Straightening Right Leg

[EHSGolf1]

I have noticed that I straighten my right leg(i'm a right handed golfer) during my backswing. I am just wondering if this is bad and if so, what am i loosing out on by straightening my leg instead of keeping it bent.

[pounc007]

I think straightening out your right leg should cause your head to move up and down and could lead to inconsistent ball striking.

[EHSGolf1]

Right now I have been having problems with my ball striking too.

[ks8829]

straightening your right leg means that you are not turning correctly. You might be lifting on your backswing instead of turning parallal with the ground, this could cause you to hit your ball thin?

[EHSGolf1]

I have been hitting the ball somewhat thin and I have also been hitting it fat. My ball striking just has been really inconsistent.

[ks8829]

practicing turning with a driver behind your back and keep your knees flexed on your back swing and follow through. Sometime if you are gripping your club especially with your right hand too tight it will cause you to tighten your muscles and cause you to lift, so keep your grip loose and practice rotating horizontally with the ground.

I am confident that you will work it out.

[iacas]

Depends on what you mean by "straighten."

If you mean "to make straight," as in locking your knee, then you have a problem.

If you mean "to make straighter," then you're probably okay. Every good player straightens his right knee in this fashion. Look up Hogan's swing.

I hope that everyone's advice thus far is assuming the first... because telling someone not to straighten their right leg in the second sense of the word is horrible advice.

[NormH3]

just tried that...when I lock my knee on the backswing, my weight shifts forward..ie lean forward. Surely a good reason to mis hit

[iacas]

just tried that...when I lock my knee on the backswing, my weight shifts forward..ie lean forward. Surely a good reason to mis hit

Your right knee shouldn't ever lock, but it does straighten.

[Dub]

Overly straightening my right knee usually leads me to a reverse pivot.....distance killer and creates lots of vertical misses.

[motsco]

Your right knee shouldn't ever lock, but it does straighten.

So would it hurt to over flex your right knee? (RH player)

[EHSGolf1]

You are right about the straightening part. I do mean locking my right knee and not just straightening it a little bit.

[pounc007]

Good that's what I originally thought you meant then after I reread my post this morning I could see how it was confusing. I try to keep my right knee feeling like most of my body is coiling around it and keep it still. This doesn't happen of course, but that is the best way I can describe the feeling.

[ddalet]

Your right knee shouldn't ever lock, but it does straighten.

It shouldn't but it can without being disastrous... you'd just have to compensate and get the club back on track by firing your hips up.

Hogan's right leg got almost completely straight like you said. BTW this is inconsistent with the level of weight transfer he recommended in his book! To me Hogan looks like his weight never really maxxes out on his right side.

[kfowler]

Over-straightening your leg is often caused by a lack of flexibility. You try to make a full turn and straighten your right leg to try and turn more. In severe cases it changes your spine angle.

My right leg used to straighten much more than what it does now. I was battling a lot of inconsistencies. Keeping closer to address flex has really helped.

There's always excecptions to the rule. Watch Bubba Watson. He doesn't even try to keep it flexed.

[ddalet]

Over-straightening your leg is often caused by a lack of flexibility. You try to make a full turn and straighten your right leg to try and turn more. In severe cases it changes your spine angle.

Keeping your right knee at address flex is not great advice... and and easy way to cast the clubhead and build hard to fix problems in your swing. Even locking your right knee is better than this IMO.

[david_wedzik]

Thank goodness Erik and a couple others have chimed in here. Attempting to maintain your right knee flex is right up there on the list of worst advice you could ever get. Some things to remember/consider:

1. The back leg not only should "straighten", it MUST - if the back leg maintains its flex the golfer must shift or sway to the right to complete the backswing. This generally leads to a lifting of the arms which is the normally the start of coming over the top and hitting across balls in a pull/cut pattern.

2. The back leg straightening (straightening means becoming straighter and almost fully straight...never locked) allows the hips to turn the fullest and allows them to turn properly on an inclined plane (picture the circle pane of glass in Hogan's book for this purpose as in image). The back hip is rotating inward and upward to be on this inclined plane. The straightening of that back leg allows the hip to get its "rise". This entire action helps the arms get their depth (not width...depth) and keeps the circle motion intact.

3. LOOK at Hogan's leg/hip work here and you will see these things. He knew a few things I would think...the problem is that (as someone mentioned in this string) he didn't always convey what he was doing in print...sometimes he conveyed what he "thought" he was doing.

Hope this helps.

Dave

To ddalet's point about Hogan being inconsistent with what he says about weight transfer in the book - this is another spot where what great players think and say they are doing is not always what they are doing. Be careful with this when reading "tips" from players. Look more at what they are actually doing.

Dave

[jamo]

1. The back leg not only should "straighten", it MUST - if the back leg maintains its flex the golfer must shift or sway to the right to complete the backswing. This generally leads to a lifting of the arms which is the normally the start of coming over the top and hitting across balls in a pull/cut pattern.

I disagree with you here. At my last lesson, my teacher noticed that i was straitening my right leg, and when i started maintaining the flex, my swing became so much more... connected would be a good word. I also gained power and it helped me to stop swaying my hips on the backswing, which actually let me turn my hips back MORE than before.

Also, i noticed that you were a new member, just as a bit of posting etiquette, when you are replying to a specific post, you should quote them, just so we can see where what post you are talking to.