help retaining wrist cock

[nolimit569]

Recently i saw my swing on video and noticed that at impact my hands are even with the club head......I retain my wristcock extremely well until my hands reach my left leg(im left handed) and at that point my wrists unhinge and i lose my "lag"......I do have a video of my swing if that is needed, however it is not in slow motion.....I was wondering if yall had any tips/drills to improve this problem in my swing.....

Thanks in advance and i look foward to your replys

[vp27519]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

Hi Nolimit,

Currently working on lag. Check the 'Lag Drills' thread in the practice section of GTO.

Another visual key I'm working on is is the club head hitting (pinching) the ground after hitting the ball.

Good hitting

[Martin Levac]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

nolimit569, perhaps it's a question of perception?

Do you think that you are releasing early? If so, accelerate your hands instead of slowing them down waiting for the club to catch up. In any case, the club must release to strike the ball. So, the wrist must unhinge.

Perhaps you think that you must maintain the angle between the arm and the club more than needed? If so, you may be tempted to flop the club back on the backswing. If you do so, you may create a narrower angle than needed. Think of width on this one. If the club flops back loosely, the arc of the swing is narrow. If you force the club to stay in a 90* position, the arc is wider.

Between a wider swing arc and a properly timed release, I'll take the wider swing arc. If the swing arc is wider, the club will travel a longer distance than if the swing arc is narrower. Thus, it will accelerate for longer and to a greater speed. If the swing arc is narrower, the release may be timed properly but the club will nevertheless travel a shorter distance before it strikes the ball and thus will have reached a slower speed.

Here we must distinguish between how many degrees the club goes around and how much distance the clubHEAD travels in its arc. A simple way to do that is to visualise two clocks. A big one and a small one. The big one only goes from 3 to 9 but the small one goes from 2 to 10. The big one is much bigger than the small one and the distance between 3 and 9 is much longer than the distance between 2 and 10 on the small one. Firmly maintaining this 90* angle between the club and the left arm (again, right arm for left hander) is equivalent to using a big clock from 3 to 9. Flopping the club back at the top is equivalent to using a small clock from 2 to 10.

If you are sufficiently flexible, you could try to swing the club on a big clock from 2 to 10 but if you're not flexible enough, you may be tempted to swing like that at the expense of swing width with the resulting loss of speed. Or, you may be tempted to swing out of control with obvious results.

Anyway, as I do that myself, I forget about wrist hinge, release and casting. Instead, I focus on precision and making proper contact. Maintaining this angle between the left arm and the club helps me do that.

[Neil18]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

In my experience the creation and maintenance of lag in the downswing has absolutely nothing to do with hanging on to it for as long as possible. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

The loss of lag at any point in the swing is down to the natural desire to hit the ball hard. This automatically tenses up areas of the body, including your arms, wrists, hands and fingers. Tightening up muscles in the arms in the swing only serves to straighten out the angles.

What you are experiencing is a natural response of your body to both your swing and desire to hit the ball.

Firstly, the task we've given our brain is to meet ball with club. Your body will adjust itself in order to achieve it, whilst at the same time trying to stay balanced. As a result, have a look elsewhere in your swing/setup to find the reasons for the loss of lag. For example, when I hit a weak one, I have a slight lean toward the target and target line (sort of diagonally left from a right handers point of view) at the start of my downswing. That causes me to manipulate the club in an effort to try and meet it square. The lag then goes as I have had to tense up certain muscles in order to manipulate the club.

A poor mental impression of a swing can causes tension and power leaks (including loss of lag). One point that I have not seen in golfing literature of late is the fact that with EVERY shot, we must swing through the ball. Let the ball get in the way of the clubhead. To do this, you must stay loose and free. So much emphasis now is placed on hitting the ball further, but the technique for hitting the long ball is the same now as it was 40 years ago. The equipment is what takes the ball to Mars and back in one blow these days.

Stay loose, stay relaxed, get a posture that allows the club to swing round you effortlessly, then put the ball in the way.

I guess this touches on why so many peoples practice swings differ from their actual swings at the ball. When you swing through the ball as if it isn't there, you get a connection that feels like proper control. You compress the ball. The feeling is that you can put the ball "there" whenever you like. It's a great feeling. Obviously with golf being the fickle game it is, that doesn't happen, but the confidence boost is huge.

Try to video your practice swing. I bet you get more lag later in the swing than when the ball is there. Then swing through the ball like it was a practice swing.

Hard to do but WELL worth the mental discipline it takes to do it. Without wishing to sound like I'm stroking my own ego, I hit a 3 wood yesterday on the range that CARRIED 275 yards. AND I felt like I didn't even try. It's surprising how far the ball can go when you let it.

[ubizmo]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

The loss of lag at any point in the swing is down to the natural desire to hit the ball hard. This automatically tenses up areas of the body, including your arms, wrists, hands and fingers. Tightening up muscles in the arms in the swing only serves to straighten out the angles.

Amen.

One point that I have not seen in golfing literature of late is the fact that with EVERY shot, we must swing through the ball. Let the ball get in the way of the clubhead. To do this, you must stay loose and free.

Amen again.

Stay loose, stay relaxed, get a posture that allows the club to swing round you effortlessly, then put the ball in the way.

And stay balanced. It's only recently that I have begun to appreciate the posture/balance connection.

I guess this touches on why so many peoples practice swings differ from their actual swings at the ball.

It's also why I've given up taking practice swings on full-swing shots (unless it's a weird lie of some sort). For me, the practice swing introduces mental pressure, rather than reducing it. For one thing, unless I go through the entire pre-shot routine and take a full swing, it's not really a practice swing; it's something else. That means, I need to take the time to get my grip just right, foot position, posture, waggle. Then make a full swing. That done, I need to *start over* for the real swing. One thing I've learned is that it doesn't work to do the practice swing and then just inch forward a bit to address the ball. After I swing, my whole body is in a different state. For my real swing, I need to return to the beginning of the routine. This takes time, and results in slow play. That in itself creates mental pressure, which is the enemy of a relaxed, balanced swing. Moreover, in the course of 18 holes, all those full practice swings use up a lot of energy. If I make a good practice swing, I inevitably find myself wondering, Can I do that again? If my practice swing is poor, then I want to do *another* practice swing, to get it right, after which I'm even more likely to wonder if I can do it again...

I've found that it works much better to spend that time getting my grip just right, and getting into a relaxed and balanced posture and trusting that I can swing a golf club, and then just swing.

Hard to do but WELL worth the mental discipline it takes to do it. Without wishing to sound like I'm stroking my own ego, I hit a 3 wood yesterday on the range that CARRIED 275 yards. AND I felt like I didn't even try. It's surprising how far the ball can go when you let it.

On the occasions when I've hit a golf ball especially well, I was *not* making any special effort to crush it. Yes it's hard to do, especially for those of us, like me, who are not especially athletic in the first place, nor particularly flexible, etc. But even so, I sometimes make amazing golf shots. And when I do, the feeling is not one of *power*, but it's a "whippy" feeling, and I'm absolutely certain that that's the feeling of "lag".

Todd

[Neil18]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

Oh my! Yes I forgot balance! Thanks! Very important! Good point!

In any activity once we've learned how to stand up on our own two feet, our body and brain are continually combining to promote balance.

It goes without saying that when we talk of balance in the golf swing we're not looking for someone to stop himself from falling over a la balance beam after they've hit a shot, but there are subtleties of balance that can affect the golf swing more than people know.

When my balance goes, it is generally because my backswing has gone too far behind me (with my hands) and this seems to have the effect of "toppling" me forward over my toes slightly (i'm only talking 2 inches or so here). The effect this has is, as my body and brain are trying to keep me upright, that during the downswing my pelvis moves forward in an effort to get more "underneath" my head (the head being the heavist part of my body and a key to balance) hence I lose my spine angle and I lose room to chase after the ball in my follow through. My body does its' job and actualy my head gets back to where it was at address by the time clubhead meets ball, but the bit inbetween causes me my inconsistencies. All that caused by my body just wanting to not fall over.

The answer to this though, is not to simply keep the weight back toward my heels. I already stand with weight evenly spread between front and back, so doing the opposite of the problem is not the solution.

The answer lies in the fact that my hands have gone too far behind my body in the swing. Hence I need to practice swinging with my hands more infront of me so as to maintain the posture and good balance I have created at address.

It's taken a while for me to be able to diagnose my own swing faults, and I think so many people come unstuck through looking in the wrong area, only adding more faults as they go.

If more lag is what you want, there is no secret. Sorry. It's about good posture, staying loose, swinging through the ball and good balance.

With regards to practice swings, it's such an individual thing. Tiger rehearses the shot he's about to make. Good idea really. I subscribe to that method. But I also have a really slow and smooth practice swing to feel the club swing round me, rather than try to make the club swing round me. It reinforces my rhythm.

[snake]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

Hi,
Good thread and very poignant to me.
I am also working on keeping the lag as i tend to have my hands level with the ball at impact; resulting in a high flight.
Not too bad but not to good with the short irons.
I have ben trying to hold the angle as long as possible and thn release as late as p[ossible.
it feels like a huge difference but still my flight is high...any ideas folk ?

[Neil18]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

Snake,

I think most of the points re physically trying to hold on to lag have been covered previously. I will add though that you can try to hang on to it as late as you like, but if you have an over-active bottom hand through impact and flip the clubhead through the ball, you can still add loft to it and send it high.

[BrianW]

Re: help retaining wrist cock

A read of Joe Dante's article on wrist cock and COAM is quite enlightening. You must be prepared to read it carefully though but it does reveal something that can make a real difference.

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