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Knee Flex - Do you use it and how does it affect your swing?

Ole Gray

Ole Gray

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I would love to be able to flex my knees. I shot my best round ever when I was able to turn my right knee in slightly towards the target and maintain flex. Three surgeries later including a TNR on my right knee has taken this away from me. Do you maintain a good knee flex to support your swing and balance? If you don't then why not.
 
I have a whole lot of knee flex at the top of my swing. It is how I generate my "power". I have the whole crouch down, then launch up to hit the ball move. A few instructors have tried to tone it down, but it is a habit that is very difficult for me to break. I have knee issues a few weeks a year, which hurts my game, but overall it is a decent move for me. I do struggle with release timing at impact though, so perhaps this could be a causing factor.
 
I have no idea how people have a lot of bend in their back leg. I cannot turn at all with a bent leg. To have any shoulder turn at all I have to straighten my right leg. I don't lock it out but it's definitely relatively straight.
 
Jericho said:
I have no idea how people have a lot of bend in their back leg. I cannot turn at all with a bent leg. To have any shoulder turn at all I have to straighten my right leg. I don't lock it out but it's definitely relatively straight.
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When I was able to turn my right knee in slightly it really helped to keep from sliding/rocking backwards.
 
Gray the most import thing in the golf swing is to maintain your levels that you had at address. If those levels change it will affect the swing path.

So if you start the swing with a straight right knee you will be find as long it stays in the same position through out the swing.

People get into trouble when they address the ball with flex and turn away from the ball and knee straightens. Your power is going to be limited
 
Working very hard on that right now Bill. That training aid I reviewed the other day has helped me, as has a lot of stretching in my upper body. I don't have the knee issues that you do though.
 
I start with a slight knee bend and when I rotate in my backswing my left knee bends further while my right knee maintains the slight bend as I load up on my right side. Then I fire with my right leg and my left leg goes straight. Is it correct? I have no idea, it feels natural and seems to work ok.
 
I just had to look at my lesson videos over the last 12 months and noticed I had more knee flex each month. Now my knee pretty bent right up to impact. When I used to stay straight legged my right hip would sway away from the ball and I would go past parallel, which always resulted in an over the top swing. I feel like when I was hitting with a straight back leg that a lot of my swing came from my small upper body muscles. But, there are some people that keep a straight back leg and have lots of success as well. I think the key is to make sure that the back hip doesn't sway.
 
I flex my knees, and I find it helps me keep my weight on the inside of my back foot as I turn back. I had a tendency to collapse my front knee too much, though, and this caused my hips to turn too much. A drill I used to help that and to maintain the flex is to hold a basketball between my knees as I turn. It maintains the flex, keeps my front knee from collapsing, and helps keep my hip turn in check.
 
Tadashi70 said:
Gray the most import thing in the golf swing is to maintain your levels that you had at address. If those levels change it will affect the swing path.

So if you start the swing with a straight right knee you will be find as long it stays in the same position through out the swing.

People get into trouble when they address the ball with flex and turn away from the ball and knee straightens. Your power is going to be limited
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This explains why I can be inconsistent with my shots. I try to keep a good flex and my body tells me different. Maybe I should work on keeping my right knee straight? I lose balance while trying to maintain the proper flex.
 
Hawk said:
Working very hard on that right now Bill. That training aid I reviewed the other day has helped me, as has a lot of stretching in my upper body. I don't have the knee issues that you do though.
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It's frustrating buddy. I know what I am suppose to do but my body is not allowing me to do it.
 
Tadashi70 said:
Gray the most import thing in the golf swing is to maintain your levels that you had at address. If those levels change it will affect the swing path.

So if you start the swing with a straight right knee you will be find as long it stays in the same position through out the swing.

People get into trouble when they address the ball with flex and turn away from the ball and knee straightens. Your power is going to be limited
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Man, you just described me perfectly!

My fitter wants me more upright to alleviate the "timing" that is required by my flex to straight move that I have.

Not easy to change but consistency should improve long term.
 
This is exactly what Freddie and I talked about last weekend. My leg starts flexed at address and straightens up during my backswing. We talked about some stretching and how becoming more flexible should help.
 
Knee flex is right up there for me with grip pressure and posture. When I hit a bad shot more often than not I look back and I've not maintained the flex throughout. Of course other things come into play, but flex is one I try to maintain consistent.
 
Scarnici said:
This is exactly what Freddie and I talked about last weekend. My leg starts flexed at address and straightens up during my backswing. We talked about some stretching and how becoming more flexible should help.
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It's a tough habit to break because very few work on lower body action during the swing. If you watch people at the range, which I do frequently, you see a lot of people working on their take away. Rarely have I seen someone drilling hard to improve their swing from the hips down. Like I said above, I didn't realize how the straight leg led to a chain reaction of badness in my swing.

I do a drill where I put a alignment aid through the belt loops in the front of my pants and another aid standing straight up against my right leg. Without a club I will just work on the first half of my swing making sure that my right hip doesn't doesn't bump the stick, and the stick in my pants stays the same level.
 
adamw238 said:
It's a tough habit to break because very few work on lower body action during the swing. If you watch people at the range, which I do frequently, you see a lot of people working on their take away. Rarely have I seen someone drilling hard to improve their swing from the hips down. Like I said above, I didn't realize how the straight leg led to a chain reaction of badness in my swing.

I do a drill where I put a alignment aid through the belt loops in the front of my pants and another aid standing straight up against my right leg. Without a club I will just work on the first half of my swing making sure that my right hip doesn't doesn't bump the stick, and the stick in my pants stays the same level.
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It really is a tough habit to break. When I'm able to keep that leg flexed it amazing how other small swing issues I have seem to go away
 
Scarnici said:
It really is a tough habit to break. When I'm able to keep that leg flexed it amazing how other small swing issues I have seem to go away
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True Story.

And I just read my post again and found something hilarious:

".....and the stick in my pants stays the same level."
 
Same here with much better results with contact and consistency as it gets better.
 
adamw238 said:
True Story.

And I just read my post again and found something hilarious:

".....and the stick in my pants stays the same level."
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Way too funny! lmao :laughing:
 
I have the same knee flex in my golf swing as I do when I'm skating chasing down a loose puck. Sorry I've got no tips it's just a position my body is conditioned to it feels very natural for me.
 
I actually flex my knees with outward pressure but I am not using the swing most people do. I use the Peak Performance Golf Swing taught by Don Trahan. When I swing down the knees stay in the same outward position. This swing is really different but sure has helped my game. I am hitting it farther and straighter. This swing is also body friendly.
I know this swing is not for everybody but I think it is the swing for me.
 
adamw238 said:
It's a tough habit to break because very few work on lower body action during the swing. If you watch people at the range, which I do frequently, you see a lot of people working on their take away. Rarely have I seen someone drilling hard to improve their swing from the hips down. Like I said above, I didn't realize how the straight leg led to a chain reaction of badness in my swing.

I do a drill where I put a alignment aid through the belt loops in the front of my pants and another aid standing straight up against my right leg. Without a club I will just work on the first half of my swing making sure that my right hip doesn't doesn't bump the stick, and the stick in my pants stays the same level.
Click to expand...

If more people worked on a stable lower half they would make better take aways. A stable base allows one to turn their shoulders properly vs lift away from the ball.
 
tander said:
I actually flex my knees with outward pressure but I am not using the swing most people do. I use the Peak Performance Golf Swing taught by Don Trahan. When I swing down the knees stay in the same outward position. This swing is really different but sure has helped my game. I am hitting it farther and straighter. This swing is also body friendly.
I know this swing is not for everybody but I think it is the swing for me.
Click to expand...

You mean like ya bow legged?
 
Tadashi70 said:
If more people worked on a stable lower half they would make better take aways. A stable base allows one to turn their shoulders properly vs lift away from the ball.
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I know this is true. But, when I focus on keeping my lower body stable and "quiet", I generally get no lower body into the swing at all and, hence, lose a lot of power.
 
I use knee flex but not too much. I tend to squat down more through downswing so if I start out too low I would probably dig trenches. It's not a lot of downward movement but there is some. I can't help it so I just accepted it.
 
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