swinging the club too late

[Sdot]

Long time lurker, first time poster.  Love this forum.  here's my deal.  had a golf lesson yesterday, and the main thing the pro told me is i was basically "holding" if that's the right word my right arm bend, and wrist bend too long.  this is all so hard to explain in text but i think what i was/have been doing is trying to hold the "lag" i read about.  now this is only my 3rd summer of playing golf and i started late im 37 yrs old.  my swing thought was, get it to the top, then hold that right arm bend coming down right up until the shaft got close to the ball then extend the arm and wrists into the ball. i guess i thought that was lag and also getting my hands to be ahead of the ball at impact.  the pro said that basically the butt end of the club was pointing towards the target when it came across the front of my body, then by the time i got the clubhead down to the ball either the face was open pushing it straight right or i would compensate and try to get my wrists around so quick the ball would go way left.  (im right handed)  also never any real good loft.  now my short irons i could hit pretty good im guessing because it wasnt so hard to get the club head to the ball this way because it had less time to travel, but long clubs were bad.  the pro gave me the feeling of early on in the downswing start getting the club head down to the ball.  now this goes against in my mind of "holding the lag".  but after some practice i was hitting the ball so darn good i wanted to kiss him.  went out and played 18 and never have i drove the ball better in my life.  it just felt wrong to almost immediately in the down swing to start getting that club head down and to the ball, but man it felt good.  I'm thinking maybe i had a false idea of what "lag" is.  just curious to hear your guys thoughts.. hopefully i explained this feeling good enough, it's hard to put into words  thanks guys.

[TN94z]

It sounds like you found something that helped with the issue. Check out this thread , post #12.  I Iacas posted a video talking about "getting the arms down."  Is this kind of what you were referring to?

[Jon Robert]

" I'm thinking maybe i had a false idea of what "lag" is. just curious to hear your guys thoughts.."

I think lag is nothing but the OBSERVABLE POSITION of good timing.  Another observable position of good timing is the hands ahead of the ball when impact takes place.  There are many other observable elements of good timing.

CASTING is bad timing because the club head gets ahead of the hands when impact takes place.

Excessive lag reveals bad timing because the club should have been released by that point in the swing.

Lag is for some reason the obsessive fixation of those trying to describe good timing.  As is often the case there are ridiculous silly and outright stupid claims associated with lag and other elements of the swing.  I like the one that says it is where power comes from.  If that was the case why do people swing very high over the head only to have wasted the motion when all they had to do is swing from the lag position.

[rustyredcab]

one guys thoughts...

I've always agreed with the school that says you do not want to feel like you are forcing the holding of lag or the releasing of the lag. Sounds like you are getting the feeling of letting the club release "on its own."

I also think that speed comes from letting the club release. "Power" is when that release happens at the correct time. With your wrists completely ridged, you can swing a club at about 40 MPH max. Any swing speed over 40 MPH comes from the release of your wrist hinge -- a release of the lag. The reason so many of us talk about "holding the lag" is that we don't want the release to come before the club gets to the ball.