Extension In Your Golf Swing Is Good, But Only At The Right Time

By Ryan Gager

Many times golfers come to us thinking they have a driver problem and how they’re moving around when they swing. But as GOLFTEC’s Nick Clearwater explains, that’s actually not a problem, as he fills us in on extension in the golf swing. You’ve probably also heard someone tell you that you looked up or lifted your head up. All these terms point to one thing – early extension. Extension is a key part of the golf swing, but only if it’s done at the correct time. For more on early extension, check out Inside a GOLFTEC Lesson with Hailey Ostrom.

What Does Early Extension Mean?

The term “early extension’ was coined to mean when your head moves away from the golf ball, while your hips move in towards the golf ball.

You can see from the example that Nick’s position has dramatically changed from his address position. His head has moved up and back while his hips have moved in, creating a straight line.

When your body is vertical like this it’s very difficult to make consistent contact. You end up topping the ball from this position more often than not.

When you extend early, your body gets vertical which makes it difficult to make solid, consistent contact

The Right Time For Extension

Early extension isn’t wrong, you should be bending yourself backward, the trick is when to do that. The right time is when your lead arm is parallel to the ground.

You might hear some of the best players like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy talk about how they lower themselves to the ground, like Nick is demonstrating here.

This is a great way to practice not extending too early. Once you hit this point with your lead arm, then go ahead and bend yourself backward and follow though to get that nice PGA Tour finish.

The right time to extend is after you lower yourself and your lead arm is parallel to the ground

Anyone can do this, it just might take some practice to get used to the feel of when you should be lowering yourself, then extending. Once you figure it out, not only will you make solid contact more often, but you should also see an increase in distance! For more golf swing help like this, stop in to your local GOLFTEC today. Working with a GOLFTEC Coach is the best way to get the feel for proper extension in your swing. Get started with GOLFTEC by setting up a Swing Evaluation and start playing your best golf!

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