How do we Start the Golf Downswing?

The golf downswing starts with the left knee moving sideways to above the left foot.

The weight will move into the left foot at the same time.

This movement drops your arms and hands inside the target line with the right elbow moving into your right side.

Study the pictures below and practice the feelings.

You can see that there is no dominance from the shoulders, hands and arms. In fact, note that the right shoulder moves downward and not outward to outside the target line.

The lower body has taken control. The wrong move would see the hands already on the outside of the target line, spelling disaster on it's way.

A great feeling to develop is to feel the body turn pull the club into the ball like I am trying to illustrate here.

Return to the top and repeat the movement till you start building a feel for it.

The fatal mistake most golfers make here is they pull the hands, shoulders and arms first. This will take your club head on a path to outside the target line. See Picture.

Resist this motion, instead focus on the lower body turn and swinging the club with the hands.

There is a close feeling of the hands moving down in unison with the left hip moving left and turning out of the way.
The clubhead starts to accelerate and will overtake the hands after impact. This would be termed a "proper release" of the club through the ball.

If you are struggling with slicing the ball, take a look here at some golf slice cures. A thorough understanding of the causes can help you to become more aware of how to correct this common problem.

next, go to golf swing impact

Return from golf downswing to golf swing fundamentals

back to home page