The knees are very important in the golf swing. You need to maintain consistent knee flex during the swing from the address position through the backswing and downswing until you reach impact.
Only after impact will knees begin to change position so you can finish standing tall. If you struggle with your back leg straightening, you are losing spine angle, and your head will also change height and more than likely fight a reverse pivot. All of these factors force you to have to make compensations during the swing to pull off a golf shot.
Below are some check points for where you want your knees in the swing.
Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Address
You want strong legs at the start of the swing. To have strong legs, you want your knee caps in line with you shin bones and thigh bones. If you look down and your knees are pinched in, meaning your knees are inside your shoes, you are not in your strongest position.
Find out what's happening in Ashburnwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Backswing
At the top of the backswing you want to have the same amount of flex as you did at the start of your swing. The best way to achieve this is by having a more level shoulder turn at the start of the swing. If your left shoulder starts to go down at the start of your backswing, your right leg will start to straighten.
Impact
At impact, you want wide knees. If your right knee is kicked in, this will tend to have your chest falling back to much through the shot making it difficult to get to your finish.
Try these two drills:
- Stand in front of a mirror and start your backswing trying to separate your left shoulder as far away as possible from your left hip. If you do this, normally you will keep the same amount of flex in your knees. Learn how to do this motion without a club first then start to incorporate this motion into your golf swing.
- Put a club across your shoulders and lay another club down perpendicular to the club on your shoulders from just inside your right foot. If you can figure out how to make the club across your shoulders to match up to the club on the ground you will be in a good backswing position with flex in both knees at the top of the backswing. When you have flex in both knees at the top of the backswing, you will feel more powerful and have the ability to explode through the ball.
Wishing you solid shots!
