Danny Maude is an English golf coach whose YouTube channel has become a go-to for golfers who want calm, clear explanations. His lessons tend to focus on feels and simple exercises rather than complicated positions, which makes them easy to take to the range.
One of his most practical videos is “How to Stop RUSHING Your Downswing”, published in December 2020. It’s about ten minutes long and tackles a problem nearly every golfer has felt: a lovely practice swing followed by a snatchy, rushed real one.
DE-SHANK isn’t affiliated with Danny Maude, and nothing here suggests he endorses our app.
The framework: store, keep, release
Maude frames the whole swing as managing energy. You need to store it in the backswing, keep it in the downswing, and release it at the right moment. If you don’t store enough at the top, he explains, your body instinctively tries to add energy quickly, and that’s the rushed, snatchy feeling.
Step 1: Store it, by finding your full turn
Maude’s first exercise is a simple flexibility test. Imagine someone calls your name from behind you, and turn to look over your trail shoulder.
He makes a few key points:
- Extend the trail leg. He sees many golfers keep the trail knee flexed, which he says restricts the turn. Letting it extend helps.
- Let the lead heel lift if you need to. It can help you complete your pivot.
- Look over the shoulder, not around it. He says this helps you stay centred.
Once you’ve maxed out that turn, you put your lead arm up into position, and that’s your full backswing. Maude stresses that this length is personal. If you can only turn so far, that’s fine. Trying to go further, he says, is when the energy gets sapped away.
Step 2: Keep it, by starting down before you finish going back
This is the heart of the lesson. Maude explains that good players keep the angle between the lead arm and the club into the downswing. When golfers lose it too early, he says, it’s often because they complete the backswing first and then start down “from the wrong foot”.
His fix is to start the pressure shift towards the lead foot before the club reaches the top. He suggests feeling it with a club held lightly in the fingers, then hitting small shots, gradually building up to a full backswing. The key is that the pressure shift always begins before the backswing finishes.
Step 3: Release it, with “one hundred and one”
To glue it all together, Maude uses an auditory cue: saying “one hundred and one” through the swing. He describes it as a way to time the swing and replace the flood of thoughts that can crowd your head.
What golfers can learn
Rushing is often a backswing problem
It’s natural to blame the downswing. Maude’s view is that an incomplete or restricted backswing often causes the rush.
Your full turn is personal
There’s no point copying a tour player’s backswing length if your body can’t get there. Find yours.
Sequence matters more than speed
Starting the pressure shift slightly early is a timing change, not a speed change. It’s about the order things happen in.
How to practise it
Please watch the original video for Maude’s full demonstrations. Here’s how we’d build a session around it:
- Turn test (2 minutes). Do his “someone’s calling your name” exercise. Find your full turn.
- Small shots (10 balls). Short swings, starting the pressure shift before the top.
- Build up (10 balls). Gradually lengthen the swing, keeping the early pressure shift.
- Add the cue (10 balls). Say “one hundred and one” in your head.
Measure your rhythm
DE-SHANK is a useful way to check your progress with this lesson. Your tempo score shows the rhythm of your backswing and downswing, so you can see whether the early pressure shift is making your rhythm more consistent. Because Maude’s turn exercise involves extending the trail leg, it’s also worth checking your hip sway and posture change scores to make sure the bigger turn isn’t creating a slide or a loss of posture. See all our features.
DE-SHANK gives estimates from one camera view. It’s designed for practice feedback, to help you spot habits and track trends.
Why we like this video
Maude takes a vague problem, “I rush it”, and breaks it into three clear steps with exercises for each. It’s practical, encouraging and respects that every golfer’s body is different. You’ll find plenty more on his YouTube channel.
For more profiles, browse our YouTube Coaches section.
Try DE-SHANK free
See whether your rhythm settles when you stop rushing. Try the free DE-SHANK beta. It’s free during the beta.
