Lag

[x-man]

Hi I recently downloaded a swing analysis app for my iPhone.  The quality certainly isn't the greatest but it does give me a clue as to what's going on.  One thing I noticed right away is that I have released 80% of my power prob half way down in the back swing.  Does someone know of any good drills to help me fix this power robbing problem?  Thanks in advance

[Pope33]

Sounds to me like you need to slow things down through you backswing and initiating your downswing. All your energy is taken up in the beginning of your swing and nothing left for the important part.

I would take half shots on the range for an entire session. Focusing on increasing the clubhead speed through the hitting zone. Hopefully this will help carry good thoughts to the course during your full swing.

[jbc311]

Half swings are definitely a good place to start.  Lag is created by letting your hip rotation drive the swing and keeping your hands and arms quiet.  Take half swings, concentrating on letting the rotation of your hips deliver the club to the ball and keeping your hands and arms completely out of the motion.  DO NOT do this by tensing your arms and grip, they need to stay nice and loose.  Getting an idea of what lag feels like is tough.  Find a light weight broom and take a few swings with it.  The air resistance will create lag and give you a better feel for what you are trying to accomplish.  There are also training aids that are essentially a grip with a paddle attached to it that accomplish the same thing a bit more effectively.

[saevel25]

Well the issue with hip driven is, what if your hips are overly active to begin with, and driving them more would just cause an out of sync swing. I would just keep using a video camera, and experiment with different feelings. One good mental image is driving the butt of the club down towards the ground.

[inthecup]

  x-man said:

Originally Posted by x-man

Hi I recently downloaded a swing analysis app for my iPhone.  The quality certainly isn't the greatest but it does give me a clue as to what's going on.  One thing I noticed right away is that I have released 80% of my power prob half way down in the back swing.  Does someone know of any good drills to help me fix this power robbing problem?  Thanks in advance

Probably a good idea to post some video.

[x-man]

Thanks for the help and I'll get another video an post it. My 8 year old shot this one for me so it's a bit on the wobbly side lol

[jshots]

Yeah what exactly do you mean you are releasing your power? Do you let your wrists unhinge to early? In general do you just lose power?

The idea to get power is simply to add all the motions you make on your rotation together. When you rotate down to the ball from your backswing, your body sort of unwinds, and each individual part is probably not moving all that fast. But when you add the unhinging of your wrists to the speed from the swinging from your arms and add that too the untwisting of the shoulders and add that to the un twisting at the hips and core. All of them together create power. If anyone of those parts are working on its own and not from the bottom up then you will lose power.

[x-man]

Sorry didn't explain this well but yes my wrists are unhinged very early. With the swing app you can compare your swing to a pros. I know I'll never be close to the amount of lag they have but I'm not even close.

[haddockd]

I recently won my struggle with lag. I fixed the following 3 things:keeping my back elbow tucked to my body during the downswing: only swinging with my hips and lower body and allowing the upper body to just follow (do NOT turn with your shoulders to shart the downswing): thirdly, I took all of the tnesion out of my hands and arms. I dont even try to swing with my arms. Hope this helps

[x-man]

Thanks for the help. Just curious how much did your distance improve by fixing the lack of lag? Distance isn't my primary concern care more about being a better ball striker but I'm a guy so of course would like to hit it was far as possible.