Lag

[Gohan2005777]

I was wondering if there was a drill to help me create lag.

[TeachingPro]

Re: Lag

By lag I take it you mean a late release ... hitting late by keeping the wrist cock as long as possible?

There are a few drills but the best one is to practice at the range and don't let your wrists uncock until your wrists are passing your right hip - at this point your arms should be perpindicular to the ground and the club almost parallel to the ground.

Here is a picture of a touring pro - look at the lag!

[drbob]

Re: Lag

Graham,

Thanks for posting that. I just had a lesson with a pro who suggested exactly this. I am doing this, and I really like the visual reference, eg. as my hands are overy my right knee for longer clubs, I can start my release. (A little further in for shorter clubs.) My experience is that this is the easiest way to create power in my swing with a lot less effort.

The only problem I have is with reconciling this with Greg's right hand drill, because whether you are rolling your wrists through impact by releasing lag, or "swatting", both are timing, right? Or is the take home message of the cupped right hand more of a "up and down, never side to side", but you will still need to time certain aspects of squaring the clubhead before impact?

Another question: How do you know/feel when you are loading your shaft? When does the flex in the club shaft start doing it's work?

Rob

[TeachingPro]

Re: Lag

Rob, in golf there is always more than 1 way to achieve the same result. Different drills work for different people and situations.

The take-home point is to keep your wrists lagged for as long as possible and at impact make sure you maintain the strength in the left wrist by keeping it firm and as straight as possible.

Now this is rather complicated to explain in writting but the point will be made towards the end. Put your hands in front of you in mock grip. Now hinge your wrists up & down - that's the correct hinging & unhinging. The bad news is that in golf the hands & wrists move both horizontally and vertically ... so, your wrists still need to hinge in the same fashion but instead of hinging on a plain perpendicular to your target line, they actually hinge on an ellipse-shape arc that runs pretty close to parallel to the target line.

That's why golfers think the wrists hinge sideways because the hands move sidewide accross the body in the swing. But they MUST still hinge in the same vertical fasion while travelling from right to left in the swing arc approaching impact.

Almost all of the "work" in the shaft happens on the downswing. On the way down, the club head is being pulled into impact by the shaft and this creates a horizontal (the hands moving right to left into impact) and vertical (the hands moving down to the ball) force. It's difficult to say how to feel the force because the downswing happens in all of 0.2 seconds and that's not even enough time to blink, let alone feel anything. But, you should be able to feel the shaft doing some work and whip into impact with its speed at its greatest through the area of impact.

I hope this helps. You know where I am if you need more help.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Lag

...whether you are rolling your wrists through impact by releasing lag, or "swatting", both are timing, right?

Not really. They are a bit different. Rolling of the wrists is not so much a timing action as it is a cause-effect action from a couple of other elements. There is really no conscience attempt to make this rolling happen in it's self (unlike the swatting of the wrists where you can cause your wrists to break horizontally through the impact zone simply my thinking about it, and doing that one action).

The rolling happens because your right arm is extending downward...getting longer. The left arm is in essence getting shorter when it is at and after impact. This "causes" the arms to roll...right rolling over the left. Nothing you can do to help that, so just let it happen and don't fight it. It is a wonderful thing actually, because this will square a face from an open angle right before impact. AND it does it in a very very very (yes 3 verys) predictable and repeatable manner. This is why we want the shoulders rotating slightly ahead of the arms ... to propell the arms quite easily without any forceful arm push-pull action going on other then them staying in your intended plane and path (adjusting the plane and path of the arms are used to shape a shot on demad if you so desire).

...Or is the take home message of the cupped right hand more of a "up and down, never side to side", but you will still need to time certain aspects of squaring the clubhead before impact?

Yes. And the timing is sequencing the big to little muscles in that order. Start with the biggest muscle, the legs, then the hips, torso, shoulders, arms and last hands. So lag in the wrists as Grahm showed in the pic is a prefect example of seeing where the arms are (almost back to setup) and the wrists being still fully "set". The wrists are last to release their full range of motion.

Another question: How do you know/feel when you are loading your shaft? When does the flex in the club shaft start doing it's work?

If you create ample clubhead speed, this will flex and load the shaft. There is nothing you need to feel that will let you know it is doing this correctly. The results of the ball flight and length will let you know.

Rob[/quote]

[doppelganger]

Re: Lag

If you really want to see first hand what lag is all about, check out Sergio Garcia's swing sequence on Golf Digest's web site. You can play it frame by frame thus giving you the opportunity to really understand the concept of lag. He bends the shaft like it was graphite. This guy lags it a ton. They actually compare him to the late Ben Hogan.

[bill reed]

Re: Lag

i dont see him swinging like ben, hes has to much a modern swing, ben was more flat and around, when ben made contatct with ball his hips turned more to target and his right hand was next to his right pocket, but i think sergio looks to have a faster swing too but think the swing speeds are close and it only looks as if hes faster.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: Lag

Look at this link, it will give you a clear understanding of the way the hands create power and direction through impact.

http://www.ritson-sole.com/golf-tips...hrough-impact/