Breaking Wrist

[Stuart]

Ok. Here's the deal. I've been playing for just over 15 months. During that time I've improved my scoring hugely, but I still have a pretty crappy swing. I can't seem to stop breaking my wrists at the top of my swing. I have the feeling that I need to really cock my wrists and I seem to be quite literally overdoing it. I wonder if this doesn't stem from me, not being very flexible, and unable to make a big shoulder turn like some of the pro's out there. As a result I am unable to get the driver back to parallel without bending my left arm and over-cocking my wrists. I frequently go past parallel though with this as I lose all sense of where the club finishes its arc when loading. The other day I managed to stop doing this for one round and had my first under par round ever. I tried to feel as if I wasn't cocking my wrists at all, which seemed to produce what would be deemed the correct amount of wrist cock. The problem is that I've been trying unsuccessfully to imitate that feeling for two weeks without any luck. My mind tells me that I'm making a half swing and as I go to transition to my downswing, my body panics and tries to get handsy as if fearing that i don't have enough power otherwise. The weird thing is on that same day that I did successfully stop doing this, I was hitting the ball longer than ever before. Does anybody have any ideas how I can overcome this once and for all? I'm going crazy here.

[neudi]

You are supposed to break your wrists at the top of the swing like you know already, but in your case why don't you try to not go as far as parallel and see what that does for you, not only will it possibly give you more control, but it may make it so that it feels like you aren't going to parallel, but since you overswing everytime it might actually be parallel by that stage.

[mutadayen]

Man, I had the same problem. There are two tricks that i've done to get my swing corrected, or as you deem it, swinging like the pros. The first thing is yes, stretch. I was very unflexible and I talked to golf pro and a personal trainer, as well as researched online and started doing overall body stretches followed by golf specific exercises. Thats the first thing. The other thing I started doing was following a trick used by Tiger as told by Hank Haney. I started to visualize my swing, but in taking it a step further, i looked at myself in the mirror. I do this now for 10-15 minutes a day, even at the gym, while holding a small 10 pound weight or a broom. Break down your swing from start, then where you wanna be at 10%, then 20%, then 30% and so forth. When you look at yourself, you'll see where your problem areas are you can concentrate on each one as you progress. By the end of the 15 minutes, you should have a full swing and the swing you're looking for. That's my advice. Hope it helps...

[Stuart]

  neudi said:

You are supposed to break your wrists at the top of the swing like you know already, but in your case why don't you try to not go as far as parallel and see what that does for you, not only will it possibly give you more control, but it may make it so that it feels like you aren't going to parallel, but since you overswing everytime it might actually be parallel by that stage.

I think you are quite correct. When I shot my 69, i kept asking the guy i was playing with to check out my swing. And each time he would say, you were parallel or just about parallel, and to me it seemed like i was making a half swing. I think because i over-swing, i have this mental block now about what a good swing feels like.

[Stuart]

  mutadayen said:

Man, I had the same problem. There are two tricks that i've done to get my swing corrected, or as you deem it, swinging like the pros. The first thing is yes, stretch. I was very unflexible and I talked to golf pro and a personal trainer, as well as researched online and started doing overall body stretches followed by golf specific exercises. Thats the first thing. The other thing I started doing was following a trick used by Tiger as told by Hank Haney. I started to visualize my swing, but in taking it a step further, i looked at myself in the mirror. I do this now for 10-15 minutes a day, even at the gym, while holding a small 10 pound weight or a broom. Break down your swing from start, then where you wanna be at 10%, then 20%, then 30% and so forth. When you look at yourself, you'll see where your problem areas are you can concentrate on each one as you progress. By the end of the 15 minutes, you should have a full swing and the swing you're looking for. That's my advice. Hope it helps...

Thanks for your advice. I never thought of that, but will certainly try that next time I'm in the gym as i've just started training again. I appreciate your feedback.

[kehanra99]

I always hit my irons like a champ, I can almost call the distance at the range. My driver is another...horrible nightmare of a story. I hit a beautiful draw that lands 250+, then a pull that goes about 20 feet off the ground for 120 and skips like a rock. The a giant balloon slice. Every once in a while I get a few in a row that go nice and straight 230-270.

The thing is, it's so inconsistant compared to my irons I don't know what I'm doing wrong. How can my swing work for all of my clubs so well and then kill me on the driver?

[mikelz]

  Stuart said:

Ok. Here's the deal. I've been playing for just over 15 months. During that time I've improved my scoring hugely, but I still have a pretty crappy swing. I can't seem to stop breaking my wrists at the top of my swing. I have the feeling that I need to really cock my wrists and I seem to be quite literally overdoing it. I wonder if this doesn't stem from me...

You have been playing for 15 months, have an index of 4.6 and shot under par once. I am going to guess you have a lot of natural ability. Against what are you measuring yourself when your say you have a "crappy swing"? Don't do that to yourself. It's the number you're after anyway. Unless you are "manipulating" your wrists, a longer swing will produce more wrist break (IMHO). At 15 months of playing, I doubt that Bobby Jones could duplicate his swing arc from muscle memory alone - but that's where he ended up about 99% of the time. Forget about "how much" and work on identifying and duplicating the feel of your good shots. Take feel from the range to the course. You can pick thoughts up anywhere (like here). In the meantime, turn your back to the target and hit the ball.

[Stuart]

  mikelz said:

You have been playing for 15 months, have an index of 4.6 and shot under par once. I am going to guess you have a lot of natural ability. Against what are you measuring yourself when your say you have a "crappy swing"? Don't do that to yourself. It's the number you're after anyway. Unless you are "manipulating" your wrists, a longer swing will produce more wrist break (IMHO). At 15 months of playing, I doubt that Bobby Jones could duplicate his swing arc from muscle memory alone - but that's where he ended up about 99% of the time. Forget about "how much" and work on identifying and duplicating the feel of your good shots. Take feel from the range to the course. You can pick thoughts up anywhere (like here). In the meantime, turn your back to the target and hit the ball.

Thanks for that advice. I went out yesterday and tried to just feel my way around my swing...and quite amazingly had a very good ball striking day. I think I'm going to take a temporary break from all the mechanics and just allow myself to hit the ball. As for my swing...my brother played golf as a junior and was pretty awesome. He had regular lessons from Jimmy Ballard amongst others and has a beautiful classical swing. Anyways he's always harping on about how ugly my swing is....so I guess its in my head....anyways most of the time my drives fly by his by at least 20 to 30 yards and they hit the fairway more often too....lol....so I'm not going to worry about it too much.

[mikelz]

  Stuart said:

Thanks for that advice. I went out yesterday and tried to just feel my way around my swing...and quite amazingly had a very good ball striking day. I think I'm going to take a temporary break from all the mechanics and just allow myself to hit the ball.

Older brother? Too easy to listen to.

From your description, I wouldn't worry about what he says. It's your game - not his.

[Stuart]

Very true. Think I'm getting the hang of the wrist situation. That being said, I was 1 over after 13 holes yesterday. Then took a 2 double bogey's followed by a quad. Golf...the other four letter word. :)

[mikelz]

  Stuart said:

Very true. Think I'm getting the hang of the wrist situation. That being said, I was 1 over after 13 holes yesterday. Then took a 2 double bogey's followed by a quad. Golf...the other four letter word. :)

Man, that's so easy to do. Every time I do something like that, it's a head problem. I start playing well because I'm just picking a target and swinging the club. Then that 'expectations' demon hits me and I start thinking about results before the shot. Block it OB. Dump it in the pond or bunker or whatever else is handy. Ugh.

[Pimpslap]

  Stuart said:

Ok. Here's the deal. I've been playing for just over 15 months. During that time I've improved my scoring hugely, but I still have a pretty crappy swing. I can't seem to stop breaking my wrists at the top of my swing. I have the feeling that I need to really cock my wrists and I seem to be quite literally overdoing it. I wonder if this doesn't stem from me, not being very flexible, and unable to make a big shoulder turn like some of the pro's out there. As a result I am unable to get the driver back to parallel without bending my left arm and over-cocking my wrists. I frequently go past parallel though with this as I lose all sense of where the club finishes its arc when loading. The other day I managed to stop doing this for one round and had my first under par round ever. I tried to feel as if I wasn't cocking my wrists at all, which seemed to produce what would be deemed the correct amount of wrist cock. The problem is that I've been trying unsuccessfully to imitate that feeling for two weeks without any luck. My mind tells me that I'm making a half swing and as I go to transition to my downswing, my body panics and tries to get handsy as if fearing that i don't have enough power otherwise. The weird thing is on that same day that I did successfully stop doing this, I was hitting the ball longer than ever before. Does anybody have any ideas how I can overcome this once and for all? I'm going crazy here.

1) Your swing isn't crappy, you haven't been playing long enough to groove it, so it isn't comfortable. Use inconsistent instead of crappy, breaking par is not crappy.

2) You said "....I need to cock my wrists and I seem to be quite literally overdoing it" You are creating lag. Depending on who you talk to you can not have too much lag, more lag is more power. 3) You said "As a result I am unable to get the driver back to parrallel without bending my left arm...." Firstly, the driver does not need to reach parrallel, and secondly, a slight bend in the left arm will return to straight or extended by impact. This is due to the effect of centrifugal force, if you believe in centrifugal force... 4) You said "I frequently go past parallel though with this as I lose all sense of where the club finishes its arc when loading." You might already know this, but try squeezing the grip a little tighter with the last 2-3 fingers of your left hand (for a righty, the pinkie, ring and middle fingers). If there is one spot where the grip is 'tight' or 'firm', it is in these fingers and the edge of the palm, which secures the handle of the club (so you don't 'lose all sense of the club'). I believe #4 will help you successfully imitate the feeling you are searching for. 5) Like someone said earlier, a full length mirror can wonders for your game. 6) Relax and don't go crazy...if you are a legit 4 after 15 months then you are miles ahead of basically every single person who takes up this grand old game.....and if nothing i've said works out then enjoy the fact you played recently, I'm gonna shovel snow when I wake up tommorrow. Good luck, play well

[Stuart]

Thanks for the awesome breakdown. I agree with the idea that number 4 could help me alot. I took my first lesson this Thursday past when I was in London. It was pretty great. I worked on a launch monitor and got to see video of my swing from three angles. I've got to tell you, it was pretty crappy, even though the results are obviously pretty good on certain days. The good news is that I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing wrong, and this lesson totally confirmed it. Its really inspiring to actually see your swing in front of you, side by side with swings of pros and better players and be able to see exactly what you're doing wrong. On the subject of my handicap, the guy who calculates handicaps at my club uses the Atlantic system. I am still a bit confused as to what a handicap represents. I'm definitely not a 5 handicap in the sense that my average score is 75. I'd say its more like 78-80. For instance, the week before last, I shot a 73 on Saturday followed by a 91 on the Wednesday. Three weeks before that I shot a 1 under par 69, which had my totally stoked, followed by 2 weeks of 80's that almost drove me crazy.

  Pimpslap said:

1) Your swing isn't crappy, you haven't been playing long enough to groove it, so it isn't comfortable. Use inconsistent instead of crappy, breaking par is not crappy.

[sirshanksalot]

that's pretty impressive... a 4.6 handicap after 15 months of playing... i wish i could do that.

[rangerat]

First off, WOW! I agree with a couple of the others who comment on the fact that you have a very low handicap and some sub par rounds after only playing for 15 months.

If you like training aids, the Rick Smith Swing Dynamics glove really makes sure that your wrists are cocking properly and in the right positions at the right time. The pro at my local club says that he feels this is the best training aid he has ever seen.

[tm22721]

  rangerat said:

First off, WOW! I agree with a couple of the others who comment on the fact that you have a very low handicap and some sub par rounds after only playing for 15 months.

Funny that you should say that. I just came back from the golf shop after trying the Rick Smith glove.

It did not stop my wrist from breaking down as I was hoping. The plastic insert is just too weak. Oh well I guess I'm stuck inserting a tee in my glove which bores a hole in my wrist when it cups.

[Stuart]

Guys thanks for your advice. I will definitely try it. This game is so addictive, I think I'd basically try anything to break this habit. :)

  tm22721 said:

Funny that you should say that. I just came back from the golf shop after trying the Rick Smith glove.

  rangerat said:

First off, WOW! I agree with a couple of the others who comment on the fact that you have a very low handicap and some sub par rounds after only playing for 15 months.

[rstyle]

Wow!
15 months playing, shooting below par rounds, 4.6 handicap and surrounded by beautiful French tourist girls in Antigua!!!
My hero