Advice I Hate: "Release the Club"

[iacas]

As for releasing the club, I think what the instructors are trying to say--although incorrectly--is to try to square the club face at impact. By trying to release the club you tend to square the club face whereas most slicers tend to hold that wrist position causing them to slice. Just my 2 cents.

That's the problem: most golfers don't slice because of an open clubface. They slice because they come over the top.

If you believe the "old" (i.e. incorrect) ball flight laws, as most PGA instructors still seem to do, then the advice makes sense. But they're not the correct ball flight laws.

[JaY_B]

I have the same problem with dipping my right shoulder once in awhile leading to slice. I would love to get a copy of that video to see what you mean. Any chance you can send me a copy or point me to a link?

The problem is that the release instructors commonly teach does not agree with the way the wrists are designed to function, the most inconsistent way in the world to hit the ball is to try and manipulate the club head by rolling your wrists, they are not designed to rotate, they work most effectively using an up and down chopping action, much like the casting of fishers.

[Yukari]

That's the problem: most golfers don't slice because of an open clubface. They slice because they come over the top.

I agree 100% that most, if not all, golfers slice because they come over the top. But I also think that advise on "releasing the club" comes from trying to teach slicers to at least square the club (which would lead to pulled shots).

[Zeph]

I won't use the golf terms, as they generally can be confusing.

Ball starting straight and going right = Square clubface and swing out-to-in
Ball starting right and going further right = Open clubface and swing somewhere from a few degrees in-to-out to out-to-in, depending on the amount of spin.

I think most cases of open clubface is because of rolling the arms or cupping the left wrist.

Telling someone who struggle with open clubface to release the club is terrible. They may start hitting the occasional good shot when they manage to time the rolling perfect, but statistics would not be on your side. Instead of hitting it straight all the time, you'd just give yourself another flaw, which will give you another bad shot, the hook. I've been there myself. Found one time that if I release the clubhead, I hit it 10-15 yards further and straighter. Great success, no? No. As I said, I just made myself a hooking/slicing machine. With the previous swing, at least it was predictable. I almost never hit a hook. Keeping the clubface as square as possible throughout the swing is desirable.

[iacas]

No "releasing" in this video:



Charles Howell III at Pebble practicing:

[canadianpro]

Anyone who has practiced with an impact bag knows exactly what Eric is talking about. Show me a golfer whose shaft leans away from the target at impact and I will know he is a high handicapper.

[JetFan1983]

Yet another sweet Sandtrap.com thread. I can't wait to start practicing this season. I'm thinking early April sounds about right for my area.

[ApocG10]

So much conflicting advice, lol.

I'm working on this with my instructor. But he's focusing on release of the wrist when both arms are straight, down the center of the body, just before impact. He wants me to 'release' my left wrist at the point of impact, allowing my right wrist/arm to take control.

Am I understanding him wrong? Or is this something different completely?

So confused :(

[iacas]

I'm working on this with my instructor. But he's focusing on release of the wrist when both arms are straight, down the center of the body, just before impact. He wants me to 'release' my left wrist at the point of impact, allowing my right wrist/arm to take control.

Your left wrist should be the one in control at impact. The right can supply the power but the left controls the clubface. Lee Trevino said he had two clubfaces: the one at the end of the shaft and the one at the end of his arm.

The #1 imperative in golf is a flat left wrist at impact. You let the right hand take over and you'll have a heck of a time maintaining that flat left wrist... I'd seek clarification from your guy and seriously consider switching if you're not comfortable with his advice. All that said, he may be trying to get you to feel something and not actually do it, and we don't know what your swing looks like now. So take what I just said for what you paid for it...

[bunkerputt]

Wait... doesn't cut spin come from the face being open relative to the swing path? So for an extremely OTT path and a slightly closed face, you get a pull-slice. But you can get a push-slice from a square path and slightly open face. My misses are slices, but I've checked my swing.. it's very much from the inside. When I push-silce it, it's because my body blocks the release and the club stays open causing a silce if I didn't time my "flip" perfectly. It certainly seems true that most golfers swing OTT, but I'd bet subconsciously, they are leaving the face open to compensate for the swing path going way left. So it's still the face that causes the slice.

[iacas]

So it's still the face that causes the slice.

What's this have to do with anything?

It's the face angle relative to the swing path that causes a fade or a draw. I can hit a draw with the clubface open to the target line (and my stance line). The point of this thread is that most people swing OTT. The face is relatively square, so "releasing the club" just leads to MORE OTT moves and pulls and pull-slices. They need to fix their path, not "try to square up the club by releasing it" or other hunky junky stuff.

[kilbyman]

So when I was struggling with a push/push-fade, I heard this advice... rotate the right arm over the left arm. I want to add this to the thread as whenever I actively try to release or rotate arms or whatever crap is preached, I just duck hook it. Fix the path... if you come in via the correct downswing path you will have a square clubface and very little spin.

[soloredd]

I use "release the club" in a different way. And I only use the term to myself. I used to have a hard time making a complete follow through, for whatever reason. I know the club is about to make impact and I slow everything down, it was horrible to watch on video. I still have the problem sometimes when I chip. So, my only swing thought is to "release the club", or as it means to me, get full extension after impact, going toward the target and make a complete follow through. I've tried the arm rolling before at the range and it seemed extremely ridiculous. Baseball players roll their arms, too, but as has been mentioned in the thread, it's on the follow through, not during impact. If you don't roll your arms after impact there is no way to make a complete swing.

[westcyderydin]

iacas, i think u overthink things just a bit. i think when they say release the club they usually mean start to release the club a bit earlier. so its not like you fully want to break your wrists before you hit the ball or anything, but you need to close the face somehow. its just one of those sayings that need to be explained in certain situations, but is a bit to generalized and unspecific to be thrown around all the time.

[iacas]

I use "release the club" in a different way.

OK, so you're the exception. We're not talking about the exceptions here.

iacas, i think u overthink things just a bit.

I don't think that I do, and I think that learning comes from thinking about things.

i think when they say release the club they usually mean start to release the club a bit earlier.

Regardless:

a) many tell you to release the club so that the clubface can "square up" at impact. b) many do a because they believe the old ball flight laws and think you slice because the face is open when it's the path that's to blame c) most people who hear this advice "release" improperly - the way I've described

but you need to close the face somehow.

No you don't. Most people hit slices with a face that's pretty square to the target. The ball just peels right because their path is way off.

[Dewdman42]

But you can get a push-slice from a square path and slightly open face. My misses are slices, but I've checked my swing.. it's very much from the inside. When I push-silce it, it's because my body blocks the release and the club stays open causing a silce if I didn't time my "flip" perfectly. It certainly seems true that most golfers swing OTT, but I'd bet subconsciously, they are leaving the face open to compensate for the swing path going way left. So it's still the face that causes the slice.

This is basically where I am too. Recent series of lessons got me swinging inside-out quite well with good hip turn to start. Trying to keep hands cocked as long as possible. However due to many old habits, the way I swing through the ball is with the side of my left hand facing the target. Hands are ahead of the ball. There is lag. Inside-out swing, but push or push-slice. Instructor says I need to release. After reading this entire thread I still agree with my instructor, but I can also see how many people can over-do this or get obsessed over the release without first developing the other components of my swing first. My instructor was very strict about saying, don't worry about the push-slice for now, keep grooving in the hip turn and lag. Release is last thing. After much video analysis, he likes my swing, but the release is the final component I'm still missing.

It doesn't just happen automatically for me. Too many bad habits from old days. In the past when I swung outside-in, I probably learned to manipulate things with my hands and arms to prevent the clubface from releasing, in order to avoid pull-hooks. Now that I'm swinging inside-out, whatever I have been doing with my hands is still stuck in there. My anti-release. There is a time and place to focus on release and work on it, and I'm here to tell you that I am one of those people that does need to work on it. I hear you that most people are slicing due to outside-in swing. But some are not. Some are doing what I am doing. So that all being said, what can be done to help me develop a better action (or lack of action?) in my wrists? I have no problem with the word "release". It means to release the wrists. Not twist them. But I have tried this every which way I can think of, and unless I start to turn the wrists SLIGHTLY right before impact, the club is not square to the path I want the ball to start flying. What I think is that when I do my backswing, I notice my forearms do naturally roll over as the arms go to the back. The wrists cock straight up, but the forearms turn back. And during a slo downswing motion, the forearms roll the other way naturally as the arms come down through. However, my tendency when I lag and all that is to not roll the forearms or whatever all the time, such that the club does not return to square. It ends up with hands ahead of the ball, lag and all, but the back of my left hand is not facing the target, its facing the direction my ball is probably sailing.

[shortstop20]

Wait... doesn't cut spin come from the face being open relative to the swing path? So for an extremely OTT path and a slightly closed face, you get a pull-slice. But you can get a push-slice from a square path and slightly open face. My misses are slices, but I've checked my swing.. it's very much from the inside. When I push-silce it, it's because my body blocks the release and the club stays open causing a silce if I didn't time my "flip" perfectly. It certainly seems true that most golfers swing OTT, but I'd bet subconsciously, they are leaving the face open to compensate for the swing path going way left. So it's still the face that causes the slice.

For most slicers, the reason the face is open(relative to the swing path) is because they swing over the top. When you swing over the top, the face immediately becomes open compared to the swing path, unless you manipulate the face.

As iacas said, many people hit slices with the clubface square to the target line, it's just that their path is outside-in. If they attempt to manipulate the face angle so that it is square to their outside-in swing path, they'll hit pulls. Which is reason one why slicers hit a straight pull when they make a misguided effort to cure their slice. This type of golfer needs to work on his swing path and not worry about the face angle. Doing so, he will find himself hitting straight shots, or even draws, without any changes in clubface angle(relative to the target line). Try for yourself what I'm saying, make a backswing and then go over the top on the downswing, without manipulating the face. Go all the way to the impact position, you will notice that the face is open to the path, but not necessarily to the target.

[Shanks A Million]

This is basically where I am too. Recent series of lessons got me swinging inside-out quite well with good hip turn to start. Trying to keep hands cocked as long as possible. However due to many old habits, the way I swing through the ball is with the side of my left hand facing the target. Hands are ahead of the ball. There is lag. Inside-out swing, but push or push-slice. Instructor says I need to release. After reading this entire thread I still agree with my instructor, but I can also see how many people can over-do this or get obsessed over the release without first developing the other components of my swing first. My instructor was very strict about saying, don't worry about the push-slice for now, keep grooving in the hip turn and lag. Release is last thing. After much video analysis, he likes my swing, but the release is the final component I'm still missing.

Push-slicing as a fault is

so rare. The idea that you're not releasing the club really doesn't sound feasible to me. Post your swing videos here, and we can look. As it has been said earlier, most people who have the face open at impact with an inside out swing draw the ball. I draw the ball, and my face is open at impact, with an inside out club path. The amount you'd need to manipulate your hands to achieve an inside-out slice would be monumental, or your grip would need to be litteraly 10° too weak.