How to Stop Dipping in the Golf Downswing

That dipping motion in your downswing, where your head and body drop towards the ball, is one of the most frustrating power-killers in golf. It feels like you’re trying to create force, but it does the exact opposite, leading to chunky fat shots, skulled thin shots, and a swing that feels disconnected. The good news is that this isn't a sign of a bad swing, but rather a misinterpretation of how to generate power. This article will break down exactly why you dip and give you a clear, step-by-step plan with actionable drills to replace that vertical drop with powerful, efficient rotation.

What Exactly is "Dipping" and Why is it Robbing You of Good Shots?

Dipping is any noticeable lowering of your head and torso during the transition and downswing. At your setup, you establish a certain height. Your goal is to rotate around your spine, maintaining that height until impact. When you dip, you break that posture, causing your entire swing center to drop. While it might feel athletic, this vertical movement throws a wrench into the finely-tuned mechanics of a consistent golf swing.

The consequences show up on your scorecard and in your confidence:

• Inconsistent Contact: This is the number one problem caused by dipping. The bottom of your swing arc is constantly changing. One time you might dip too much and slam the club into the ground well behind the ball (a fat shot). The next time, your body might instinctively try to correct the dip by standing up through impact, causing you to catch the ball on its equator (a thin shot). You're left guessing where the bottom of your swing will be.
• Significant Loss of Power: A powerful golf swing gets its speed from an efficient sequence of rotation - like a whip cracking. When you dip, you interrupt this rotational flow. You're using your leg muscles to push up and down instead of using your core and hips to unwind explosively. It’s an energy leak that robs you of clubhead speed.
• A Steep Swing Plane: When your upper body drops, it often forces the club onto a steeper, "over-the-top" path. To make room, your arms have to push away from your body, which leads to weak slices, nasty pulls, and a general lack of control.

The Common Causes of the Dip

Most golfers don't dip on purpose. It’s almost always a compensation for another issue or a fundamental misunderstanding of the swing. Here are the usual suspects:

• You're Trying to "Help" the Ball Up: The oldest piece of bad advice is to "hit down on the ball to make it go up." Many golfers take this literally and use their entire body to move down, thinking it will compress the ball. The reality is that the loft of the club does the work of getting the ball airborne, your job is to deliver it with rotation.
• An Attempt to Create Power: Without a proper understanding of ground forces and rotation, some golfers squat down in the downswing to "load up" and then spring upwards through impact. While there is a slight amount of vertical force in a pro's swing, exaggerating this move is inefficient and wildly inconsistent for the average golfer.
• A Poor Backswing Sequence: If you don't fully rotate your hips and shoulders in the backswing, your body knows it hasn't stored enough power. A common subconscious reaction is to dip in the downswing to try and create more space and a longer-feeling swing on the way down.

The Fix Starts Before You Swing: Creating a Stable Posture

You can't fix a downswing problem with a faulty setup. Preventing a dip begins with creating a stable, athletic posture that you can maintain throughout the swing. If you start in a weak or unbalanced position, your body will have no choice but to adjust mid-swing.

Get into an Athletic Stance

Think "athlete," not "golfer." Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart for a mid-iron. The most important move is to bend from your hips, not your waist. Push your glutes back as if you were about to sit down on a barstool that's just a little bit too far away. This keeps your spine in a relatively straight, neutral position, even though it's tilted over the ball. A slight flex in your knees is good, but don't get into a deep squat. This position engages your larger muscles (glutes, core) and gives you a stable foundation.

Let Your Arms Hang

Once you've set your hip-hinge position, your arms should hang almost straight down from your shoulders. A common cause for dipping is reaching for the ball at setup. If your arms are extended too far out, your body's natural tendency will be to drop down during the downswing to get back to a more balanced position. Let the length of the club dictate your distance from the ball, not your reach.

Learning the Right Feel: Rotation is Your Engine

The key to stopping the dip is to replace that vertical "down" movement with a rotational "unwinding" movement. The downswing is not a PULL from the arms or a DROP from the chest, it's an unwinding that starts from the ground up.

Picture a discus thrower. They don't crouch down right before the throw. They shift their weight and then explosively rotate their lower body and core, which pulls their arm through at incredible speed. Your golf swing is the same concept on a different plane.

The sensation you want is for your lead hip (your left hip for a right-handed golfer) to feel like it's rotating up and away from the ball. As you start the downswing, your first move should be a slight weight shift to your lead foot, immediately followed by the aggressive rotation of your left hip and side. This action does two things:

1. It forces your body to stay centered and rotate instead of dropping downwards.
2. It clears space for your arms and club to swing through on an inside path, allowing you to compress the ball with a stable low point.

Your chest will feel like it's staying at the same height, simply pointing behind the ball at the top of the swing and rotating to face the target at the finish.

Three Drills to Ingrain the Correct Movement

Understanding the concept is one thing, but feeling it is everything. These drills are designed to give you direct physical feedback and train your body to replace the dip with proper rotation.

1. The "Head on the Wall" Drill

This is a classic for a reason. It gives you undeniable feedback about vertical movement.

• Set up in your golf posture with the top of your head lightly touching a wall. You won't use a club for this at first.
• Make a slow, smooth backswing. Your head should stay in contact with the wall.
• Now, start your downswing by focusing on rotating your hips. If you dip, you'll feel your head press harder into the wall. That's your mistake signal!
• The goal is to rotate through to a finish position while your head maintains just a light contact with the wall the entire time. It forces you to rotate while keeping your spine angle and height constant.

2. The "Chair Behind You" Drill_

This drill trains the correct lower body action like nothing else.

• Place a chair, golf bag, or alignment stick just behind your rear end at setup. You want your glute to be just lightly brushing it.
• As you make our backswing, your right glute (for righties) should rotate into the chair, pressing against it firmly. This confirms you've made a good hip turn.
• Here’s the key part: to start the downswing, your first move should be to rotate your left glute into the space your right glute just left.
• If you dip, both of your glutes will simply squat down and press into the chair. The correct move is to have the right glute come off the chair as the left glute rotates back to take its place. This ingrains the feeling of turning your hips on a level plane, completely eliminating the urge to drop down.

3. The Repetitive Pump Drill

This drill helps put the new sequence into motion.

• Take your normal setup and make a full backswing.
• Start the downswing, but only bring the club down to about waist-high, focusing entirely on that lead-hip-clearing feeling. Then, swing it back up to the top.
• Do this "pump" two or three times. Feel the body unwind, not drop. Feel the pressure shift to your lead foot and your hips turn. With each pump, check that your chest isn't lurching toward the ground.
• On the third pump, continue the swing all the way through and hit the ball. This repetitive rehearsal wires the correct sequence into your muscle memory before you even make contact.

Final Thoughts

Stopping a dipping motion is all about transforming your swing concept from a vertical, up-and-down action to a powerful, rotational one. By establishing a stable, athletic setup and focusing on initiating the downswing with a rotational unwinding of the hips, you replace that in-and-out inconsistency with predictable, solid contact.

Of course, sometimes it helps to get a second set of eyes on what's really happening in your swing motion, not just what you feel. Self-diagnosis can be tough. We built Caddie AI to act as that trusted, on-demand coach. You can capture a short video of your swing, and the app can analyze your movements to give you instant feedback on things like maintaining your posture and spine angle, helping you see if that dip is truly gone or if it's lingering.