Hinging the Wrist Down at Setup and Throughout the Swing

Hello All,

I had a lesson about a month ago and the instructor told me that most of my mechanics and positions were good with the exception of how close to the body my hands were at address and impact.  To fix this, he had me stand up a little straighter, set up with my hands a little in front of my shoulder line (instead of hanging straight down), and hinge my wrists down as far as they could go and hold this position throughout my swing.

All of it made sense to me with the exception of the wrists.  It felt completely awkward at first, but after a few swings I immediately began to make better contact, stay more on plane, and it actually increased my clubhead speed.  I probably gained about 10 to 15 yards on all of my clubs, and dramatically increased accuracy (on the monitor).  It's the offseason so I haven't had the chance to take it to the course.

My question is about his wrist fix.  I have no problem holding this position throughout my swing and it's obviously working but is this something that you're supposed to do?  When I didn't do this, I would get to the top of the backswing and hinge my left wrist up, but the only way I could get to what I thought was the right position at the top was to round it out and come off plane.  I wasn't cupping my wrist, but apparently I wasn't getting to the right position properly.  From that position I had trouble coming back down and squaring the face.  Now, when I get to the top of the backswing, the weight of the club forces my right wrist to hinge backwards and when I come down I can feel the right wrist slowly unhinging into the ball.  I'm assuming my left wrist is ok, but it's a completely different feeling and I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly and that this is what it's supposed to feel like.  Instead of hinging up (forced by me), it feels like I'm hinging back (forced by the weight of the club).  Before, my misses were curving right.  Now, I have fewer misses but they all curve left.  Obviously any miss is bad, but I'd rather have a hook miss than a slice miss.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

Without before and after video it's hard to say much. Perhaps your instructor was trying to get you to feel something. I heard the same comment (hands too low at address) from my instructor in 2010 but he liked the impact position so he just added it as an OFI. I still worked on it and it's now second nature. It's easier when your clubs are the proper length and lie, and low hands are still necessary for some shots. My instructor mentioned the hands being passive during the backswing. Based on other things we work on, I assume he's suggesting a need to actively manipulate the wrists or hand position on the way back indicates the need to work on something else first.

Sean, I know what you mean about the video.  I actually do have the video, but I don't think it would help much with this question.  The reason is because almost every bad thing I was doing in the before video was corrected with these three fixes.  I need to get some new video and analyze that.  I'm getting a new camera soon so I should be able to upload some video.  What's the easiest way to do that?  Youtube?

It did take some time for me to incorporate them into my swing before it felt natural.  I agree he was definitely trying to make me feel something, I'm just not sure if what I'm feeling is what I'm supposed to be feeling, but that might be different feeling for people.

But I think you answered my question.  My hands definitely feel passive during the backswing, and really, my wrists do too.  I'm just hinging (lightly pushing) them down instead of neutral and holding it in that position throughout the swing.  I think if there was tension or any forced positions, my wrists wouldn't naturally hinge and then unhinge, but I could be wrong.

Before I made these changes, I thought the correct procedure was to have the left wrist hinge up in the backswing, but the way I was doing it was forced and I never felt like the right wrist hinged back, it felt more like the right wrist hinged up with the left.  It feels like it's a powerful position but it's really not.  I could never "release" from that position properly.  Now it feels like the left wrist hinges up and at the same time the right wrist hinges back.

I was reading through the the "PA5" thread and that sheds some light.  What I'm trying to describe is what I'm seeing in the stills in that thread.  The right wrist hinging back and through.