Maintaining Wrist Cock Through Impact

[nyjets2806]

I know that the longer you hold your wrist cock, the farther you can hit the ball, and I've been trying to work on it for awhile now but I keep gettting too much casting as I come through the ball. I can make a good divot constiently but I just don't can't seem to hold the angle long enough to get the distance I feel I should be. Anyone have any good tips or drills that help to improve wrist cock retention?

[Philbo]

at a 5 handicap, i dare say that it probably wont be a huge deficiency in your swing.

However, a simple tip that my local pro taught me when i was just beginning was to focus on grip pressure and 'feeling' the club head and lag through the downswing. As per most beginners, i felt as though the harder i swung (inevitably through my shoulders), the further i hit the ball. As i played more and more, i found the easier I swung, the more balance and in sync my whole body was. He focussed on the very issue you talked about regarding hinging at the wrists and releasing through impact to accelerate the club head.

Lighter pressure promotes a natural release of the club through impact, concurrently, dissuading you from chocking the club and releasing the wrist cock too early in your downswing.

Feeling the lag and club head through the downswing gives greater feedback . Don't really know how to put this one into words but you will feel that with an early release of the wrist cock, you end up swinging much harder and everything sort of falls out of sync. It's almost as though you end up through the club at the ball at the last minute, thus, in conjunction with the light grip pressure, allows a nice and easy release.

This worked for me... but i think there will be a million different tips you will get from the wealth of knowledge on offer in this forum. hope it works as well for you as it did for me.

[WorkerOfTheBall]

Lighter pressure promotes a natural release of the club through impact, concurrently, dissuading you from chocking the club and releasing the wrist cock too early in your downswing.

Not sure how I can explain the importance of the above statement. Too much grip pressure can ruin a golf 'swing' (think Jim Flick here) ...."feel the weight of the club head", without this sensation swing path and release can both be affected.

A drill you can try (with relaxed pressure) is feeling the shaft against your trigger finger on the downswing. The index finger position of your right hand should look and feel like a gun trigger finger (see photo). This drill is two-fold, it will allow you to maintain lag and prevent you from "over gripping" the club. Doug

[nyjets2806]

Thanks, I'll give it some more work. Your right its not a big factor in my swing but I know it would help get more distance for my swing so I figured I'd try to work on it a little more.

[TourSpoon]

Start at the top of your backswing and start the downswing in slow motion. Keep your wrist cock as you move the butt of the club towards the ball until your hands are even with the ball and the club is parallel to the ground and target line. Do this three times from the top and on the fourth time let the club release while keeping the feeling that you created in the first three. You can even do this on the range. It will help you keep the angle that you desire.

[fusioncal]

I know that the longer you hold your wrist cock, the farther you can hit the ball, and I've been trying to work on it for awhile now but I keep gettting too much casting as I come through the ball. I can make a good divot constiently but I just don't can't seem to hold the angle long enough to get the distance I feel I should be. Anyone have any good tips or drills that help to improve wrist cock retention?

I've got a couple of tips here and I hope they help. Try swinging a bit faster not stronger/harder, but just faster. Keep the wrist cock at the last moment before the impact. Don't overdo it just try to be natural. Remember you have to hit through the ball NOT at the ball at downward angle. Do note that the ball is merely an object which happens to be in your swing path.

If you're trying to hit the ball, you will release the club before the impact (casting) and will hit a fat shot. I believe it's due to the mind perceiving that the end of a swing will deliver the most powerful blow. The truth is you need to hit the ball BEFORE the end of the swing. That's why you see all good golfers have both their arms fully extended/straightened at about 4-5 o'clock, which marks the end of their swing and the rest is just a follow through. Hope this helps.

[kfowler]

Do you have the ability to tape yourself? Tape yourself with a ball and then without a ball. In my case it was very mental. I had great lag as long as I didn't have a ball in front of me.

Another reason I've seen for casting is if you stop turning. All that energy has to go somewhere so if you stop turning your hips, your arms and club will quickly catch up to you.

A drill my instructor showed me was to take one of those styrofoam noodles and place it just off your back foot . When you start your downswing, if you hit the noodle, you're casting.

[geezer]

I saw one of the instructors on the Golf Channel a while ago (can't remember which one though) and he was demonstrating a drill to improve lag. He took the club up to the top, then released with his right hand (for a righty) and hooked his right index finger around the shaft about half way down. Then swing with your left hand while adding resistance with your right to get the feeling of lag.

Don't know if it will work though as I never tried it myself. Anyone else try this one? Does it work?

[supercow]

One easy way to demonstrate the feel of what true lag feels like is to wrap a towel around your clubhead and then attempt to swing it. Due to the weight the clubhead should feel as though it is stuck behind your hands/wrists. All you have to do thereafter is to replicate this feel while using a unweighted club.

Another way is to simply do it in slow motion,



Finally, another way (this is dependent on your hand/wrist strength) is to swing using just your left hand and (hopefully) start your downswing via your lower body. Since most people don't have the strength to come over the top when using just one hand it should help maintain your lag for longer.

[dogfood10us]

try this drill:
http://www.golf.com/golf/instruction...565247,00.html

[g-funk13]

Start at the top of your backswing and start the downswing in slow motion. Keep your wrist cock as you move the butt of the club towards the ball until your hands are even with the ball and the club is parallel to the ground and target line. Do this three times from the top and on the fourth time let the club release while keeping the feeling that you created in the first three. You can even do this on the range. It will help you keep the angle that you desire.

Sweet tip, spoon. I can't wait to get to a range. . .

[Ben]

As simple and lame this may sound. Try and hold that position for as long as possible. Conciously think of it while you are swinging. Hold hold hold hold. As long as you can, then flip (at least that's the term I use) the hands at impact at the very, certain last moment. At times I feel as though i hold it there through impact.

That's probably where my super fade came from recently. All I hit now are fades, no matter how hard I try to draw a ball it doesn't. It just clicked in my head, because I hold off so much before impact is where the fade is from.

All being said, I don't think I necessarily hit the ball a ton either. Just more consistent and reliable. But, some may take that over length.

[Weightshift]

I know that the longer you hold your wrist cock, the farther you can hit the ball, and I've been trying to work on it for awhile now but I keep gettting too much casting as I come through the ball. I can make a good divot constiently but I just don't can't seem to hold the angle long enough to get the distance I feel I should be.

Maybe if we knew what this distance was, we would be in a better position to advise you. Hope you're not trying to match Tiger

For example, maybe your arc is not wide enough, or your hips aren't leading, etc. It could be other things than wristcock.

[Iwanttobreak100]

For the feeling of lag, are you supposed to be gripping the club loose enough that you can kind of feel your club whipping through the swing. For instance when I am at the top of my backswing I should still feel the club moving backwards even when I've started my move down? I guess what I'm saying is if you were to whip a towel or a leash, after you have started going forward you can still see the towel moving the opposite direction?

[blue72ss]

If I were in your shoes I would stop focusing on lag.  I have too much lag and am working on not having so much lag so I am a perfect example that its not needed, there are so many other important and more consistent ways to gain power.

Steve Stricker is model example of consistency with zero lag.

My problem with so much lag is your basically "flipping" the clubhead of open to close so fast that its a crap shoot where your clubhead will be at impact.  Look at Sergio Garcia, he has been reducing the amount of lag in his swing for 10 years.

I would focus on JB Holmes swing, get your power from upper body turn and if needed lower body turn, the less hands the better IMO.