Fixing the Saggy Knee Collapse in the Golf Swing

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one issue we see a lot of golfers

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struggle with it's when they're coming

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down into impact and they get this kind

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of knee buckle coming through the ball

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and it's a like a Rubik's Cube mystery

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for a lot of golfers how to solve that

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it's hard to figure out it's hard to

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figure out and a lot of golfers will try

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to just extend and jump and all that it

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doesn't really quite work out because

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it's not really addressing the core

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movement issue that we're going to show

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you in today's video so if you suffer

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from what do we call this saggy leg itis

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saggy knees soft knees saggy legs

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collapse at impact it's how the trail

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hip and thigh and by way of the the

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segments here the knee move throughout

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the golf swing now to show you what it

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should do and chances are you're already

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doing it correctly you're just doing it

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to the other side of the body so let's

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look at the back swing first mm so

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started the dress here a little bit of

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knee Bend yep starting to make a turn

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here and as I do that I'm internally

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rotating into my trail hip yep right and

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I'm externally rotating in my my lead

1:03

hip that's the key right so in a normal

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back swing you're going to you know we

1:07

always do where if you just kind of

1:08

squeeze your hand you're you're turning

1:11

into this right Trail leg and at the

1:14

same time your hip is pulling away from

1:16

your lead leg now from a face on camera

1:18

angle it just looks like the knee comes

1:20

in some right the hip everything looks

1:22

normal about that that's what's got to

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happen on the down swing with the

1:26

opposite side and that's where we see

1:28

the issues come from and real what you

1:30

did right there was so good cuz I think

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a lot of us are guilty of me included I

1:33

tend to spin the pelvis sometimes and I

1:36

don't get any internal into the trail

1:39

and external on the lead I just spin the

1:41

hips around I haven't done anything at

1:42

the hips I'm just spinning around my

1:44

ankles and that's no good think of it

1:46

just we're going to go off that Baseline

1:48

we're going to go of that same movement

1:50

now we're going to flip it and now let's

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take a look at what should happen on the

1:53

down swing compared to what we see

1:55

happen okay just do reentering again

1:57

this gets so misunderstood yeah

1:59

reentering is just you moving back to

2:01

the center yeah on it's a back swing

2:03

move in the back swing yeah so here I am

2:06

away yep right and then as a club gets

2:08

over my head as that club starts

2:10

pointing towards me you just follow it

2:11

just kind of follow middle that's

2:13

reentered it's not any kind of real

2:15

super exaggerated upper body move I see

2:17

a lot of guys doing it up here all of a

2:18

sudden it's just this little lower body

2:20

swivel back to the middle so that's one

2:22

that's recentered good my pelvis is

2:24

rotating as I start down right the

2:27

hopefully the trail knee is gaining in

2:29

Flex the lead knee is losing Flex they

2:31

kind of have this crossing point halfway

2:33

down okay I'm rotating my pelvis kind of

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into this leg again okay so just the

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opposite of what you were doing in the

2:39

back swing you're pulling away from it

2:40

internal rotation into the lead leg um

2:43

and I can feel that here in my leg it

2:45

really stabilizes this leg and then I'm

2:47

pulling away from the trail leg right

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the pelvis is kind of pulling away so

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I'm externally rotating with this leg if

2:54

I do that correctly and and Mike will

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show us in Gears you lose this hip angle

2:58

right here right right and that's really

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important we it's one of those things if

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we take it look at all our high-end

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swings in the database and you figured

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this out that they all lose that angle

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right here right that's a common

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denominator of great swings so that hip

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angle and I'll just show you the right

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side so that hip angle is just the angle

3:17

my leg is out of my hip joint okay it's

3:19

just the thigh coming out of my hip that

3:22

would be increasing the angle that would

3:25

be decreasing the angle which is I can

3:28

feel that stretch right right this is

3:30

most golfers sit in a desk all day

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that's easy that's the problem most of

3:35

us have a harder time moving it back

3:37

this way but that's what you see the

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best players in the world do and that's

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what you do in the back swing so we're

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going to add some of that to the down

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swing real quick and we'll get you right

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back to the video I promise if you're

3:46

looking for instant distance and who

3:48

isn't click on the first link in the

3:50

description or pin comment below we're

3:52

going to give you one of our best

3:53

distance drills it's going to have you

3:54

hitting it longer by tonight just click

3:56

the link below and tell us where to send

3:58

it now let's get back to the video

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you know by now we think it's important

4:02

to show the receipts when we're talking

4:04

about things in the swing that may go

4:06

against current trends or just playing

4:08

difficult to see and a number of you

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have also asked if we could use

4:11

Champions Tour players every once in a

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while in our Pro examples so to kill two

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birds with one stone here's a pro who's

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a multiple winner out on the champions

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tour and he was also a multiple winner

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on the regular tour needless to say he's

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been a great player for a long time and

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hopefully he'll help us to visually

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explain what we're talking about so both

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of these images are of him at the top of

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his swing the image on the left is where

4:33

the camera has to be for you to be able

4:35

to accurately see his 23 degre thigh

4:38

angle so it's not really an angle you

4:41

can see from the standard face on or

4:43

down the line camera positions now I

4:45

want you to keep an eye on this real

4:47

time thigh angle as he starts moving

4:49

down notice how that angle continues to

4:52

decrease as he continues in his

4:54

downswing and then right here when he's

4:57

nearly finished with his follow through

4:59

it hits triple zeros meaning he has zero

5:02

thigh angle coming out of his pelvis he

5:04

also did us a favor by doing this when

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his pelvis is perpendicular to this face

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on camera so now hopefully you can

5:10

clearly see that loss in thigh angle

5:12

that we've been talking about not not

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every player is going to be zero here

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some will be in a negative number

5:17

meaning the thigh will actually be

5:18

angled backwards and some players like

5:20

Rory will even be significantly into a

5:22

negative angle I think he's roughly -

5:25

27° if I remember correctly the point is

5:28

though that you lose this angle coming

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down so let's go back to the top after

5:32

you've

5:33

reentered all right so the first thing

5:35

is the hips have got to start rotating

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okay right now we see a lot of golfers

5:41

where it breaks down right here because

5:43

they will in an effort to not early

5:45

extend they will try to push this lead

5:47

hit back yeah never seen a good player

5:50

do that right and and we go through this

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gears data base we have so many we have

5:54

like a billion dollars in earnings we

5:56

try to like look at the things they all

5:58

do and and the things that none of them

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do right and then we have this kind of

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two buckets right and we don't see

6:05

anybody what Mike was saying right there

6:08

increasing that as you start down right

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well again let's let's be clear it's

6:13

just pushing the hip right gear sensor

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is right here on the side yeah it's

6:16

pushing that deeper to start the down

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swing yeah so let me say that one more

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time up here as they start down what

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you're saying is nobody goes like nobody

6:23

goes like that here we got our Pro again

6:25

at the top of his swing so all this

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gears data that we show is Ed by placing

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at least 34 markers at designated points

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on the player's body and club we then

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use 10 high-speed cameras to track the

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markers which provides all the data the

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two dots on your screen are the actual

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markers that went on both sides of this

6:44

player's pelvis the green marker on his

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right side purple marker his left side

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now this top down view is the best view

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to see how the pelvis works in the

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downswing as he starts down you'll

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notice that the right side of his pelvis

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or right side of his hip whichever you

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prefer starts working immediately out

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diagonally towards the target line now

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his right side will work back and away

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from the target line in the back swing

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but not for one frame does it work back

7:08

and away from the target line in the

7:10

downswing which for us is marked when

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the club changes directions and of

7:14

course while that's happening the left

7:16

side is doing the opposite it's moving

7:18

diagonally away from the target line now

7:21

all this is done without early extension

7:23

or humping this is the pro movement that

7:25

we see from every age player from every

7:27

tour each side of the pelvis moving in

7:30

opposite directions is what rotating

7:32

around the center of the pelvis produces

7:34

remember the old video game that driving

7:36

the tanks it's very similar to that the

7:38

movement is pretty mirrored between the

7:40

left and the right now what we see

7:42

golfers will do is they'll throw this

7:44

right one try to deeper not the early

7:46

extend so they get stuck now everything

7:48

moving to their heels the club's still

7:50

coming down now they're going to throw

7:52

them forward and that's where you get a

7:54

lot of poor rotation and saggy knees I

7:56

was guilty with that years ago I

7:58

practiced starting to down by going back

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that way and I started getting this look

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at impact where my toes are off the

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ground yeah and it's all Club fa not a

8:06

great way to rotate no no so I got rid

8:08

of that right that's what not to do now

8:10

we know this hip's going to move forward

8:12

the left hip's moving back the one thing

8:16

from here that golfers will do to

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disrupt the correct movement you're

8:19

you're getting really close to doing it

8:20

correctly now is to hike this knee up

8:23

okay so we know knee bin happens in the

8:25

downswing it happens for every good

8:27

player if I come down and I lift this

8:30

knee now I've increased that angle got

8:32

my right knee higher or keeping it the

8:34

same height as my left knee now I'm in

8:36

trouble and I'm getting this saggy knee

8:38

look so instead we've got to lose that

8:40

angle so we got to get the right knee

8:42

lower how do you get the right knee

8:43

lower in the down swing so if I'm at the

8:45

top here uh let's say my left knee is

8:47

doubled and flexed basically I've lost

8:49

maybe a degree or so here pretty stable

8:52

I'm just going to feel like that I I

8:55

sink a little bit as the left knee

8:57

straightens okay and that keeps me from

8:59

hiking that I'm going to kind of feel

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like I get heavy in the ground a little

9:02

bit is what I have to feel yeah you're

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going to let this now as this hip goes

9:06

forward this hip is always going down

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that's right right we see a lot of

9:10

golfers trying to keep this hip high

9:11

starting the down swing again that's

9:13

something we see good players do it's a

9:14

death move with his body lines turned on

9:17

you can see how our pro has turned to

9:19

the top with the lead side of his pelvis

9:22

and his lead knee lower than his Trail

9:24

sides as he starts down all that is

9:26

going to get reversed because his Trail

9:28

knee is going to gain Bend as his lead

9:31

knee loses it we find that the

9:33

overwhelming majority of Pros will

9:35

typically level out their hips and knees

9:37

when their hands are right here around

9:39

waist high also notice how the shoulders

9:41

are still tilting downwards when his

9:43

lower body is level a good indicator

9:45

that none of this was done from being in

9:47

trail side Bend so this hip's going to

9:50

go forward and down that now starts to

9:52

bend my knee but I'm losing this thigh

9:55

angle you can see from this side on

9:57

camera do it here I'm losing this thigh

10:00

angle which is exactly what the best

10:02

players in the world do so they're

10:03

bending the knee and losing the angle

10:05

that's the combination I mean th this is

10:08

the kind of stuff that if I had it 20

10:10

years ago I was like I save myself so

10:13

much frustration because what Mike is

10:14

showing you right here that sometimes

10:16

really gifted athletes and really good

10:19

players they just picked up a club and

10:20

did it well I mean like I said most of

10:23

us do it on the back swing perfectly but

10:25

we're so used to okay the down swing is

10:27

a different movement it's not the same

10:29

movement just reversed so let's look at

10:31

our Pro again from the top now we have

10:33

the center of his right hip joint in

10:35

green and the center of his right knee

10:37

in light green and the same in purple

10:40

for the left side we'll also pop in this

10:42

yellow arrow so you can see exactly

10:44

where his pelvis is pointing here at the

10:45

top of his swing what we're showing here

10:48

is how the hip and knee movements in the

10:50

back swing get mirrored in the down

10:51

swing notice how his right knee is very

10:55

much in front of his right hip here at

10:57

the top again indicating he's turned

11:00

into his Trail leg that's quite a bit

11:03

different from what's happening on his

11:04

lead side there you can see his left hip

11:07

turned away from his left knee and

11:09

another way to think about that is his

11:11

left hip has worked farther away from

11:13

the target than his left knee in the

11:15

back swing so in the back swing Trail

11:17

hip moves into the trail knee while the

11:20

lead hip moves away from the trail knee

11:22

now I got to stress this isn't because

11:24

he's kept his lead knee still the lead

11:27

knee is still moved inward just not as

11:29

much as the lead hip Now watch how

11:31

quickly that flip-flops in the downswing

11:34

he's very closely mirrored his backswing

11:36

position by the time his pelvis is

11:37

rotated Square to his Target line his

11:40

left hip is now turning into his left

11:42

knee while his right hip is turning away

11:45

from his right knee this is how you lose

11:47

that thigh angle we saw earlier now

11:50

another point about this also worth

11:51

noting is the space between his knees at

11:54

the top here his knees are this far

11:56

apart and by the time he's back to

11:58

square to his Target tget line you can

11:59

see how his Trail knee has moved closer

12:01

to his lead knee so none of this is

12:04

happening because of Any dual external

12:06

knee spread type movement to start the

12:08

downswing it's happening because there

12:10

are opposite movements from each side of

12:12

the body something that's seen

12:13

throughout the golf swing I've been

12:16

struggling for a long time with kind of

12:17

dragging this foot I never quite

12:19

understood why I was doing it but once I

12:21

figured out I almost have to feel like

12:23

my pelvis is pulling away from this side

12:25

of my body through the hit it look I

12:28

mean my down swing or through the hit is

12:31

10 times better instantly and I get the

12:33

ball flight I want without this overdraw

12:35

yeah so the perspective that we look at

12:37

the swing through right with the

12:39

stationary face on camera we're not

12:41

seeing how things move relative to the

12:43

golfer and that's the key we want to

12:45

show you as much of what can happen

12:48

relative to what you're doing versus

12:50

what it looks like from a face on camera

12:52

but some of you it's all you're going to

12:54

have is face on camera so what you want

12:55

to look for again is this hip's going to

12:57

move forward the lead hips going to move

12:59

back and you're going to see the knee

13:00

come in but again from Sea's angle he's

13:03

staying 90° to my my hip line you're

13:06

seeing this leg straighten this thigh

13:08

straighten as the knees come on around

13:10

and then you get more of a left-handed

13:13

back swing look and then you get

13:15

something like that which looks normal

13:17

versus if I keep this knee Bend forward

13:20

now I get this knee when this thigh

13:23

moves forward it causes this knee to

13:25

collapse it's like the momentum of it

13:27

yeah you we've not seen a player do that

13:29

to that leg and not collapse this knee

13:31

so the the interesting part about it is

13:33

you can't just fix the left knee

13:35

collapse with the left knee no and well

13:37

we we see it in lessons right cuz it

13:39

took us a while to figure out the

13:40

combination of movements okay a player

13:42

comes in he's collapsing this left

13:44

everybody's like just fix or let

13:45

straighten this one up but if you start

13:47

ramming this one in right boom it's

13:49

going to collapse underload it it's

13:51

unfixable by just trying to do the left

13:53

side which is the kind of the difficult

13:55

part about the golf swing which goes

13:57

back to the back swing we see golf do

13:59

this in the back swing right most

14:02

golfers would focus okay that doesn't

14:03

look right it's causing this knee to

14:05

buckle right we've seen those back

14:07

swings before you fix the the lead side

14:10

absolutely and that the momentum of that

14:12

opposite leg banging into the other one

14:15

kind of there's no stopping it exactly

14:17

right especially at some kind of speed

14:18

so and the downswing you've got the

14:20

burden now of way less time and way more

14:24

speed so it's got to be right all right

14:26

so let's start the drills with some

14:28

awareness yeah cuz a lot of you have

14:30

probably never felt this internal

14:31

external movement before certainly maybe

14:34

not in the correct sequence so let's

14:35

build some awareness with that first

14:37

yeah so this is just a an exercise you

14:38

can do on the Range might probably a

14:41

pretty good little warmup especially if

14:42

you haven't felt what it feels like to

14:43

move these correctly so it's just a

14:45

staggered stance pivot drill okay so

14:47

when I say staggered stance take your

14:49

normal five iron stance with your arms

14:51

crossed up here and drop your right foot

14:53

back behind where the other heel was so

14:56

you got so a legit stacker stance you

14:58

got some room here then put some weight

15:01

and and uh pressure on this leg right

15:03

here and bend the leg obviously in in a

15:05

gall swing it's going to do some

15:06

straightening but again this is just

15:07

awareness this just awareness so I'm

15:09

keeping the femur or this upper part of

15:10

my leg really stable the knee stable

15:12

kind of over the foot I'm going to turn

15:14

my

15:16

torso towards this leg without letting

15:19

the whole leg move right do that again

15:21

so you're really trying to keep the

15:22

stability here in the knee yeah so I'm

15:24

turning my torso that's going to start

15:26

pulling on the pelvis and my pelvis

15:28

turns into the leg and I feel it really

15:31

back here in these muscles in the in the

15:32

back of my my leg here that's that would

15:35

be internal into the Lee leg okay and

15:38

that would be kind of a Down swing

15:39

motion and then the other way I'm

15:40

turning knee yeah he's going to hold it

15:42

I'm turning away from the leg you feel

15:45

that joint opening now 100% And that's

15:47

the back swing motion for a right-handed

15:49

golfer with the lead leg okay so that

15:51

gives you both internal and external and

15:54

I need some help there I'm tight cuz I

15:56

sit you know online lessons and

15:57

everything I need to stretch some

15:59

because I feel a restriction there well

16:01

most golfers are going to be tight on

16:03

one side or the other from our

16:04

experience right we don't see just

16:06

gumbies on both sides no because we all

16:08

do things biased right we all we don't

16:10

really go out and play golf left-handed

16:11

to to balance out the movement so don't

16:14

be surprised if one's tighter than the

16:15

other but this is a good indication okay

16:17

that's why I need to spend a little more

16:18

time maybe stretching or working that

16:20

joint yep more open same with the with

16:23

the other leg so I've got my trail leg

16:24

here I've got my staggered stance so I

16:27

don't lose my balance I put you know put

16:28

some Bend in the knee and put some

16:29

weight on that leg to stabilize it then

16:32

I'm going to turn my torso over the leg

16:34

so I have my kind of uh Club here so I

16:36

can see where I'm pointed and I turn the

16:38

pelvis into the leg without spinning the

16:41

whole you can see if I spun everything I

16:43

didn't do anything here at this joint

16:45

there's no internal rotation now do

16:48

these in front of a mirror or if you

16:49

don't have a mirror that's available

16:51

that's big enough do it film yourself

16:53

doing it because all of us when we start

16:55

especially if it's tight we'll focus on

16:57

making the move movement and at the same

16:59

time you'll see the knee wobbling all

17:01

over so you really want to make sure

17:03

that this leg is stable and if you can

17:05

only move what feels like a fraction

17:07

stick with it you you'll develop the

17:09

movement over time don't substitute the

17:13

form or the quality of the movement for

17:15

just making movement yeah and be careful

17:17

I me if you got some known medical

17:19

problems you know don't overdo any of

17:20

this stuff but TR just try to use it to

17:22

get a sense for what's happening in in

17:25

the body away from the golf club and the

17:26

ball okay so this this was the back

17:28

swing right for a righty the down swing

17:31

I'm going to turn my torso and pelvis

17:33

away from the leg and I feel this

17:35

stretch here now I'm externally rotating

17:38

at this hip okay and you're going to do

17:39

both of those in the golf swing on both

17:41

sides exactly so that's your pelvis

17:43

motion back swing and downswing the knee

17:46

kind of responds and bends here and then

17:48

as I start unwinding the knees change

17:50

and I feel the the same thing internal

17:52

external it's almost like a little dance

17:54

move and it's very symmetrical okay now

17:56

let's go to more golf likee movement M

17:58

so let's put the club across your hips

18:01

okay we'll make the make the left side

18:03

shoot out farther because that's what

18:04

we're ex me the right side okay all

18:06

right so we're going to focus in on this

18:08

side of the grip as he moves all right

18:09

so it's set up to it you're going to get

18:11

in your back swing position and reenter

18:14

so okay so again to start the downswing

18:17

we're going to make this end move

18:19

forward and down so forward meaning

18:21

toward the camera down meaning towards

18:23

the ground yep so it's this it has its

18:25

own little swing to it okay we're going

18:27

to come about halfway down

18:29

okay so it levels out about halfway down

18:32

okay because it was higher my hands

18:34

right here level and square yep coming a

18:36

little bit more okay so when you're

18:38

filming yourself or on the mirror put a

18:41

little X here over your knee okay now

18:44

Sean's goal to get through impact he's

18:45

going to feel like again this is a feel

18:48

the knee stays there and the right hip

18:50

keeps coming through that so you've got

18:53

that backwards extension now that so

18:55

many of us are missing in our golf

18:57

swings you've seen guys myself including

18:59

you get this little bird dog look where

19:01

you kind of sit down in there and that's

19:03

not a very good look or doesn't do the

19:05

shot very well yeah if you kind of stay

19:07

in flexion with both hips that's the

19:09

bird dog we always talk about where the

19:10

head gets out in front of the hips too

19:12

much so this is a great drill this side

19:14

will get higher on the back seat because

19:15

of the knees changing right coming down

19:17

that's going to lower and come out

19:19

towards the target line and then like

19:20

Mike said right right in here this knee

19:23

kind of actually stabilizes and the

19:24

pelvis turns away from that leg and gets

19:27

that backward feeling motion with that

19:29

leg like you glad you did that not me

19:32

that back kick so do that slowly I mean

19:35

it can emphasize enough if you're

19:37

feeling tension and tightness in the

19:40

awareness drills don't do that at full

19:42

speed what we just showed you do it

19:43

slowly build up to it you'll really

19:46

start to feel the stretch this hip

19:48

starts to leave the trail knee and

19:50

you'll get that look that you see every

19:52

week on tour yeah and you know this is

19:55

some detailed stuff right don't

19:57

overwhelm yourself we're just trying to

19:58

give you some feels that you can take

20:00

when you make your swing because just to

20:02

tell someone to turn back and turn

20:04

through that's not enough detail so

20:06

there's got to be a point here where you

20:08

really learn that the movement patterns

20:10

that you need and you can take those

20:11

feels and apply them to your golf swing