Wrist Cock: Early, Late, or Proportional?

[GaryH]

What are your preferences, guys?

As a lover of Nick Faldo (not literally) I grew up on Leadbetter's teachings so I'm well aware that some teachers advocate an early completion of wrist cock.

A pro (not my regular teacher) recently told me that I cock my wrists late, that I haven't cocked my wrists much upon completion of my takeaway, and that instead it should be proportional: when 25% of the backswing is complete your wrists should be 25% cocked; when 50% of your backswing is complete they should be 50% cocked.....and so on.

What are your views on this subject, ladies and gents?

[uttexas]

Jack Nicklaus said to just let the wrist cock happen naturally--he cocked late at the end of the backswing. Mr. Nicklaus did a lot of things "naturally" that worked well for him that wouldn't work well for most. I'd say for most people, earlier wrist cock would be advantageous. As a golfer develops a better swing, delaying the left wrist cock and delaying the right wrist hinge could generate more power--float loading see this thread (includes video of delaying left wrist cock and delayed right wrist hinge) [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/t/61098/float-loading]http://thesandtrap.com/t/61098/float-loading[/URL]

[Teambobbright]

Hello, first of all before the round you need to hit some shots only using your wrist, just to get them warmed up.  Then you do your half shots,  three quarter shots, then the full shot.  After everything is warmed up, it should be a natural process, as your doing the take away the wrist is not doing to much, but when the club starts to go up it starts to cock until it finally reaches the end of your back swing and thats when it is fully ready to compress the ball on the down swing.  Let it happen naturally, only way to play golf.  I use to watch Leadbetters videos, just don't like the way he does the shoulder tilts, if you watch the pros they keep their shoulders relatively level.

[GaryH]

Originally Posted by uttexas

Jack Nicklaus said to just let the wrist cock happen naturally--he cocked late at the end of the backswing. Mr. Nicklaus did a lot of things "naturally" that worked well for him that wouldn't work well for most. I'd say for most people, earlier wrist cock would be advantageous.

As a golfer develops a better swing, delaying the left wrist cock and delaying the right wrist hinge could generate more power--float loading

see this thread (includes video of delaying left wrist cock and delayed right wrist hinge)

http://thesandtrap.com/t/61098/float-loading

As you so correctly allude to there, what most of us - as opposed to the lucky few geniuses like Nicklaus - do naturally with respect to the golf swing, is wrong!

I'm happy with my golf swing and shots at the moment, so I'm not going to change my swing based on the aforementioned quick comment from a friendly instructor walking along the range.

I don't consciously think about when I hinge my wrists, so in this sense I'm doing what comes naturally.  But, crucially, this is because i'm focusing on an (unnatural, for me) takeaway that I'm being taught, one of the benefits of which I'm told is that it promotes the correct hinging of the wrists during the ensuing backswing rather than the destructive roll/twisting of them.  It's going well, touch wood....

[GaryH]

Goodness me, Ai Miyozato does alright without gradual/proportional wrist cocking!  In fact for most of her backswing it appears there is hardly any cocking (radial deviation) of her left wrist at all.  There is some very late in the backswing, but it seems to me that she doesn't achieve full-ish radial deviation until perhaps a point in her downswing.

Interesting - and somewhat unusual? - swing:

She's fun to watch.