Struggling with 2 thoughts on release . . .

[vangator]

My 2 cents. If you're wearing a glove out or getting tired at the range, work on your grip pressure and tempo. Sam Snead said grip the club like a baby bird. I clean my groves and grips before every round. You can get incredible speed by gripping the club easy and releasing thru the ball. Less slice and hook as well because relaxed hands will normally square up. When swinging on the turf, the club will realign itself somewhat if you're not choking the grip. That's why hybrids work so well. The sole will help you square up if you don't have a death grip on it. I was playing with a guy today who was spraying the ball because he was trying to kill it. His backswing / downswing transition was WAY too fast. I had him pause slightly at the top and he started ripping the ball. I should have gotten a beer out of him for that. If you're slicing the ball, you probably are not lagging your club (unless you're spinning out or something).. I'd say work out your swing with what I call "L" to"L" half swings. Work on swinging the club head thru as in slide #3. Notice how far both Haas and Hogans hands travel from slide #1 to slide #3, A foot or so. Notice how farthe clubhead has travelled in those same slides. That's lag and compression. I've never done a video of myself , but in my mind I believe I do that. Proper follow thru cures a lot of ills. With a driver, I place a premium on hitting the fairway. I know that sounds obvious, but you can't score from the rough and bunkers and trees and lakes. i normally hit a draw, but if I absolutely have to hit the fairway I play a high fade. I just got back from the course. I was trying a new swing technique with my irons and it didn't work out too well. In fact it sucked. I stuck with my old driver swing however. I hit 13 of 14 fairways averaging 275+. I shot 74 but only 9 GIR. I pitch and chip well. Didn't putt too well. The greens were pretty slow. Looked like they didn't mow them today.

[iacas]

My 2 cents. If you're wearing a glove out or getting tired at the range, work on your grip pressure and tempo. Sam Snead said grip the club like a baby bird.

I don't know that I agree with that… :) (if you mean gripping the club "lightly).

When swinging on the turf, the club will realign itself somewhat if you're not choking the grip. That's why hybrids work so well.

The sole will help you square up if you don't have a death grip on it.

What's that have to do with striking the golf ball? The golf ball is struck (and in most cases is gone) before the clubhead really touches the ground. How can the sole help "square it up"?

[AmazingWhacker]

I don't wear a glove but when I use the pivot/turn release I tend to get some mild blistering on both my index fingers and on the first knuckle of the right ring finger.  There's just a lot more force in general with that method . . after a hundred balls I will have mild but detectable soreness in my abs, thighs and outside of calves . .like not the calves but I don't know the name of that muscle.

With the whipping/skip-rock release I will get kind of crampy in my right forearm after a lot of balls in quick succession - but I could probably hit 500 balls that way without an issue . .so, basically, I can do 9 holes but not 18 right now :)

[vangator]

Unfortuneately, the only way I can edit in this forum is to do BB mode. So I don't get he nice full rich text editting stuff. iacas ... "What's that have to do with striking the golf ball? The golf ball is struck (and in most cases is gone) before the clubhead really touches the ground. How can the sole help "square it up"?" Same as bounce with a pitch. If you don't hit the shot cleanly, the bounce and sole of the club can help the shot. if you've got a death grip on the club, you can't. It just digs in. I checked out your link. I'm not sure I agree with that. As a rule, pros get away with a lot of things that aren't exactly kosher becuas they do it all the time. Jim Furyk's swing is a perfect example. My swing is more like a Zach Johnson (obviously not as consistent). When I stopped trying to swing like Tiger Woods, I hit the ball more consistently. Amazing... After a round of golf, the only thing that hurts on me is my feet if I walk. I once walked 63 holes in one day when the temp got up to 108*. What hurt that day was my skin because i was sunburned. :)

[iacas]

"What's that have to do with striking the golf ball? The golf ball is struck (and in most cases is gone) before the clubhead really touches the ground. How can the sole help "square it up"?"

Same as bounce with a pitch. If you don't hit the shot cleanly, the bounce and sole of the club can help the shot. if you've got a death grip on the club, you can't. It just digs in.

No, not the same as bounce on a pitch. On a pitch you can strike the ground a little before the ball, but because the AoA is so shallow, it slides along the ground.

Clubs with very little bounce and a steeper AoA don't glide, so you hit the ball fat. The sole does not help "square up the club" at impact.

And I absolutely guarantee that you can have "a death grip" on the club without "digging in."

I checked out your link. I'm not sure I agree with that. As a rule, pros get away with a lot of things that aren't exactly kosher becuas they do it all the time. Jim Furyk's swing is a perfect example. My swing is more like a Zach Johnson (obviously not as consistent). When I stopped trying to swing like Tiger Woods, I hit the ball more consistently.

Disagree all you like, but they've done studies, and the average PGA Tour pro not only maintains the same pressure throughout his swing better than the average golfer, but it's much higher from the start.

Something like this:

Grip isn't too closely related though so let's leave that for that thread, okay?

P.S. Pros virtually all have five things in common… :)

[AmazingWhacker]

So I went to see my teacher today to ask him about these 2 thoughts and a couple others.  He watched me hit a few balls using each thought and said definitely for me the hands/whipping/skip-rock thought is better.  On video, I could see that my *real* issue . .the next big thing for me to work on . .is that my arms and club shaft are too flat at the top of my backswing.  This is what was causing the wear and tear on my hands, for sure.

I also got to see my swing from the front view on for the first time ever and I could also see that I am *not* flipping it!    The drill he gave me will take me several months to work out.  It's just stopping at the top of backswing, making sure arms and clubshaft are where they should be and then swinging from there by first letting the club shaft fall behind me but just with my wrist and hands . . ie .. not moving my arms.