What is the Downswing?
The downswing is the final part in coming down to impact the ball in a solid way. You are basically unwinding what you created in your backswing to strike the ball. This is when your body becomes the engine in the swing. There are a couple of stages you want to have in your mind when you are going into your downswing. As you're unwinding you want to make sure you make impact with the ball first then the ground.
Stages of Unwinding your Body
- The first stage of the downswing is moving your core and hips towards your lead foot while staying in your cylinder. This is the main way you're going to create your power to impact the ball.
- As you're moving your hip really focuses on driving the right hip (left handed) towards the golf ball causing the left hip to have a proper rotation.
- When your hips are rotating your knees should be closely following. You want to generate your power from the ground up, as you swing you're going to want a very slight extra bend in your knees to gain extra power in the swing
- Transfer the energy you built up from your backswing, most of this will be on the left side of your body (left handed golfer). Now you should be able to transfer all the energy towards your lead foot as your hips, knees, back muscles and shoulders unwind
- Next you want your back muscles to start moving along with your shoulder
- As this is happening your arms should be moving across your body with the club keeping that wrist hinge until you impact the ball
- You want your arms, then the shaft of your club and then the club head to go over the ball at impact.
Mistakes People Make in Their Downswing
1. Players tend to get rid of the wrist hinge they create in their backswing, this will create the casting error a lot of people have. The wrist should unhinge very late in your swing, not in the begininng. Casting will leave you with higher lofted club at impact causing the ball too high but the ball will not go nearly as far. You are creating a scooping effect with the club and the ball.
2. When players unwind their body they unwind their arms, shoulder and then their hips. What it should be is hips, shoulder and then arms. Doing this the proper way will allow for good timing for impacting the ball
3. The swing tempo of your downswing should be 1 second. This will create a 3-1 ratio for your backswing and downswing. Meaning a 3 second backswing and a 1 second downswing. When your downswing is slow this will cause you to chunk your impact or double tapping the ball, making the distance decrease.
4. Weight should transfer towards your lead foot and not stay on your back foot. Not transfering your weight will cause you to top the ball making it go not very far.
5. Players tend swing the club to allow the club to come inside-out or outside-side. This will promte for a variety of shot shapes that most golfers don't understand how they work or how to do them properly. What most golfers should focus on is hitting the ball inside-square-inside shot, your golf club will come on the inside of your body naturaly, you want the club head to strike the ball square on the face and then follow through on the inside. This will promote straight and consistent golf shots, once or if you are an experienced golfer you should look into the other ways to strike the ball.
Impacting the ball
Impacting the ball is the only way to make the ball go farther than where it was before, whether it is 60 yards or 300 yards you have to contact with the ball. There are a variety of ways to impact the ball but they happen in the same area on the club face, this area is the centre of the club face. Depending on the type of clubs you have the centre of the club face may be bigger or smaller, the bigger they are the more forgiving they are. When hitting the ball there are a couple of things you should focus on.
- Hitting the middle of the face on the club. If you struggle to do this or you don't know how to, there is a way to practice; you can spray your club's face with foot spray, this will show where you impact the ball on the club face.
- Hit the ball then the ground, many players hit the ground then ball thinking that's how they make a "professional divot". When in reality players hit the ball then the ground makes the divot happen after the golf ball.
- When you are making contact with the ball you want your hands to be in front of the club, have a slight bend in the lead foot and 90% of your weight should be on your lead foot and 10% on your back foot. You also want to create a reverse K look when you're impacting the ball.
- When you are hitting your irons and wedges you want to hit down on the ball, when you are hitting your driver and fairway woods you want to swing up on the golf ball.
Impacting Mistakes
1. Keeping your spine angle intact at impact and throught the down swing. Changing the spine will result in your shot being thin or topped if you come to far up or chunk it if you go to far down. You created this spine angle in your set-up and stance postion, keep it all the way until your follow through.
2. Keep your head down in the realtive same postion the whole way through the impact. Don't put your head up to early this will cause many problems, like topping, chunking, and missing the ball completely.
3. Keep your arms and head of your club, this will promote a better shot. A lot of players keep their arms behind the club, this creates a scooping affect to your swing and allowing the ball to only go up and not very far.
Review of the Downswing and Impact
This part of your swing is crucial in being able to see your ball go further then where it was before you hit it. Having solid contact shot is so satisfying in golf and it is a dream for most golfers to a solid contact shot all the time. For the downswing and impact there are some main keys you need to remember.
- Unwind your body and power you created in your backswing
- Start my leaning your core and hips slightly forward, while staying in your cylinder
- Rotate your hips, shoulders, and then your arms last, while transfering your energy from your backside all the way to your lead side
- You arms should be ahead of your club at impact
- Try to impact the ball in the middle of the club face
- Hit the ball then the ground
- For irons and wedges swing down and for you driver and woods swing up
- Once you finish this movement you should have 90% your weight on your lead leg and 10% on your back leg