New Member release concept question

Hi Jason,

During my studies of AMM 3D I was lucky enough to be able to see, and study, many of the top golfers at the top. I've been able to study both Rory and Jordan Speith, and I'd say that they have more similarities than differences. They share a lot of the same movements, but with different rates and timings.

In my perspective, instead of seeing things as 2 or 3 styles, I see it more as a spectrum. Like if you saw a room full of people doing a single stretch, they would all look slightly different while doing the same thing. I try to teach more of the commonalities while explaining and leaving room for the differences so you don't freak out if your version doesn't look exactly like your model.

My goal is to help you become your own coach, and learn to own your own swing. We have lots of students here who have other coaches. One common role I play is helping with the following question, "My coach is trying to get me to do X, but I keep having trouble doing it. Why am I struggling?" These questions usually lead to fun discoveries reconciling how coaches explain things differently.

If you have a specific release question, feel free to ask it and I'll try to help. If you do, please post a video of your swing with the question so we can better interpret your description.

Happy Golfing,
Tyler

Happy to help Jason. I do like to see all the angles released after impact in a full swing. It helps with the flat spot, arc width, and club face closure speed. But the question becomes how do you do that?

A couple questions about your current philosophy.
What's your current release thought or intention? And how does it look when you do it? What release issue do you struggle with?
Also, I'm a big fan of connecting the movement all the way up the chain, so what do you want your shoulder to do during that same phase?

The stop sign drill is designed to keep the tension in the trail wrist extensors during the release. In slow-motion, or short swing drills, it can be done, but, with speed, you'll still lose the angle because of the ulnar deviation and bracing of the body. But I don't think you want to lose the angles from actively flexing the wrist. I do think many golfers struggle with impact and low point from actively flexing that trial wrist.

I've been meaning to do a video on this topic, so maybe this conversation will be the trigger for putting it together. Thanks!

I hope we can get you to a place where you are happier with the release. One thing to understand is the roll of the shoulders and how they link up with the wrists. To help me, can you post a face on swing? If you have the single-arm drills, that can be useful as well.

In general, I think your description likely means that you are getting sloppy in the shoulder and early with the wrist flexion. But it'll be easier to see. I've studied the anatomy of these moves more these last six months, and I think the goal of a good release for the trail arm is a linking of a single line from the shoulder to the wrist. This frequently has three main pieces or feels (there can be more for some people, but commonly these three get it looking like a stable free release).
1. Trail wrist extension.
2. Trail wrist ulnar deviation (I think the ulnar deviation causes the extension to come out rather than an active flexion)
3. Trail shoulder retraction/connection.

The over the top thing means it's probably the shoulder that's the key for you. That piece causes problems with the wrist extension and frequently the pull/pull draw/over-the-top late situation.

Also for answering questions about your swing, it's always helpful to see a video of your movement pattern. What you are describing, and what you're doing might not be the same. And things like, "free release" can have many different interpretations.

The good news is that it's all solvable over time :) Good luck,

Tyler

. Right hand under post impact. Feels like shaking hands, ulnar easier to release but also flippy feeling. Tends to fell like less forearm rotation but easier to stay in tilts. Shots tend to fly straighter but shorter lofts slightly higher. Thin shots more often. Doesn't feel like left arm only supination drill.

2. Right hand over post impact. More motorcycle move and more forearm rotation, maybe too much. Harder to stay in tilts and tends to be harder to release the ulnar. Tends to want to rehinge faster. Shots fly farther with better aoa but timing seems more important, pulls become more prevalent. Feels like left arm only supination drill.

Here is a detailed video. All drill recommendations welcome.

Thanks for the video, it helps clear some things up. Here's a quick video response to keep you moving forward until I can film a "trail arm line" video in the near future.

Let me know if you have any other questions about the topic,

Thanks Tyler very helpful. I’m interested in if you have a drill to help with continuing the Ulnar post impact. In the video you sent your hands were off camera when you were demonstrating continuing to go into ulnar post impact.

Sorry about the cut-off wrist. I don't have a great home studio yet for filming those quick responses.

I would usually start with some follow-through holds to work on the ulnar. Or the trail hand shot put to get the feeling of doing it dynamically. But I'll reiterate that I think the shoulder might be the bigger contributor for you. Oftentimes, it's had to get the ulnar right if you have a big shoulder protraction. It's tough because often the shoulder is harder to feel for a lot of golfers, so it can be trickier to work on solo than the wrists. But if the wrists don't work, then I'd look at some shoulder training.

Hi Tony,

I think there might be something there, but I have a hard time understanding the details and nuance. For example, if you're a front post golfer with an on top trail hand, how do you make that work for the driver? If you're a trail post golfer, with an under trail hand, what do you do with your wedges? So my take is that I think some of the subjective assessments they use are trainable, so I wouldn't want to base a swing entirely on the tests. I have a student who took some sessions from 3 different well established instructors in that camp. He tested to 3 different posts depending on who did the test. I think that would have to get cleaned up a bit before you'd be able to do a study on it. But that's just my take.

I realize you also posted on Jake's Corner. I don't think he checks that anymore, so I'm moving the answer here.

Happy Golfing,
Tyler