How to Stop Early Extension in the Golf Swing

As I mentioned in my opening post one of my big golf swing faults was early extension.

See the picture below and see me almost standing straight up and down as my driver strikes the ball. The club is almost vertical! Brutal.

With this move it is just really hard to consistently hit the ball solid and straight. Early extension means you have to flip the hands as well to get the club face square and that is never a recipe for success.

Now there is a whole chicken and egg thing with early extension. Many teachers will say you instinctively early extend because you have committed some other fault earlier in the takeaway or the beginning of the backswing. This may be the case but what I've found is by working on these drills, especially keeping the hips back, unconsciously fixes whatever else was wrong in my swing before such as casting the club.

Below are a few of the early extension drills to help fix the problem. It is a constant battle but I often return to these videos to get me back on track with maintaining my spine angle and eliminating the early extension. Really if you are early extending you will never be able to golf consistently.

Early Extension Fix - Video 1

Here is one of my favorite drills and videos on fixing early extension from one of the best PGA teaching pros online Chris Ryan. Chris has a ton of good content on YouTube and this wedge drill is a beauty to solve the early extension swing fault. The drill has you place a wedge under your right foot for a righty and forces you to maintain pressure on your right heel so you don't leap forward. Also great insight on how the hips should move. Here it is:

Early Extension Fix - Video

This second video is from Adam Bazalgette - PGA pro with Scratch Golf Academy. Scratch Golf academy and Adam Bazalgette have a ton of great YouTube videos on every aspect of the golf swing so it is worth a subscribe.

In this video Adam shows the classic early extension drill. incidentally this is the drill that Golftec recommended for me after my initial assessment. The chair drill! A classic that can be tough on the range if you don't have a chair but you can always improvise with your bag or alignment sticks. Here it is:

Early Extension Fix - Video 3

Finally Eric Cogorno from Eric Cogorno Golf on YouTube has a great video on early extension feels. Eric is probably one of the top YouTube teaching pro gurus out there. Eric explains everything clearly, has current teaching ideas and great drills. Check him out.

I like the feels idea because sometimes drills with aids don't always translate as well onto the course as a feeling within your body that you can keep in your mind during a swing.

Enjoy:

I hope that helps with correcting early extension in your golf swing. Give me your feedback and if you have something that has worked for you put it in the comments. Also please check out the other videos of these YouTube golf teachers. There is a lot of good stuff with these three pros.