring is fixed at the bottom there is more tension and compression at the bottom then there is at the top. In the golf swing the bottom half of the body is analogous to the bottom of the coiled spring. Pressure builds on the back foot which is the resistance to the coiling action at the top. Pressure is not weight. Weight remains centered (more or less, the art of the game) about the sternum and then the front knee releases to permit the front half of the body to rotate or coil. With pressure back and weight centered (or slightly ahead) these two ingrediants will combine to enable rotational momentum. What you get is the body reacting to the arm movement and it is a natural result and not a forced result.

[mm6840]

You have to decide wich route you're going...
First : 1 plane or 2 plane ?
Second : read some basic theory about 1p and/or 2P

re "1" : too flat inside ... i guess your's wrist doing that. If you're more 1 plane try to keep handle outside of your hands/arms in first half of backswing
b/w : 1 plane = more bending over position (>30 degrees). if you're 2 plane your arms should stay in front of your body... and more errect postion (bend 10-20 degrees and standing closer to the ball)

re "2" : if you're 1P bending of your knees is bad thing to do. Just retain some flex. if you're 2P bending is OK. Naturaly when uncoiling occur some down (more bend postion) for 1p.

....

regards,

[Guest]

"Sitting down" to me, is a result of not shifting your weight to your left on the down swing. It's a way of your body trying to get out of the way to let your shoulders turn through the shot. Hit a few balls at the range steping into the shot, like a baseball player to get the feeling of delivering your weight and finishing full and ballanced toward your target. A lot of great players "sat down" on the down swing, Nelson, Miller, Weiskoph. But they made sure that they were turning through the ball. They were also upright players as well. Flat is not bad, flat keeps you away from the left side of the course.

[glebert]

Didn't Johnny Miller say in Golf Digest last month that he thought all the great ball strikers dropped down into the ball? It struck me as an odd statement, which is why I remember it.

edit: found it

05 Get down on it at impact. I'm a swing-sequence junkie. I love poring over sequence photos of the best players. The feature all great iron players have in common is that their heads are lower at impact than when they were standing tall at address. They really go down after the ball, not by bending at the hips or dropping their head but by increasing the flex in their knees. They sag their knees down and toward the target at the same time, moving on a downward diagonal line. Now, you'd think this would make you hit the ball fat. But if you lean the club forward, toward the target, so that the shaft is angled ahead of the left arm, you'll absolutely pure it.

[JtotheD]

Sounds like your knees are really overactive during your swing.

Tip:

try not to "kick" your knees in at address or pre-backswing (don't know if you already do or not). It should feel like your kneecaps are pointing slightly outward (like your feet).

This should provide you with a good solid base to make a steady swing on.

Like you already said....at least you don't stand up on the downswing.....that can be extremely detrimental you your swing!