How to leverage your power with downswing squat, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to leverage your power with downswing squat, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the biggest myths I'm always trying to bust is this idea that people keep their heads still in the golf swing. Your head shouldn’t stay still in the golf swing. It has to be able to move and one of the reasons for it moving is the fact that there's so much moving underneath your head. It's impossible to keep your head perfectly still and make a big powerful coil. It's really difficult then to move back into the ball aggressively and really get that leverage into the golf ball to get maximum power by keeping your head perfectly still. If you watch McIlroy, Woods, any of the really good players that hit the ball hard, you will see quite a dramatic dip down with their head and that's because the legs are dipping down in the downswing, too. So if you turn it to the top of the backswing here, you got nice big wide takeaway. What we don't want then to do is try and keep the head perfectly level or even standing up because you can't generate a lot of power. So the best players that really hit the ball hard, you'll have sort of a deliberate squatting action, a noticeable squatting action to the ball. So the feeling here is almost that you got a chair behind you, just behind the back of your legs that you could sit on. As you swing to the top, you always make a squatting action as if you're going to go and sit down into that chair as you move into your left-hand side. And by pulling down into this position, you then got more leverage to turn through the golf ball with a little bit more explosion, rather than just standing up and swinging at it with your hands and your arms.

I have to suggest that this is a fairly advanced technique and I'm not deliberately suggesting you dip down into the golf ball. That's not the case at all. This is creating leverage by moving into your left side so you can then stand back to the path of shaft in the second half. It's a fairly advanced technique so unless you're a very good player, probably single-digit golfer, and you're searching for more power, more distance, this isn’t really a drill for you. But if you take your advice from the world's best players, you will notice that noticeable top dip turn through position and it's that squat that creates the leverage, drags the club into the back of the ball with maximum power if you then stand the path to the ball. Don't try and keep your head still in the golf swing. Don't try and worry too much about what your head is doing. If your body is doing the right positions, your head just follows. So squat into it, create extra power through the golf shot.

 2013-01-16

One of the biggest myths I'm always trying to bust is this idea that people keep their heads still in the golf swing. Your head shouldn’t stay still in the golf swing. It has to be able to move and one of the reasons for it moving is the fact that there's so much moving underneath your head. It's impossible to keep your head perfectly still and make a big powerful coil. It's really difficult then to move back into the ball aggressively and really get that leverage into the golf ball to get maximum power by keeping your head perfectly still. If you watch McIlroy, Woods, any of the really good players that hit the ball hard, you will see quite a dramatic dip down with their head and that's because the legs are dipping down in the downswing, too. So if you turn it to the top of the backswing here, you got nice big wide takeaway. What we don't want then to do is try and keep the head perfectly level or even standing up because you can't generate a lot of power. So the best players that really hit the ball hard, you'll have sort of a deliberate squatting action, a noticeable squatting action to the ball. So the feeling here is almost that you got a chair behind you, just behind the back of your legs that you could sit on. As you swing to the top, you always make a squatting action as if you're going to go and sit down into that chair as you move into your left-hand side. And by pulling down into this position, you then got more leverage to turn through the golf ball with a little bit more explosion, rather than just standing up and swinging at it with your hands and your arms.

I have to suggest that this is a fairly advanced technique and I'm not deliberately suggesting you dip down into the golf ball. That's not the case at all. This is creating leverage by moving into your left side so you can then stand back to the path of shaft in the second half. It's a fairly advanced technique so unless you're a very good player, probably single-digit golfer, and you're searching for more power, more distance, this isn’t really a drill for you. But if you take your advice from the world's best players, you will notice that noticeable top dip turn through position and it's that squat that creates the leverage, drags the club into the back of the ball with maximum power if you then stand the path to the ball. Don't try and keep your head still in the golf swing. Don't try and worry too much about what your head is doing. If your body is doing the right positions, your head just follows. So squat into it, create extra power through the golf shot.