What Is Early Extension in Golf?

If you’ve ever hit a golf shot that felt surprisingly weak, sailed off to the right, or caught the top half of the ball for a dreadful thin shot, there’s a good chance an issue called early extension was the culprit. It's one of the most common power-killers in golf, but luckily, it's also fixable. We're going to break down exactly what early extension is, explain the real reasons it happens (it's not just a bad habit), and give you some simple, effective drills to get your swing back on track.

What Is Golf's Early Extension?

In the simplest terms, early extension is when your hips and pelvis move toward the golf ball during your downswing. Instead of rotating out of the way to make room for your arms, you stand up, pushing your lower body closer to where the ball is. This straightens your spine angle and lifts your entire body up and away from the ball at the moment of impact.

Imagine setting up to your shot with your rear end just brushing against a wall. A proficient golf swing would involve rotating your body so your lead hip (your left hip for a right-hander) spins back into the wall while your trail hip clears out of the way. With early extension, your hips would push off the wall and toward the golf ball. Golf coaches often call this "losing your tush line" or, more crudely, "humping the ball."

This single forward-thrusting motion sets off a destructive chain reaction. When your lower body moves closer to the ball, it cuts off the space your arms and the club need to swing through freely. Your body, being incredibly smart and resourceful, instinctively finds a way to get the club back to the ball. But this compensation is almost always costly, leading to inconsistent contact and a serious loss of power.

Why Early Extension Happens (Hint: It's a Reaction, Not Just a Habit)

Here’s something most amateur golfers misunderstand: early extension is rarely the root problem. More often, it's a symptom of a different issue. Your body is extending early as a last-ditch effort to compensate for something else going wrong in the swing or because it's physically unable to do what you're asking of it. Let's look at the two main drivers.

1. Physical Limitations

Your golf swing requires a certain level of mobility and stability. If your body can't move a certain way, it will automatically find a workaround, and early extension is a very common one. Key physical limitations include:

• Poor Hip Mobility: If your hips are tight and lack the internal rotation needed for a golf swing, they can't clear out of the way properly during the downswing. Instead of rotating, they shoot forward. This is arguably the most common physical cause.
• Lack of Thoracic (Mid-Back) Spine Rotation: Your ability to rotate your torso is fundamental. If your mid-back is stiff, you’ll struggle to turn your shoulders enough on the backswing. To create what feels like a "full" backswing, you might sway or lift - and to 'get through' the ball on the downswing, your hips will shove forward.
• Weak Glutes and Core: Your glutes are the engine of rotation. If they aren't strong enough to stabilize your pelvis as you turn, your lower back and hip flexors take over, which often leads to a forward thrusting motion instead of a powerful turn.
• Limited Ankle Mobility: Believe it or not, stiff ankles can restrict your ability to squat and maintain your posture during the swing, forcing you to stand up early through impact.

A great way to self-assess your mobility is the Overhead Deep Squat test. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, hold a club over your head, and try to squat down as low as you can. If you can't keep your heels on the ground, maintain a relatively straight back, and squat below parallel, you likely have mobility issues that are contributing to your early extension.

2. Swing Flaws or Faulty Concepts

Sometimes your body is perfectly capable of rotating correctly, but your swing concept is telling it to do the wrong thing. Early extension can be a reaction to another swing fault.

• An Open Clubface: This is a massive one. If your clubface gets too open at the top of your swing or at the start of your downswing, your brain knows you're about to hit a massive slice. To save the shot, it triggers an "emergency" move. Early extension helps shallow the club and gives you more time to try and flip your hands and square the face at impact. Your body is trying to help you, even if the "fix" is destructive.
• Swinging "Over the Top": If your first move in the downswing is to throw your hands and club out and away from your body (the classic "over the top" move), you're on a path to come down very steep. To avoid digging a trench a foot behind the ball, your body stands up, lifting the club and saving you from a fat shot, but causing a thin shot or a slice instead.
• Incorrect Power Concept: Many golfers believe power comes from a forceful push off the ground. They try to generate force by forcefully extending their legs and jumping upwards. While some long-drive competitors use this move, for most amateurs, it just results in early extension and a massive loss of rotational speed. True power comes from rotational velocity, not an upward thrust.

The Shots Early Extension Causes

Recognizing the fault is one thing, but connecting it to your bad shots is what truly helps. Here’s a breakdown of the typical ball flights caused by early extension:

The Push-Block

When you stand up and thrust your hips forward, your arms get trapped behind your body. With no room to swing, the club comes too far from the inside, and you're unable to release the clubface. The face stays open at impact and the ball shoots straight to the right (for a righty). It often feels like you got "stuck."

The Snap Hook

This is the ugly cousin of the push-block. Trying to avoid that massive push to the right, your hands and wrists work overtime to flip the clubface closed at the last second. The result is often a low, ugly snap hook that starts right and dives hard left. This block-hook inconsistency is maddening for golfers suffering from early extension.

Thin Hits and Topped Balls

This is simple physics. You set up with your body at a certain distance from the ball. By standing up through impact, you raise the low point of your swing arc. Instead of catching the ball cleanly, the leading edge of the club hits the equator of the ball, leading to a thin shot. In extreme cases, you miss the lower half of the ball completely and top it.

Significant Loss of Power

Golf's power source is rotation. By staying in posture, elite players transfer energy from the ground up through their legs, core, and into their arms, creating tremendous rotational speed. When you early extend, you stop this efficient rotation and start relying almost entirely on your arms to generate speed. You are leaking power at the most critical moment of the swing.

Actionable Drills to Fix Early Extension

Fixing early extension involves retraining your body's movement patterns. Here are three of the most effective drills. Remember to start slow, without a ball, and focus entirely on the physical sensation.

Drill 1: The Wall Drill (or Chair Drill)

This is the classic, and for good reason - it provides immediate, undeniable feedback.

1. Stand in your golf posture without a club, positioning yourself so your rear end is gently touching a wall or the back of a sturdy chair.
2. Make a slow, practice backswing. Your trail (right) hip should maintain contact or deepen its pressure into the wall.
3. Here's the key: on the downswing, focus on feeling your lead (left) glute rotate back to replace your right glute on the wall. Your focus is on turning, not pushing away. If your hips leave the wall, you've extended early.
4. Perform 10-15 slow, deliberate reps. The goal is to keep some part of your behind on that wall all the way through what would be the impact zone. Then grab a club and try the same feeling with chip-sized shots.

Drill 2: The Step-Through Drill

This drill makes it physically impossible to early extend and is great for teaching your body the feeling of clearing your hips.

1. Set up to a ball on a tee.
2. Perform your normal swing, but with one change: as you swing through the impact zone, allow your trail foot (your right foot) to come off the ground and step forward, toward the target.
3. You should finish in a balanced position, almost like a baseball pitcher after a pitch, with your chest and hips facing the target and your right foot now next to or slightly in front of your left.
4. Early extension pushes your weight back onto your heels, making it nearly impossible to take that step forward. This drill forces you to transfer your weight and rotate your body athletically.

Drill 3: The Headcover-Behind-the-Ball Drill

This a fantastic drill for the driving range that gives you visual feedback on your swing path, which is directly affected by early extension.

1. Place a golf ball on a tee as you normally would.
2. Place an empty headcover (a driver headcover works best) on the ground about one foot behind your golf ball, directly on your target line.
3. Your task is simple: hit the golf ball without hitting the headcover on your follow-through.
4. When you early extend, the club gets stuck behind you and shallows out, causing it to swing low and drag through the area where the headcover is. To miss the headcover, you must rotate your body out of the way, which keeps the club on a proper path, allowing it to move up and to the left through impact (for a righty), easily clearing the obstacle.

Final Thoughts

Early extension is a frustrating fault that robs you of consistency and power, but it's not a life sentence. By understanding that it’s often a reaction to a physical limitation or another swing flaw, you can address the root cause instead of just fighting the symptom. Stay patient, work through the drills, and focus on the feeling of rotating your lower body instead of thrusting it forward.

Understanding what to fix is the first part, but getting feedback is what truly solidifies a change. A common problem I see is golfers working on the wrong thing. If you're struggling, Caddie AI can analyze a video of your swing to help confirm if early extension is an issue for you, or I can help you untangle why you might be making a compensating move. Having that objective eye can take the guesswork out of your practice and get you hitting better shots, faster.