There’s not a more common fault in the golf swing than a steep plane on the downswing. For whatever reason, recreational golfers love to come over the top and swipe across the ball, causing weak cuts and slices. Go to any muni range in the country and you’re sure to see steep swings time and time again.
But while it’s a quite common for golfers to get steep in the downswing, it’s rare that someone knows exactly why they’re getting steep. You can count me among the masses who can get too steep in the downswing, but until the last year or so, I had no idea what the cause was.
Luckily for me, part of my job is picking the brains of the brightest swing coaches in the industry. And through those talks, I’ve come to understand one of the root causes of a steep swing — particularly my steep swing.
One of the GOLF Top 100 Teachers I’ve gotten to know over the last couple years (shoutout Twitter), is Jonathan Yarwood. I love the way he explains the golf swing, and his teaching just click in my head. So when he told me to send along my swing for a quick evaluation, I jumped at the opportunity.
To the surprise of no one, he quickly pointed out that my steep swing was an issue. But then, he got into the nitty gritty of why I get steep.
The cause of my steep downswing
The issue, he explained, is that my once I get to the top of the swing, my shoulders are overturned and my shaft gets across the line. And in an attempt to save the swing, I fire my right quad and hip as quickly as possible.
“Your way of rescuing it is to recruit your strongest point, which is your quad,” he said. “And your quad tries to throw that club back into position and as a result your quad moves forward.”
With my right leg moving forward so severely, I don’t have enough room to shallow the club, hence the steep angle of attack.
“You’re trying to react and rescue the club,” Yarwood said. “You can add a little bit into it where you lift that right toe up and don’t let it hit the ground so it trains this knee to roll in.”
If I can “bump” my hips toward the target to initiate the downswing instead of firing my right side so quickly, it will create space for the shaft and allow me to shallow in the downswing.
