How to Stop Early Extension in Golf

That feeling of your hips lurching towards the golf ball on the downswing, often called humping the ball, is one of the most common and destructive swing faults in the game. This move, known as early extension, robs you of power, consistency, and clean contact. This article will break down exactly what early extension is, why it happens, and most importantly, give you clear, actionable drills to eliminate it from your swing for good.

What is Early Extension (And Why Is It a Killer?)

In simple terms, early extension is when your lower body and hips move towards the golf ball during the downswing instead of rotating around and away from it. When you set up to the ball, you create a specific spine angle by tilting from your hips. In a correct swing, you maintain this posture, or "stay in your angles," through impact.

With early extension, you lose that posture. Your hips push forward, your spine straightens up, and your chest lifts before the club ever reaches the ball. You are literally standing up out of the shot too soon. Think of it this way: your belt buckle should be turning towards the target, not thrusting towards the golf ball.

How Early Extension Wrecks Your Shots

When your body thrusts towards the ball, you run out of room for your arms to swing. Lacking space, your body has to make a last-second compensation, which is almost always a toss-up between a few bad outcomes:

• The Block: With your hands and arms trapped behind your body, the only path left is to push the club out to the right. The result is a weak shot that starts right and goes further right.
• The Snap Hook: To save the shot from a massive block, your hands have to flip over aggressively at the last second to try and square the clubface. This often over-corrects, causing a wildly low, left-curving hook.
• The Thin Shot: As you stand up, the bottom of your swing arc rises with you. This often means you catch the ball on its equator, leading to a thin, low shot that screams across the ground.
• The Toed Shot: When your hips move in, the club often gets pushed further away from your body, causing you to hit the ball on the toe of the club for a significant loss of distance and feel.

Trying to fix the ball flight without fixing the early extension is a game you'll never win. The root of the problem is the body's motion, not what the hands are doing.

The Real Reason You Early Extend

Amateur golfers don’t stand up out of the shot on purpose. It’s almost always a reaction to something else happening in the swing or a simple misunderstanding of where power comes from. The two main causes are physical limitations and flawed swing concepts.

1. Physical Limitations

Your body might literally not be able to perform the correct movement. The "downswing squat and turn" move requires a decent amount of mobility and strength in specific areas. The most common physical culprits include:

• Tight Hips: If you lack internal hip rotation, it's very difficult for your lead hip to clear out of the way on the downswing. When it can't rotate backwards, its only option is to thrust forward.
• Weak or Inactive Glutes: Your glutes are the engine of your rotation and stabilization. If they aren't firing properly, your lower back and hamstrings have to take over. This instability often causes your lower body to push forward to find balance, leading to early extension.
• Poor Core Stability: A weak core makes it nearly impossible to maintain your spine angle against the powerful rotational forces of the downswing.

2. Flawed Swing Concepts

Oftentimes, early extension is just the result of a bad idea. Many players believe power comes from hitting *at* the ball, rather than swinging the club *through* the ball. This "hitting" impulse often comes from the right side for a right-handed golfer.

If your first thought on the downswing is to push hard with your right shoulder or throw your hands at the ball, your body will instinctively move to support that action. To drive forward, your hips will also drive forward. You're effectively throwing your whole body mass at the ball, which feels powerful but entirely disrupts the proper kinematic sequence. Golf is a rotational sport, not a linear one. The solution is to learn to rotate out of the way to create space for the club to accelerate freely.

The Big Fix: Mastering Proper Hip Rotation and Creating Space

The antidote to early extension is understanding and feeling what your hips are supposed to do. Forget thrusting forward, the goal is to rotate your hips so that your lead hip (your left hip for a righty) moves back, up, and around. This is often called "clearing the left hip."

Imagine you're standing in a narrow hallway. At the top of your backswing, your right glute is touching the back wall. On the downswing, your goal is to have your left glute take its place by rotating hard while the right glute drives forward along that same wall. Your hips should feel like they are working around a circle, deep behind you, not lurching out into the space in front of you.

When your hips rotate correctly this way, something amazing happens: you create a ton of space. This space allows your arms and the club to drop down on the proper inside path and swing powerfully through impact without getting stuck. You stay in your posture, and the club can finally do its job.

My Go-To Drills to Stop Early Extension for Good

Understanding the concept is the first step, but instilling the feeling is what creates real change. Here are three effective drills you can do at home or on the range to turn this new move into a habit.

Drill 1: The 'Backside Against the Wall' Drill

This is the classic for a reason. It gives you immediate, undeniable feedback on what your hips are doing.

1. Find a wall or a solid bag stand. Set up in your golf posture without a club, so your backside is just touching the wall.
2. Make a simulated backswing. As you rotate, your right glute should preess more firmly into the wall.
3. Now, start the downswing sequence slowly. The goal is to rotate your lower body so that your left glute moves along the wall to where your right glute was. The entire time, you should feel your backside brushing against the wall.
4. The Feedback: If you early extend, you will immediately feel your hips move away from the wall. You cannot hide it.
5. Start with slow, deliberate rehearsals until the feeling of "keeping your hips back" becomes more natural. Then, progress to making slow swings with a club, focusing on maintaining that connection to the wall all the way through what would be the impact zone.

Doing a few minutes of this drill every day will build the muscle memory you need to take this move to the course.

Drill 2: The Downswing 'Squat' Rehearsal

This drill helps you feel the proper sequence of the transition from backswing to downswing, which is where early extension begins.

1. Take your normal setup with a mid-iron.
2. Swing to the top of your backswing and pause for a second.
3. From the top, your very first move should be a feeling of a slight "squat." Your pressure should increase in your lead foot, and your hips should start to turn open toward the target, but without moving toward the ball. It can feel like your belt buckle is pointing down at the ground for a fraction of a second.
4. From this "squatted" and open position, you will feel that you have all the room in the world to simply turn and rotate through to a full finish.
5. Repeat this sequence: Top of swing -> Pause -> Feel the squat/turn -> Unwind completely. Don't even hit balls at first. Just make slow, deliberate practice swings. This isolates the most difficult part of the swing and helps you feel the right sequence. The goal is to make the move so familiar that it becomes automatic at full speed.

Drill 3: The 'L-to-L' Drill at Half Speed

Finally, we need to connect the drills to the ball. A slower, more controled swing is the perfect environment to bake in a new move.

1. Set up to a ball with a 7 or 8-iron.
2. Take the club back only until your left arm is parallel to the ground, forming an "L" shape with the club shaft.
3. Now, swing through, focusing 100% on the feeling you learned from the wall and squat drills. Clear your left hip back and away from the ball.
4. Finish your swing when your right arm is parallel to the ground on the other side, again forming an "L."
5. Hit shots this way at about 50% power. This shortened, slower swing forces you to use your body rotation correctly. If you try to power it with a forward hip thrust, you'll lose your balance immediately. You'll quickly discover that a proper pivot from the ground up delivers surprisingly crisp contact even at this reduced speed.

Final Thoughts

Overcoming early extension is a process. It requires understanding what correct lower-body rotation feels like and then patiently practicing drills to make that feeling your new normal. Focus on turning your hips deep and around, not thrusting them forward, to create space for your arms to deliver the club powerfully and consistently.

Sometimes, working on a major swing change like retaining your posture can feel overwhelming. Simplifying the rest of your game can free up the mental energy needed to focus on these new physical moves. We find that when you feel confident in your on-course strategy or can get quick, judgment-free answers to your golf questions, focusing on a single swing thought becomes much more manageable. Our Caddie AI is designed to be that resource - both a 24/7 golf coach and a real-time course strategist, helping take the guesswork out of the game so you can concentrate on hitting better shots.