What is the best way to get forward shaft lean through impact?

[bunkerputt]

Here's the real scoop from a former scooper.  You aren't going to magically acquire a forward leaning shaft by working on the positions in your golf swing.  You have to develop the feel for the dynamic pressure lag creates in your right hand trigger finger and learn to move your body in such a way that this pressure is preserved well into the downswing, preferably at impact.  The forward leaning shaft is a byproduct of a steady acceleration of the clubhead.  Nearly all amateurs explode from the top and create too much speed too soon.  That would be like giving the shopping cart a heave in the grocery store.  You'd be running after it.  That's the way most people, myself included, tend to swing the club.  We want distance, we're impatient, or whatever.  We don't start slow from the top like tour players do.  You want to feel like you are "pushing" the club with a steady, driving force.  This is a huge reason that working on rhythm and tempo tend to provide way more results than working on positions, etc.  It tends to steady out the acceleration of the club head which works to create forward shaft lean.  (It's also why my favorite tour events are the silly season events at "ball strikers courses".  Those guys rhythm and tempo is infectious. )

Try this drill with your tour striker.  Take your grip and take your right thumb (righty) off the shaft.  You want to feel like the only part of your right hand that's controlling the club is the pad of your right index finger.  Keep your thumb off and make swings.  Take your arm back to parallel (3/4 or so) and swing to a full finish.  You have to maintain lag pressure to hit the ball.  A few buckets of this drill and it will become second nature.

[laxbballgolf]

Originally Posted by bunkerputt

Try this drill with your tour striker.  Take your grip and take your right thumb (righty) off the shaft.  You want to feel like the only part of your right hand that's controlling the club is the pad of your right index finger.  Keep your thumb off and make swings.  Take your arm back to parallel (3/4 or so) and swing to a full finish.  You have to maintain lag pressure to hit the ball.  A few buckets of this drill and it will become second nature.

That seems like a great idea.

I hadn't looked at this thread for a while, but I figured I should come back and mention that for me a key seems to be focusing on maintaining pitch elbow throughout the downswing.  Since I started doing this more, my impact conditions have felt more athletic and dynamic.

[MarioBevilacqua]

refer to my drills at the end.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by MarioBevilacqua

refer to my drills at the end.

[keiko]

Hands ahead at address helps alot to create lag unless one comes out of the spine angle during the swing. I have trained my swing to have a little pause at the top which allows time for the lower body to get ahead which automatically puts the hands ahead of the clubhead at impact.

pause at the top is the key or at least don't rush the transition. Most touring pro's I know practice slowing their transition when on the range. Watch them next time you are at a tournament, you will see them slow motioning their transitioning, even Tiger does it.

[JetFan1983]

If you're a notorious flipper then you need to feel a lot of palmar flexion of the lead wrist and no active release of the hands at any time throughout the swing. This is especially true if you hit really weak pushes and push fades that essentially go no where.

If you start hitting pull hooks then you need to understand that you need to slide your hips more forward on the downswing while at the same time keeping the head stable. That way, you'll be able to hit outward at the ball. Maintaining side-tilt goes along with learning how to slide your hips correctly.

[Siegal89]

Forget your hips, weight shift and your wrists for a bit. Take a backswing. Now do nothing else but simply BEND your spine so your right shoulder is moving toward your right hip. What happened to your left hip? Yep, it opened. The club is also still in the fully cocked position. Now here is the most important part. You have to KEEP BENDING YOUR SPINE DOWN until you are hitting through impact. This will take you a long time to do until it is second nature. The spine drives the swing. Try it yourself. If you keep bending all the way the club lag will be maintained in front of the ball and your hips will have cleared all the way - without you even thinking about them. Everyone has a different release style that can dictate consistency and ball flight. But you will never be able to change your release pattern until you learn to bend your spine first. Oh, and if you think your bending long enough, you probably aren't - its really hard to keep it going. You will probably be tight in the left lower back and hip.

[Phil McGleno]

Or if you want to get better, dont do any of this garbage: [quote name="Siegal89" url="/t/45317/what-is-the-best-way-to-get-forward-shaft-lean-through-impact/36#post_890941"]Forget your hips, weight shift and your wrists for a bit. Take a backswing. Now do nothing else but simply BEND your spine so your right shoulder is moving toward your right hip. What happened to your left hip? Yep, it opened. The club is also still in the fully cocked position. Now here is the most important part. You have to KEEP BENDING YOUR SPINE DOWN until you are hitting through impact. This will take you a long time to do until it is second nature. The spine drives the swing. Try it yourself. If you keep bending all the way the club lag will be maintained in front of the ball and your hips will have cleared all the way - without you even thinking about them. Everyone has a different release style that can dictate consistency and ball flight. But you will never be able to change your release pattern until you learn to bend your spine first. Oh, and if you think your bending long enough, you probably aren't - its really hard to keep it going. You will probably be tight in the left lower back and hip.[/quote]

[JetFan1983]

It's an old thread and my understanding of creating forward shaft lean has improved over the last two years. Palmar flexion (bowing the wrist) certainly does help a lot of players improve, but it's also certainly not the only way to get shaft lean. It also certainly reaches a point of diminishing returns for a lot of players who once found it to be their "magic tip" so to speak (aka they eventually started to hit too many hooks doing it).

Mike made a good video offering a really nice perspective on creating lag, so it should be on a thread like this:

... and Mike's vid doesn't have anything to do with wrist bowing, so yea, that's why I like it a lot.

James has a good video here too about gently loading everything on the backswing and how that can help on one's downswing. Here that is:

[birlyshirly]

I believe that the physics of a double-pendulum predicts that a shorter armswing on the backswing encourages greater shaft lean at impact.

[boogielicious]

Originally Posted by birlyshirly

I believe that the physics of a double-pendulum predicts that a shorter armswing on the backswing encourages greater shaft lean at impact.

You're going to have to explain yourself on this one.

[birlyshirly]

Originally Posted by boogielicious

You're going to have to explain yourself on this one.

(At least) 2 things are happening during the downswing whilst the wrists uncock and the shaft lines up and then passes the left arm.

1. Time is passing.

2. The arms go from accelerating early in the downswing to decelerating into impact.

You can reduce the effect of both 1 and 2 with a shorter armswing, and in so doing, reduce the extent to which the club "releases".

The interesting thing is that mathematical models of a simplified golf swing predict that, assuming that muscular forces are applied at the same rate, a shorter swing will generate almost the same clubhead speed as a much longer swing.