The Misleading Nature of Staying Down on the Ball

Staying down on the ball, it’s the most common advice and yet it often hurts players the most.

For as long as I know, and long before me, players have been told to “stay down,” “keep your head down,” “stay in posture,” etc. Telling players any of these, or trying to do any of these can ruin your golf game and injure you in the process.

Let’s back track a minute. The ball is on the ground therefore posture becomes extremely important. We need to be tilted at the hips enough to allow our arms to hang freely and swing at an angle that gets the club to the ground (see top left picture). However, I commonly see the top right starting posture with a player which inhibits your swing from the start.

It is very important to try to stay in this good posture on the backswing the best you can (see bottom left). Most people do not do this because it feels restricted (see bottom right).

This is absolutely correct. Staying in posture in the backswing keeps us stable and gives our arms room to swing. If we come up on backswing and lose the space for our arms to swing, we will come crashing down “over the top.”

This is where it gets interesting and goes against what we typically hear. On the downswing, we NEED TO COME UP.

Very strong and flexible players can stay down a little longer than the average golfer but everybody needs to release their posture and it’s usually a lot earlier than you think. You see this on the Champions Tour where players stand up in their swing a lot earlier than Rory McIlroy.

We have to be honest, can you move like Rory? Most people cant and we shouldn’t try. If you learn how you should swing, the game becomes more fun and a lot easier than trying to do something you cannot do.

Let’s look at the faults that trying to stay down causes:

1. Have you ever heard of the “Chicken Wing?” Every golfer I know does that because they stay down to long and the arms have to fold up, otherwise they will crash into the ground.

2. Another very serious problem from trying to stay down or stay in posture on the downswing is “hanging back.” Look at this picture which I see every day in my teaching from someone who has been told to stay down.

3. Over the top! When you try to stay down your chest will move down and the club will swing too steep and across the ball.

When we let our bodies come up or release our posture, your arms can fully extend and you can move onto your front leg. The only players that will stay down all the way through the ball is someone with the hip mobility and speed of Rory.

As a simple rule of thumb, you want to feel very down on the backswing and moving up on the follow through. Bubba Watson has talked about this numerous times. He calls it “jumping.” I don’t think we need to take it that far, however I hope you can see the point.

See the photo sequence above. From now on, if someone says your coming up, that’s not a bad thing. Most likely you came up on the backswing and crashed down into the ball causing the arms to fold.

Try some swings where you feel low on the backswing, stand up and extend the arms down on the downswing. Golf will get a lot easier for you.