flipping hands at impact

[leehutchinson]

Ive just had a golf lesson which was filmed by the instructor. The problem that i have is that i used to slide my hips forward at impact istead of rotating them. I have now sorted this with the help of my tuition, but now I flip my wrists at the ball at impact due to my old swing which sends the ball slightly to the left or hooks now and then. Has anybody got any easy drills which will help me with my hands through impact. Thanks Guys.........

[leehutchinson]

Re: flipping hands at impact

you seem to be mis-understanding me a little bit, im trying to get rid of the flipping hands at impact problem not wanting to know how to do it, thanks anyway friend.

[leehutchinson]

Re: flipping hands at impact

you mention that i should let my arms fall to waist height and then rotate my hips but my instructor says to get my right hip rotated past the ball before i do anything with my hips. Im starting to get confused

Thanks bud

[drbob]

Re: flipping hands at impact

See Gregs impact drill, the one with the door.... Remember, everything is glued together.

Also, try hitting a few balls with your feet stuck together, right foot almost glued to left instep. Place the ball off your left toe for an iron(assuming right handed), between your feet for a wedge, and a little outside your left toe(yes, not between your feet) for long woods. This will help you understand weight shift. And rotation. It also is remarkable for improving ball striking. I hit the ball almost the same distance in this stance as I do with my feet apart. (That means with a driver, around 270 yards with my feet stuck together. Odd but true.)

Now if I could only hit a driver with only my left hand...

For my swing:


I start with the hips.

Then drop arms(keeping hands along a parallel target line). Now I've got coil, Upper torso and arms lagging behind body=stored energy.

Hands are waiting until they are about my right knee is before they start to release. A little closer to the ball for a wedge a little farther from the ball for a driver. My next trip to the range, I am going to work on lagging my hands even more. Tiger lags his hands until his driver is off his right knee. Thats part of his swing speed. He can get that big long club around square in the space of his knee to inside his zipper.

Release and follow through. Left hand is keeping the right hand from swatting. Left hand is rolling through impact and logo of glove is pointing down parallel target line. Body weight is on my left leg but my eye is still looking at the empty space I left behind...Then my neck gets tugged around by shoulders and arms etc...

I have to keep my head behind the ball, and eyeball focused on the ball. Yes, eyeball. See Jack Nicklaus. Odd to see someone looking away from where a shot is going, but yes. it works. The other eyeball works OK too. Both of them get you extra space to get your arm under your chin, cuz if you're only using one eyeball u gotta turn ur head a little.

Hope this helps...

Hit em long.

[Simon Woo]

Re: flipping hands at impact

drbob, 270yds even with feet apart is very impressive! I think you get that kind of power simply from the amount of lag you are generating. Most amateurs like me will probably not ever come close to understanding the feeling of such lag.

Can you elaborate on "hands are waiting until they are about my right knee is before they start to release"? Is it a matter of maintaining the wrist cock so that you are still keeping the 90deg angle between forearm and shaft?

[drbob]

Re: flipping hands at impact

It's not so much about lag in the hands for distance as it is using the entire body for the swing. That is, what McLean calls the X-Factor, others just call it body coil. It's about the ratio of shoulder turn to hip turn. The bigger the differential, the more body power you are using to swing the club.

Imagine keeping your back turned to the target, and trying to hit the ball with only your arms and hands. You would be able to get the club going quickly because your whole torso is facing where the club is. But, you wouldn't be able to acellerate down through the ball very well, because your body weight is behind you, and you don't have plastic arms. Thus, if you want to hit the ball far, you've got to have some momentum, and it has to follow the club.

Thus, if you have your body around. (See Greg's Right hand drill video about turning 180 degrees.), You have enough body weight in your momentum to crank the club around (remember up and down, never side to side). This happens in the short span of space between having your hands, above your right knee (in a normal stance) and before they get to about where your zipper is, to turn the club 90 degrees <from a full horizontal>, to vertical and square the clubface. From a timing point of view this happens in a split second but from a space point of view you have about 10-12 inches to make it happen, and you can adjust depending on how fast you are.

In order to understand how to get your body around and to transfer your weight, hitting with your feet together is a great way to do it. I think it teaches you where the center of your wieght should be in your swing. If you are laying too far back, you'll fall over, if you're laying too far forward you won't be able to hit the ball.

The ball striking benefits I think arise <for me> from just being able to focus more on the ball when you are in this wierd stance. It can also be because when you have your center of gravity<wieght transfer> good, it is easier to position the club and balance those 200 grams out on the end of a stick going 90 miles an hour.

It seems to me, that I should be able to hit the ball much farther with my legs apart, than with them close together. I attribute this to not being able to fully understand weight transfer. But because weight transfer, lag, and position are all tied together, I often try to split them apart, analyze, understand... Golf is very much analytical.

Someday, I'm gonna get that official 300 yard drive. It's my new moral imperative.

[GoNavy]

Re: flipping hands at impact

The easiest way I know, and the way I teach, is to just make sure you have a forward lean of the shaft at impact, you will not flip then. By forward lean I mean the grip end of the club is closer to the target then the clubface.

Incidently, this is also the way the club was designed to be hit. It is the only way to have the correct lokt applied, one of the things flipping does, amung others, is it adds a great deal of loft to the iron you are hitting. If you pick up a club and set it on a table where you can see, soled correctly, the shaft will lean forward, the shorter the club the more lean is required. A 3 iorn still has a slight lean, a PW will have a deal more, this allows the more descending blow, pinching the ball to the ground.

[Simon Woo]

Re: flipping hands at impact

What does power mean in golf? Doesn't it sound a bit redundant when clubhead speed is the key factor that leads to this so called 'power'? Let's put consistency aside for now..

With regards to clubshaft lean, I think the better players set up without much lean, do their backswing, and by the time they reach impact, they have put in the lean. Beginners might benefit from starting out at setup with already a lean in place perhaps?