How To STAY DOWN Through Impact | STOP Standing Up!

Do you often find yourself coming up and out of your shots, losing compression, and struggling with ball contact? Many recreational golfers face this challenge, but the good news is that you can fix it! In this post, we’ll discuss how staying down through impact can help you improve your golf swing, and offer drills to help you achieve the ideal position at impact.

The Importance of Staying Down Through Impact

When hitting the golf ball, staying down through impact is essential for making solid contact and creating compression. However, many golfers tend to lift up and lose their posture, which can lead to weak, inconsistent shots. The key to staying down through impact is not just focusing on that moment, but understanding the entire sequence leading up to it. By properly organizing your body in the backswing and transition phases, you can maintain the right position at impact and ensure more solid strikes.

Why Do Golfers Come Up Out of the Shot?

Recreational golfers often struggle with the feeling of "coming up" during the downswing, which is typically caused by poor weight distribution and body movement earlier in the swing. At impact, your lead shoulder might be too high, and you may have too much weight still on the back foot. This causes you to either stand up or "come out of" the shot prematurely, leading to poor contact and lack of compression.

To fix this, it's important to focus on the transition phase of your swing—how you move from the top of the backswing into the downswing. Instead of trying to stay down through impact, the key is to set yourself up correctly earlier in the swing. A good transition into the downswing ensures that your body is in the right position, allowing you to naturally stay down through impact.

The Role of Proper Weight Shift

To stay down through the ball, it's crucial to manage your weight correctly during the swing. At the top of your backswing, make sure your weight is loaded onto your trail foot. From there, as you initiate the downswing, you should gradually shift that weight forward to your lead foot. This proper weight transfer allows your body to maintain the right posture through impact, so you don’t have to force yourself to stay down—it's a natural result of good mechanics.

One common misconception is that high-level ball strikers "hit down" on the ball aggressively. In fact, they organize their bodies so well during the downswing that when they reach impact, their hands are at their lowest point, and their body is still in the process of rising up. This is what creates the "downward" hit that we often see in professional swings—it's not about forcing the body down, but about organizing the body to allow that natural extension through the ball.

Drills to Help You Stay Down Through Impact

Here are two effective drills to help you improve your weight transfer and stay down through impact:

1. The Lead Arm Level Drill

Setup: Start by taking your backswing and stop at P5 (where your lead arm is parallel to the ground).

Execution: From this position, focus on how your body feels as you move into the downswing. Pay attention to your weight transfer and make sure that your body is stacked, with your weight gradually shifting to your lead side.

Tip: This checkpoint helps you see where your body is in space, ensuring you're not too heavy on the back foot. If you’re staying on your trail foot too long, you’ll struggle to stay down through impact.

2. The "Down to Lead Arm Level" Drill

Setup: Take your backswing and stop at lead arm level in the downswing (P5).


Execution: From here, feel the transition as you shift weight onto your lead foot, and practice chipping the ball with that weight shift.

Tip: Focus on the sensation of having your body centered and balanced. This drill will help you feel how you can stay down without forcing it—when your weight is properly aligned, your body naturally stays down through the shot.

Mastering the Transition Phase

One of the biggest mistakes golfers make is treating the backswing and downswing as two separate motions. In reality, the golf swing is a fluid, continuous movement. To stay down through impact, your transition should be smooth and consistent, with your body moving into the downswing rather than trying to force yourself to "stay down." High-level players create power through their transition, which is the "loading" phase that sets them up for a strong strike.

A great drill to practice this is the Pump Drill. Take the club to the top of your backswing and then pump it down to your lead arm level before swinging through. This will help you understand the proper weight shift and body movement needed to stay down without thinking about it too much.

Conclusion

If you're struggling to stay down through impact, remember that it's not about trying to "force" it during the swing. Instead, focus on organizing your body properly during the transition and backswing phases. By practicing the drills above and focusing on a smooth weight transfer, you’ll naturally stay down and compress the ball better, leading to more solid shots and improved performance. Remember, the golf swing is a holistic movement—by mastering your weight shift, you can elevate your entire game!