Keeping left wrist flat

[CarlSpackler]

I am looking for advice, drills, etc. to keep my left wrist flat in the backswing. TIA!

[cirem22]

they sell a glove with a plastic insert to guide your wrist on the backswing. may want to try that out. I know some guys put a tee inside their glove

[bsettle]

Your wrist position at the top is HEAVILY dependent on your grip. If you have a stronger grip it is harder to keep a flat wrist, unless you dramatically alter everything just for the purpose of having a flat wrist. The best way to have a flat wrist is to use the neutral grip, usually can only see 1 1/2 - 2 knuckles on left hand at address.

Also remember that a slightly cupped wrist is natural. You actually have more "room" to cock and uncock your wrist with a slightly cupped wrist. TRY IT! Flatten your wrist and cock your wrist, now slightly cup your wrist and your movements around your anatomical snuff box will be freed. So dont freak out about a slightly cupped wrist.

[Zeph]

A slightly cupped wrist is in my opinion better than a slightly bowed one. I'll take a small slice over a fade. You can also get through the ball when releasing. With bowed wrists and a bit too much release your ball is way left.

[CarlSpackler]

Your wrist position at the top is HEAVILY dependent on your grip. If you have a stronger grip it is harder to keep a flat wrist, unless you dramatically alter everything just for the purpose of having a flat wrist. The best way to have a flat wrist is to use the neutral grip, usually can only see 1 1/2 - 2 knuckles on left hand at address.

Below is a pic that I extracted from the video. It's a little fuzzy, but I will let y'all decide how bad it is.

[Zeph]

Hard to tell, but the clubface looks more closed than open, your grip may be playing a part here too. The wrist looks a bit cupped, but then the club should be pointing more to the ground. A bowed left wrist will cause the clubface to point more to the skies.

Looks like you've got a piece of the chicken wing also. Have you tried a shorter swing? It works for John Daly, but he's on the PGA Tour (was at least).

The club moving that far around you could also be the cause for some of this. Hard to tell without a video though. I've been working on a flat wrist myself lately and found it to be a very easy change to make. That's not saying I won't have to work on it to keep it sharp. But I quickly got the feeling of how keep the wrist flat when focusing on it. Now it feels like a more natural position than my cupped wrist earlier.

Do you struggle with slicing btw, since you want to flatten the wrist?

[CarlSpackler]

I usually hit straight or a slight fade. Last year I was hitting duck hooks but made my grip more neutral (still a tad strong with the driver). My bananas would come when I really rared back to hit one. I was surprised when I saw this video because I honestly did not think I was going past parallel.

You are correct about the chicken wing which is another thread, but I think that has been corrected.

So, I went to the range at lunch today and hit balls with a sharpie in my back of my glove to get the feeling of a non cupped wrist. Then and tonight, I was hitting some serious bananage with the long stick, but my irons were nice and straight. It seems to be one or the other with me. Was I smart enough to leave it in the bag and hit my hybrid, nooooooo. But I shot 45 which is respectable for me and I managed to retain first place for another week.

[Zeph]

Doing different things with driver and irons is not uncommon. There may be many things of course, but checking your grip may be the first and easiest. I found yesterday that my clubface was shut at adress because I had the wrong perspective when standing over the club with a little forward press, so I shut the clubface. I started lining up my hands to the small mark on the grip instead of the clubhead and my hook was gone.

When changing things with the grip, hand position etc., the clubface may behave differently and your normal grip not working anymore.

I also have a tendency to fade the driver and draw my irons. Haven't done much study of it, but I'm probably pulling to hard on the driver, going to the inside. With the irons I have a slightly in-to-out swingpath.

[uttexas]

I have had the same problem for 20 years playing golf (and didn't know it) until I got my swing analyzed and coached.

Just learned the following yesterday:
at about half way back, instead of rotating the wrists back, lift up with the right and left wrist. Keep the forearms as close together as you can. This will promote a flat wrist and online backswing. It helps to get you in the "slot" for a down and inside out forward swing.

PS-keeping the forearms together is difficult for most. Requires a lot of flexibility.

A drill to "feel" this--swing with a soft round volleyball sized nerf ball between your forearms, maintaining the ball between your forearms throughout the swing.

[alf174]

I am looking for advice, drills, etc. to keep my left wrist flat in the backswing. TIA!

I noticed my left wrist cupping at the top of my backswing so I've been using this drill from Golf Magazine's May edition "

How to Groove a Perfect Backswing " and its helped a ton and quickly. I've been using a weighted driver (Medicus Maximus)

[CarlSpackler]

Thanks. I will give those two things a try. I used to do the slow motion drill ala Harvey Penick and haven't for a while. I guess it is time to brush it off again.

[jaragon126]

I had a lesson recently at GolfTec and the guy told me the same thing ... to keep my left wrist flat. I used to bend my left wrist which left the club head open & cause me to fade/slice the ball all the time.

One of the drills he gave me helped alot but is very hard to explain in words :)
He told me to take an iron & sort of lift it so it's parallel to the ground on the path that my backswing would be on. The club is pointing behind me ... like I've stopped my backswing at the halfway point. In this position, the club head should be pointing at 11o'clock ... so not straight up and not back towards my heels ... slightly in front of my towards my toes. Then finish the backswing with the wrist in that same flat position (stop the backswing at the top & look at your hands to make sure the left wrist is flat).

When I first started this, I was hooking the ball alot, but that's because I was coming over the top & using more arms than lower body to complete the swing. The instructor told me that the downswing should feel like I'm trying to hit a sort of low punch shot. Still with a complete release & follow through though.

Now that I've practiced it alot, I take some swings stopping the backswing at the top to look at my wrist to make sure it's flat. But if you can decipher my instructions above ... that helped me learn the correct position.

[atrapasuenos]

One of the drills he gave me helped alot but is very hard to explain in words :)

I had this problem too and I fix it doing something like this. My problema was that I open the club face so I wasn't taking the club on plane, overswinging and cupping the wrist.

Now that I keep the face "closed" the take away is on plane, no overswing and flat wrist at the top. Good luck! Cheers!

[Stuart]

I think its important when you take pictures or shoot video to make sure that the camera is behind you in a straight line. In that picture its off to one side so its virtually impossible to see what's going on accurately. You need to make sure that the camera follows your line of aim.

[CarlSpackler]

I think its important when you take pictures or shoot video to make sure that the camera is behind you in a straight line. In that picture its off to one side so its virtually impossible to see what's going on accurately. You need to make sure that the camera follows your line of aim.

Yeah. Sorry about that. That is the last time my daughter will be in charge of the camcorder.

[golfbarefoot]

Interesting. This was an epiphany for my game a time ago. When I previously cocked my wrists, my left wrist was always extremely bowed. Even when I was striking it solid, I was inconsistent and favored a fade. When I started cocking but keeping my wrist flat(actually only very slightly cupped) I began striking it much more consistently and playing a draw. It keeps my swing simple without any hand manipulation. You're on to something, keep at it. The only advice I have is try not to force it flat, just relax your arms and wrists while experimenting and you will be amazed.

[pittpanther]

Interesting. This was an epiphany for my game a time ago. When I previously cocked my wrists, my left wrist was always extremely bowed. Even when I was striking it solid, I was inconsistent and favored a fade. When I started cocking but keeping my wrist flat(actually only very slightly cupped) I began striking it much more consistently and playing a draw. It keeps my swing simple without any hand manipulation. You're on to something, keep at it. The only advice I have is try not to force it flat, just relax your arms and wrists while experimenting and you will be amazed.

Lots of teachers encourage the Vee between your thumb and first finger, should point towards the right. With your left wrist flat, where is the vee of your left hand pointing?

[DavidFehertysBike]

I noticed my left wrist cupping at the top of my backswing so I've been using this drill from Golf Magazine's May edition "

More like gluteus maximus. Many great players have had cups or bows at the top of their backswings. Its not a fatal flaw. I belive all improper impact positions come from throwing the club from the top at the ball with your arms rather than using the hips and legs to drive through. Most us should be drilling on proper squencing of the start of the downswing, rather than worring about what your arms and wrists are doing. If you squence correctly, the rest of the stuff just happens naturally.