How to crank wrist angle?

[live4u120]

Well I've been researching the fundamentals of a golf swing, and I think I could get alot more distance SAFELY if I could make my wrist angle a little bigger on the downswing.



There's a picture of Tiger's downswing on the left. Wheww look at that power.

Now what I'm wondering: How would I go about making my wrist angle larger like that? Right now it's pretty small, which makes me think something isn't operating fast enough.

NOW BEFORE ALL THE "THE PROS PLAY A DIFFERENT GAME. YOU CAN'T DO WHAT THEY CAN." RESPONSES ROLL IN:

What could work better to do this? My hips turning? Or my transition from top of swing to downswing go faster?

Thanks.

[Shanks A Million]

Well I've been researching the fundamentals of a golf swing, and I think I could get alot more distance SAFELY if I could make my wrist angle a little bigger on the downswing.

I've had that much lag at times, and I don't know how much I liked it. It's done by really letting the club lag behind your hands. You keep your left arm very straight, and let the club break back, then come through, without increasing your grip pressure. It feels like the club will fall down and hit you in the butt. This causes the clubhead to lag behind, and it snaps down as you get to the bottom of the swing. It feels like cracking a whip.

The reason I stopped doing it is because it requires a lot of timing, and it makes things somewhat inconsistent. Second, it caused my swing to get overly wristy. Tiger's swing is very timing dependent, and on a bad day, he hits some dreadful shots. "Woods" is not so much his name, but where he ends up most of the time. I prefer Stricker's swing, much more consistent and easy to repeat. So, can you do it "safely?" Not really. It's a judgment call, distance, or accuracy? I try to toe the line, my club lags my arms about 90° until I get to hip high.

[senorchipotle]

Well I've been researching the fundamentals of a golf swing, and I think I could get alot more distance SAFELY if I could make my wrist angle a little bigger on the downswing.

have you ever skipped a rock across a pond? that's all they're doing. basically, try to do your best charlie hough impression, that should do it.

[live4u120]

So, can you do it "safely?" Not really. It's a judgment call, distance, or accuracy? I try to toe the line, my club lags my arms about 90° until I get to hip high.

Well I would say it's about 70 degress for me, so I figured a little more would help. Thanks for the awesome answer! You seem to always come through with great answers, especially in my sound thread

[Shanks A Million]

Well I would say it's about 70 degress for me, so I figured a little more would help. Thanks for the awesome answer! You seem to always come through with great answers, especially in my sound thread

Yeah, but I have professional credentials and experience in the music industry... I'm an expert on both traditional music theory and psychoacoustic theory. I am, in the end, still a session musician (soon to be working again... yay?), but those areas are my focus. They are both pretty closely related.

Here's what you do. Set your feet at address so one points at the target, the other straight away from it. You want your heels to be touching. Then you take a swing. You cannot go back without breaking your wrists, and your are pretty much stopped from going back too far with your arms. Then, you hold this break coming down. It will feel really weird, and it should. You should be able to hit it about 90% as far with this stance. Just get used to the feeling.

[tm22721]

Here's how to preserve all of that lag created in transition.

[Shanks A Million]

Yes, a lot of golf (most of golf for that matter) is discipline. It's easy to say this is what I need to do, and try to do it, but it's not easy to go out and make a fool of yourself doing it the right way. The hardest part of golf is that you want SO badly to hit that little ball a long way, that your body begins to revert to nature, and you swing it like a caveman with a club. You must have discipline. You have to keep at what you're working on, no matter how hard, or how embarrassed you feel hacking at the ball, and shanking it, you'll always have the last laugh. No matter how much you want to swing at the ball, you must force yourself to be patient. This is so important in getting that good lag. That's why golf is so great, because a well struck ball is a minor miracle in itself, and a par round requires seventy two of them!

[iacas]

I just had a "lag" discussion with Dave yesterday. He said something like "I don't think you can easily teach lag to someone who has never actually felt it before." He mentioned a drill I've heard before which is to grip the club normally with your left hand, but hook your index and middle finger on your right hand under the grip on the shaft; swing back a little and simulate moving into impact while actively pulling back with your right hand. That's lag.

I tend to be of the opinion that lag is created passively, almost. Nobody "tries to increase their lag" - I think most people achieve lag as a result of other things. For example, in my own swing I retain my lag much longer if I get my weight forward at impact. If my weight stays centered (which is "back" of where it should be), my body feels my club will bottom out just behind the ball and I flip at it a little bit. Now, in fast motion it'll look like I've retained lag, but it's that split second earlier release. Nothing about my body or my understanding of the swing changed between those two swings - I just did something different which _caused_ my body to retain the lag.

Let me put it this way too: you never see a PGA Tour player working on increasing or maintaining his lag. They do it as a result of other things in their swing. Do Dave's drill if you want to feel it, and by all means get your impact bags out or do whatever... but also consider that perhaps you're releasing the lag because your body feels it has to in order to make good contact, and look at other parts of your swing. If I'm wrong and you can increase lag, that's still one of the last things I think you'd want to do in the golf swing, well after you get your head steady, your takeaway on plane, and your weight forward at impact, for example.

[Shanks A Million]

I just had a "lag" discussion with Dave yesterday. He said something like "I don't think you can easily teach lag to someone who has never actually felt it before."

I could not agree more!

I tend to be of the opinion that lag is created passively, almost. Nobody "tries to increase their lag" - I think most people achieve lag as a result of other things.

High five, you hit it right square on the nose!

Let me put it this way too: you never see a PGA Tour player working on increasing or maintaining his lag. They do it as a result of other things in their swing. Do Dave's drill if you want to feel it, and by all means get your impact bags out or do whatever... but also consider that perhaps you're releasing the lag because your body feels it has to in order to make good contact, and look at other parts of your swing. If I'm wrong and you can increase lag, that's still one of the last things I think you'd want to do in the golf swing, well after you get your head steady, your takeaway on plane, and your weight forward at impact, for example.

This is all really good advice. I do honestly believe that lag is totally natural, and there is such thing as overdoing it. Steve Stricker doesn't use a huge amount of wrist action, and he's #3 on the damn planet! Bubba Watson has lag in spades, as does Anthony Kim, but they play their way, and we play ours. You really just want to make sure you have lag, and don't flip the club. If you flip the club, impact will never feel right. I know my lag is there because I keep meticulous video records of my swing. My 3 iron enters the ground going 13° downward. This is really all I care about.