Lag: How to create it.

[RCF]

The first issue is searching for a term of 3 letters or less. It does not work here or at any forum. Is there another term I should use to find threads on lag?

Crating lag in my swing is my biggest problem. The only way I can cause my hands to pass over the ball before the club face is by hesitating at the top of my back swing.

Is this correct or is their a better method of creating lag?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[sean_miller]

Read the following book:

GOLF
The Mind, The Body, The Game

The authors' names escape me now, but it's on a shelf in my basement - I'll find out for you. It's not a very long book and is definitely not overly technical, but by the time you've read it, and put the few lessons into practice, lag will never (ever!) be an issue again. Having said that, I didn't really have a lag problem before reading it - I just wasn't aware of why.

[iacas]

The first issue is searching for a term of 3 letters or less. It does not work here or at any forum. Is there another term I should use to find threads on lag?

This works pretty well:

http://www.google.com/search?q=lag+site:thesandtrap.com I'm of the opinion, personally, that most people create lag as a result of doing other things properly. It's tough to cast or release your lag too early if you do the other things correctly in your golf swing. Trying to add lag when you doing get properly forward, for example, is a recipe for disaster.

[FHopper]

If I get my hips through the lag follows. ... and the ball goes straight!

[RCF]

Thanks guys. I realize I may just be looking for a bandaid but hesitating at the top of my backswing makes all the difference. I did not have this problem back in the late eighties and early nineties. The obvious cure is more lessons but I have a problem expressing what I think is wrong with my ball striking both here and to a pro.

Thanks again.

[Zeph]

I agree with Erik. Lag is a result of something, not a cause. You can of course work on getting more lag, but I doubt you'll make much headway. Lag is a result of other moving parts of the swing. By getting the fundamentals in place, lag will come all by itself. A lot of problems and flaws in a golf swing is directly linked to a flaw on the fundamentals.

[Shanks A Million]

Also agree that solid fundamentals force lag. Lag isn't something you can really create, although I and many others can purposefully get more lag, it's not good for much but a harsh contact that is hard to control (I use my left foot position to restrain my arm, which forces the wrist to break more). This is a matter of timing and feel, and we would need the proper swing fundamentals to even try to do this.

[Boyder]

RCF,
The guys here are right on ... most of it is fundemental ... however, that said I have used a couple drills over that past season that helped me out with this very issue ....
1. More Body Less Arms
2. Delayed Release Drill

Hope these help.

[Rexx]

I never hear this very much, but from my experience, lag is created/maintained by the hands dropping on a steeper arc than the backswing arc. A lot of intermediate golfers understand the notion of coming from the inside on the downswing (which is great). They don't have the over-the-top move that higher handicappers do, and may even have the nice wide arc on the backswing. But, they tend to reverse that same arc on the downswing, which IMO, isn't correct. If you follow that same arc back down (regardless of the bump to the left), the club head will move "outside" of the hands too soon in the downswing, and your wrists will uncock early because it is near impossible to stop that centrifugal force being exerted on the wrists. You need to bring the hands down more vertically, so that physics can work for you. Then, the club head won't pass outside the hands until closer to the ground, when you're ready to deliver the power to the ball. For some, this motion is passive, but for others that have ingrained a more rounded arc to their downswing, a little retraining might be in order. IMO, the "bump" to the left is there to clear out room so that the hands can drop freely. Here's a video of Nick Faldo that might be helpful:

[Shanks A Million]

I never hear this very much, but from my experience, lag is created/maintained by the hands dropping on a steeper arc than the backswing arc. A lot of intermediate golfers understand the notion of coming from the inside on the downswing (which is great). They don't have the over-the-top move that higher handicappers do, and may even have the nice wide arc on the backswing. But, they tend to reverse that same arc on the downswing, which IMO, isn't correct. If you follow that same arc back down (regardless of the bump to the left), the club head will move "outside" of the hands too soon in the downswing, and your wrists will uncock early because it is near impossible to stop that centrifugal force being exerted on the wrists. You need to bring the hands down more vertically, so that physics can work for you. Then, the club head won't pass outside the hands until closer to the ground, when you're ready to deliver the power to the ball. For some, this motion is passive, but for others that have ingrained a more rounded arc to their downswing, a little retraining might be in order. IMO, the "bump" to the left is there to clear out room so that the hands can drop freely. Here's a video of Nick Faldo that might be helpful:

Yes, and to me, the bump of the hips feels like it actually forces the hands to drop on that low inside path. I notice that on a day when I come over the top and hit weak fades (this happens when I change a major swing component sometimes, it goes away in a day or two), I look that the video and see that I don't swing across the body, but my wrists have released early, and there's some chicken wing (although I can't fully extend either arm, so there's always some chicken wing). This means the club has flipped, causing the ball to start left and turn right.

[PiustheDrGolf]

Initiate your down swing with your core, not with your hands/wrist/shoulder.

[tm22721]

Lag is relatively easy to generate the trick is preserving it .

[RCF]

Initiate your down swing with your core, not with your hands/wrist/shoulder.

Yipes! You're right. I'm starting my swing with my shoulders.

Shanks' use of the word "bump" jogged my memory of my lessons in the eighties. It just hit me that the pro back then always used the term bump and would tap my hip at the top of my backswing. I've forgotten so much from that time. Plus some of what I remember is now obsolete such as I was taught to raise my left heel on the back swing. Now that's wrong or at least that's what the pro told me last summer. I appreciate this help. Just as valuable as a $50 lesson.

[Shanks A Million]

Yipes! You're right. I'm starting my swing with my shoulders.

My golf lessons in the 80s were my dad telling me to keep my head down and not to swing my Northwestern Jr. J.C. Snead blades too hard!

[Rexx]

Yipes! You're right. I'm starting my swing with my shoulders.

Yes, the hip bump does start the downswing, but it must be accompanied by minimal INTENTIONAL upper body and arm movement. The issue is that some people have initiated the downswing with the turning of the shoulders or moving the arms (with or without an arc) for years. They have TWO things to change: the hip bump + NOT performing their incorrect move. Adding a hip bump alone may not solve the problem.

I still don't think there is an intentional holding of the wrists in a cocked position until just before impact and then an intentional release through and after impact as Al Geiberger states (yeah, yeah... he's Mr. 59, he's won tournaments... I get it). I believe the wrists are relatively relaxed throughout the swing, and it's the force of the clubhead coming down and around that releases them. It's a matter of delaying that release until the proper moment via the (slight) vertical drop of the hands and arms (whether it happens passively for you or you need to resist the urge to perform some other movement). Some people like to think of it as pulling the right elbow close to the body, but I think this can be a little misleading as well. But instead, the vertical drop from the top of the backswing will position it closer to the body than it was on the backswing when we were "creating width".

[Shanks A Million]

Yes, the hip bump does start the downswing, but it must be accompanied by minimal INTENTIONAL upper body and arm movement. The issue is that some people have initiated the downswing with the turning of the shoulders or moving the arms (with or without an arc) for years. They have TWO things to change: the hip bump + NOT performing their incorrect move. Adding a hip bump alone may not solve the problem.

Yes, absolutely, the arms should be totally dominated by the hips. This is even more true in chipping and pitching. When you

truly lead with the hips, the arms literally feel as if they're being sucked in to your side, like you're going to hit your right pocket.

[Andrew Rice]

There are primarily two factors involved in creating and perhaps more importantly, maintaining lag:
Body positioning leading into impact - the downswing must be initiated with the lower body as the weight is driven onto the front foot.
Clubface - a golfer will never allow lag to be maintained leading into impact of the face is weak or overly open as this would lead to a shank.
Thus, I would say you need to get your weight correctly positioned at impact and couple that with a square clubface to be a better 'lagger'!

[DBeane]

This works pretty well:

....thats good medicine

-Beane