Hooking the ball - drills to limit my release

[JoshKeller]

First off, I'm tall ( 6'5"), and generate good club head speed. However, Im caught in between two problems. If I take my full swing, I tend to over release, and my right arm will come over the left just before impact, leading to the dreaded hook. If I hold off, I tend to hit it to the right, presumably, due to no releasing at all. This is mostly a driver problem, I tend to hit my 4 - lw pretty straight and in control. Any drills for me to work on? Thanks guys!

[wrx_junki]

What is your ball position? How high do you tee it up? Are you sliding your hips forward enough?

Let's say your ball is aiming 9 oclock and you are facing 12 oclock, try tossing your clubhead to the 10 oclock position after impact. This hopefully will produce a push draw instead of a hook.

[JoshKeller]

What is your ball position? How high do you tee it up? Are you sliding your hips forward enough?

I play the ball inline with my big toe on my front foot - the ball is directly inline with my left shoulder. I use the short tees, and about 1/3 of the ball is above my driver (cobra speed pro). I would like to think im sliding my hips enough, but its hard to say. I tend to feel like im thrusting my belt buckle towords the target

[wrx_junki]

Let's say your ball is aiming 9 oclock and you are facing 12 oclock, try tossing your clubhead to the 10 oclock position after impact. This hopefully will produce a push draw instead of a hook.

Try doing this with a combination of teeing the ball slightly lower than normal and move the ball back in your stance by a smidgen.

[halcon]

Do not try to release and "swing to first base". Keep your hands in front of the club, this will make impossible the early release. Also, as wrx_junki recommended, position the ball a little back in your stance (inside the front heel works for me). One more thing, don't try all this in the course, it will feel odd at the beginning; go to the driving range and practice until you feel comfortable. And don't forget to shift your hips forward, towards the target.
If you do it right, you should have a nice draw that starts to the right and goes back to your aim line.

[CalBoomer]

For me personally, trying to "limit release" never produces consistent results. Extreme limiting of release or "blocking" really cuts down on distance. Two suggestions easy to implement. Make your swing a little more vertical. Open the clubface slightly at address. This may produce a mild push fade or power fade, or even a mild push draw, but prevents extreme hooking.

[halcon]

For me personally, trying to "limit release" never produces consistent results. Extreme limiting of release or "blocking" really cuts down on distance. Two suggestions easy to implement. Make your swing a little more vertical. Open the clubface slightly at address. This may produce a mild push fade or power fade, or even a mild push draw, but prevents extreme hooking.

I agree, limiting the release is not a good idea, but neither it is to consciously trying to release the club. Work on a good setup, move your weight forward during the down swing (hips), keep your reference point still (head) and let the club release naturally.

[Vladimir Puttin']

On occasion, I have a problem with too much right hand (I'm a righty) turning the club over. Here are a couple exercises I use:

1. Setup to the ball and take your normal grip, now take your trailing hand and while leaving it on the club, point your pointing finger and thumb like your shooting a gun. Swing the club like this, making sure that your thumb and pointing finger stay off the club. This was an exercise I saw on the Golf Fix on the Golf Channel. It's a good exercise to prevent that rolling over feeling and will work well with the driver.

2. Hit balls with your leading side. If you're a righty, hit some balls with your left arm. This is more suitable for irons and hitting off mats but I really like the feel it gives for timing and squaring the club at impact.

3. Practice using a double overlap grip. It's the same as a normal overlap but instead of one finger, you overlap the pinky and ring finger. A while back I was having problems with some snappy pull hook problems and my teacher gave me this and #2 to work on. I practiced using the double overlap and liked it so much that it's my normal grip now.

Hope these help. Have fun.

[JoshKeller]

i think that is my problem as well. playing baseball for so many years, I was always taught to "roll" the fore arms to pull the ball. my right hand comes over my left, and closes the face securely. Any pics of the grip your using?

[Vladimir Puttin']

No pics but you can check out this vid: http://www.ehow.com/video_2357732_fr...e-overlap.html

I totally disagree with the guy in the video that the double overlap is power killer. Actually, I feel like I have a more powerful swing with this grip because I'm less tense that club will snap over and take a full whack through the ball.

[RobS]

On occasion, I have a problem with too much right hand (I'm a righty) turning the club over. Here are a couple exercises I use:

I think that would be a good one for you. I think you may be using too much of your right arm during the downswing, breaking a lever and causing an early release of the clubhead. Try using your left arm on the backswing and to begin the downswing while only allowing your right arm to come into play when the hands hit the body.

[neophyte]

Your conscious mind is too involved in your swing. You will have trouble fixing your problems until your basic swing is completely in muscle memory. Plus you probably have too many different swings since your conscious mind is in control of your swing. Pick out your basic simple swing and practice it until you can do it without your consicious mind telling your body parts what to do. At this point you will find that you have become really consistent in your swing and the flight of the ball. Even if you are hooking the ball you are hooking it the same amount and distance everytime. At this time make changes or additions one at a time. When the new change is in muscle memory, make another single change or addition. In fact at this stage you will notice slight differences in basics that make big improvements in ball flight. These oops will tell you what your next single change will be.

[bunkerputt]

Work on your body speed. If you're big, that's probably your problem: there's just so much mass to get moving. When the body stops, the arms keep moving around and the rear hand turns over because that's the way your shoulder sockets work. Practice throwing a ball side arm down the target line with your dominant hand from a good golf posture and shoulder turn. You'll notice that the natural motion puts the shoulders open to the target line when you release. When the shoulders are open like this, there's nothing turning the trailing hand over, but in fact, the opposite tends to happen and the release is held off naturally. Any other method is just monkeying around with your hand timing and won't last without a lot of practice and maintenance.

[HAVOC]

gripe it just a little tighter each time until your find your slicing the ball then let it up just a tad and youll be hitting them dead on

[Chas]

How about the role of right hand position on the grip, i.e. stronger vs. weaker, in promoting/inhibiting release? I'm trying using a somewhat stronger right hand position (right handed, left hand stays the same) and it seems to promote a bit fuller release.

Does this make any sense or am I barking up the wrong tree as usual?

If the latter, I blame a post I read somewhere on this forum. Don't blame me ....

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

How about the role of right hand position on the grip, i.e. stronger vs. weaker, in promoting/inhibiting release? I'm trying using a somewhat stronger right hand position (right handed, left hand stays the same) and it seems to promote a bit fuller release.

I think you're half-right; strengthening the right hand would mean the right hand would tend to drive the club to release more. However, I think it's a bad way to fix the problem, because it puts your hands in conflict with each other. The left hand wants to square the face up (or not square it up) the way it always has, and the right wants to push it further closed. What kind of shot you end up with depends on which hand wins the argument, and that's really not a good thing if consistency is part of the goal.

-Andrew

[Leftygolfer]

Something that has helped me is moving the ball up in the stance a touch with the irons. I have suffered with big hooks and this seemed to help a bit. It allows me to hit the ball not as much from the inside and have a better less hooking flight.

Another thought. How is your alignment. I've found that the farther I aim left the bigger hooks I hit.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

To the OP: instructors seem to have a consensus (my teacher says it, and Erik on here says it), that in order for the timing of the hands to be consistently right, they should feel passive. If your holding them stiff, your release will be late, and if you consciously turn them over, your release will be inconsistent and could tend to be early like yours.

My teacher tells me "alligator arms", since alligators have those little tiny arms. The idea is to imagine my arms are small and weak, and that therefore I need to rely on only my body turn to actually swing the club.

He also taught me to grip the club with the pinky, ring, and middle fingers of the left hand, and to keep the other fingers (including the entire right hand) as relaxed as possible on the grip. This is to avoid muscle tension in the hands and forearms, which would prevent the hands from turning over.

If you're firing your hands through too early, I would suggest trying to make them more passive. Swing the club with your body, and you may find your arms and hands naturally bring the club through square.

-Andrew