What's Wrong With Early Wrist Set?

[Marty2019]

I've been doing the "Pre-set drill," where you hinge your wrists with the club parallel to the ground and in line with the target, with a flat left wrist.  Basically, you're setting the club as it should be at the top of the back swing.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, here is a video:

I'm doing this on the driving range, and I am finding that if I pre-set my wrists like that, and then rotate my shoulders back, I hit the ball a lot more crisply than if I use the classic one-piece takeaway with the later wrist set.  It seems to really simplify the back swing, by pre-setting the wrist hinge.  

If I do the more classic one-piece takeaway, I tend to get too much back swing.   Probably because I'm doing more than one thing.   With the one-piece takeaway, I'm rotating my shoulders, rotating the club, setting my wrists, etc.   It seems like, when I'm doing the one-piece takeaway, I get to the top of my back swing and just keep on going until if I really forget myself, I can take way too much back swing. 

By pre-setting my wrists, all I have to do at that point is rotate back and I'm in a good position at the top of the back swing. 

So I am wondering, is there anything wrong with an early wrist set?   I mean a really really early wrist set.   Would there be anything wrong with setting the wrists first, and then rotating back?   I've never heard of anyone teaching that sort of thing except as a drill.  I've never seen anyone advocate it as part of a "legitimate" golf swing. 

Edited February 4, 2017 by iacas
embed videos please

[Rainmaker]

I used to try and use pre-setting the wrist to control trajectory . .. pre-set more for a lower shot, pre-set less for a higher one.  It did seem to work that way but I had a lot of mishits with the extreme pre-set . .and my teacher told me to stop doing it . .so I did.  Now I'm trying to control trajectory in a different way.

I'm not sure if there's anything  "wrong" with it . .if it works for you.  For me it did lead to excessive hitting down on it and increase % of misstrikes.  

[Hacker James]

2 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

I've been doing the "Pre-set drill," where you hinge your wrists with the club parallel to the ground and in line with the target, with a flat left wrist.  Basically, you're setting the club as it should be at the top of the back swing.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, here is a video:

I'm doing this on the driving range, and I am finding that if I pre-set my wrists like that, and then rotate my shoulders back, I hit the ball a lot more crisply than if I use the classic one-piece takeaway with the later wrist set.  It seems to really simplify the back swing, by pre-setting the wrist hinge.  

If I do the more classic one-piece takeaway, I tend to get too much back swing.   Probably because I'm doing more than one thing.   With the one-piece takeaway, I'm rotating my shoulders, rotating the club, setting my wrists, etc.   It seems like, when I'm doing the one-piece takeaway, I get to the top of my back swing and just keep on going until if I really forget myself, I can take way too much back swing. 

By pre-setting my wrists, all I have to do at that point is rotate back and I'm in a good position at the top of the back swing. 

So I am wondering, is there anything wrong with an early wrist set?   I mean a really really early wrist set.   Would there be anything wrong with setting the wrists first, and then rotating back?   I've never heard of anyone teaching that sort of thing except as a drill.  I've never seen anyone advocate it as part of a "legitimate" golf swing. 

I think I have seen that a time or two. Faldo's drill is alright. It is almost like an exaggerated "waggle", I think it has merit in use as a swing trigger wherein the brief hesitation required to set the wrists, helps with tempo or at least sets the stage for it.

[billchao]

3 hours ago, Marty2019 said:

So I am wondering, is there anything wrong with an early wrist set?   I mean a really really early wrist set.   Would there be anything wrong with setting the wrists first, and then rotating back?   I've never heard of anyone teaching that sort of thing except as a drill.  I've never seen anyone advocate it as part of a "legitimate" golf swing. 

There's nothing wrong with it, besides possibly looking funny on the course (which makes a bigger deal than you think - golf conventions are deeply rooted in tradition).

If you hit the ball better then go for it. I believe Ryan Moore played for a bit like this on tour when he was coming back from an injury or something. You might lose a little in the timing/tempo of your swing.

[iacas]

Who said there was anything wrong with it?

[Missouri Swede]

12 minutes ago, billchao said:

There's nothing wrong with it, besides possibly looking funny on the course (which makes a bigger deal than you think - golf conventions are deeply rooted in tradition).

I believe Ryan Moore played for a bit like this on tour when he was coming back from an injury or something.

Could also tell them "seems to work for Danny Willett" if you get any grief from someone:

[Hacker James]

17 minutes ago, billchao said:

There's nothing wrong with it, besides possibly looking funny on the course (which makes a bigger deal than you think - golf conventions are deeply rooted in tradition).

If you hit the ball better then go for it. I believe Ryan Moore played for a bit like this on tour when he was coming back from an injury or something. You might lose a little in the timing/tempo of your swing.

Not near as funny looking as the drill where you hold the club straight out in front of you, then bonk yourself on the forehead, and then turn into "purrfect" position at the top, so the proponents say.

[amoline]

Not quite as extreme as a drill or Willett, but I have an early wrist set -- it helps me not get my swing ridiculously long. Seems that people generally stop their swing when their wrists are set. Nothing wrong with it IMHO.

[DaveP043]

I grew up during the Nicklaus era, when the on-piece takeaway was the standard, so that's what I tried to emulate.  Unfortunately, I'd overdo it, get near the top of the backswing with little or now wrist angle, and then flop the club, losing a lot of control.  After nearly 20 years, I began working to set the wrists much earlier in the swing, and improved significantly.  I still work on that same thing, 20  years further into my "career."   

If you can find some early video of Johnny Miller, you'll see him do a pretty early wrist set, very unusual during that era, but he was fairly successful with it.

[JonMA1]

Three years ago (I think), I started the season with a forward shaft lean at address and an early wrist hinge taking it back. I haven't had as good of results since, having  a couple of rounds where mishits were rare. As is always the case, it wasn't the cure-all I thought it was and ended that season with very little control of my irons.

[Buckeyebowman]

Absolutely nothing wrong with an early wrist set, just as long as it doesn't result in an early wrist "release".

Heck, I used to play this way! At least off the tee, where I found I could cut loose and really bomb it out there!

Just look at a slo-mo of Dustin Johnson with a Driver about a foot behind the ball on his backswing. The back of his left hand will be looking you right in the face!

[gregsandiego]

On 2/4/2017 at 0:07 PM, Hacker James said:

Not near as funny looking as the drill where you hold the club straight out in front of you, then bonk yourself on the forehead, and then turn into "purrfect" position at the top, so the proponents say.

I was corrected by my instructor when I did it.I think the reasoning was I'd run out of room at the top for my backswing and not get enough shoulder turn. Something like that. Feel free to jump in if you have a better explanation.

[Marty2019]

3 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

I was corrected by my instructor when I did it.I think the reasoning was I'd run out of room at the top for my backswing and not get enough shoulder turn. Something like that. Feel free to jump in if you have a better explanation.

For me, it seems to do the opposite.   If I set my wrists before I do my shoulder turn, then all I have to do is turn my shoulders.  The result is a seemingly perfect backswing, with the correct amount of wrist set and shoulder turn.   The early wrist set simplifies the backswing. 

[Hacker James]

prior to viewing the Faldo video and after reading a discussion on depth, I started incorporating a feeling of deliberate focus on paying attention to what the wrists were doing on the backswing. What this did was to have an early wrist set, but in a more fluid movement rather than the pause as Faldo does in his drill. One precaution I would offer however, is that you want to avoid adding excess tension in your arms in doing so. Basically, the feeling (for me) was to try and keep my right elbow more in front of the torso, not pinned mind you, but making sure it did not get behind the seam of my shirt. The Faldo drill does the same thing, and "might" help avoid the tension as you can maintain the "relaxed" feeling during the pause. OTOH, for some, it could exacerbate tension owing to gripping tighter when holding the wrist set during the pause.

[arturo28mx]

Very important that you do the early wrist set in such a way that you stay on plane. Otherwise it could be detrimental.

[Marty2019]

In further developments, I had the best ball-striking round of my life yesterday, without incorporating the early wrist set into my swing.  So I probably won't be using it during an actual round of golf.  

I'm still doing the drill a lot in my living room, though- just setting the wrists, rotating my shoulders, doing the pump drill, etc.  Getting the feeling of a proper back swing, and a proper down swing where I don't cast the club. 

It seems to be helping me.  Either that or it was just one of those days. 

[softjones]

I think an early set shortens the back swing which reduces time for mistakes for me.

I originally started learning with a one piece takeaway. Turns out I was making me way overactive with starting my body too early, then a late wrist break. I was over swinging and over the line and had no idea how much control I was losing.

One day I was struggling with my irons so I started chipping to reset my brain. I was chipping great and thought to try and use that swing with my irons. Quiet lower body, slow and low takeaway for 12"(almost pushing down with my hands), then start setting wrists, then just added a bigger shoulder turn. The lower body stays quiet and eventually follows the arms back while building torque. Turned my swing from a couple seconds of too much thought, into a quick compact simple swing.

Maybe some people are over doing the action of the early set. It's not a quick motion. And you definitely don't want to "pick up" the club head. I'm just slowly setting the wrists on my way back and then I'm already set at top. Full shoulder turn but I don't get parallel to the ground with the shaft.

Also, I used to be really OTT so I had it engrained the thought of "swing to the right". I'd recently gotten away from OTT but I was still swinging right, which was subconsciously making me pick up the club head and pulling my takeaway inside. I've switched to thinking "swing left" and that causes my takeaway to stay low and away. It feels dramatic in my head but it's really not a huge swing change on tape. Amazing results though.

 

So.. I guess if you know what you're doing you can do a one piece or early set. Just gotta find what is most comfortable.
 

 

Of course I'm just realizing all of this over the past few months and I'm sure no one wants to listen to a guy with a 20 HC. But I'm close to greatness! ha

 

[paperclip]

Well, considering that everybody has some sort of uniqueness in their swing and nobody's swing is exactly like someone else's, maybe the wrist pre-set idea will work for some people in that it stops some errors from happening (as long as it doesn't cause other critical errors).

And I will listen to most people, even if its a guy with a 20 HC lol.