wasting power

[andrew cook]

I am trying to break a problem of lunging at the ball with my hands, people I play with say Im trying to hit the ball too hard!
Any Ideas?

[GregJWillis]

Hi Andrew,

As men, we are predisposed to doing everything with our hands. The hammer is our favorite tool. "Is it broken? I can fix it. Where my hammer?".

To make anything go farther or faster, we want to use what comes natural. But the truth about it, they are the weakest part of the swing. To help you put what the hands mean to the swing in perspective, try to hit the ball using ONLY your hands. Stand there stiff, not moving your arms and try to wrist the club through the impact zone and see how far it goes. Then lock the wrists, and use ONLY the arms and check the distance. Then, lock the wrists and arms and use ONLY the rotation of the shoulders like a putt and see the distance. (Can you guess where I am going with this?)

When you combine the leg/hip/shoulder rotation into one masive power move, and then let the arms drop with the force of gravity, your hands will only have to find the ground for you. They won't have to be the ones to create the force you need for the long drive, they are too weak to do that. Let the big leg/hip and shoulder muscles do that.

[The Hud]

Re: wasting power

Hi Andrew you were saying a combined shoulder and hip turn makes for a powerful swing, I get confused here some pro's teach a one piece action, turning shoulders and hips together, while others say turn your shoulders which will drag the hips around and create torque.