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One of the hallmarks of a "tour release" is proper lead wrist supination. Golfers who do not allow for this free-flowing pattern to occur will typically struggle with making consistent contact and may even have an unnecessary amount of tension in their swing. This tension can manifest itself in compensations such as a hold-off style release or an overly strong grip. Ultimately, this move is a big differentiator between elite and lower level players, especially when we look at the 3D data. Players who supinate correctly will not only create more distance with less effort, but they will also maintain a longer "flat spot", which we know is a reliable indicator of consistency.
Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Not Enough Distance, Chicken Wing, Iron, Release, Drill, Intermediate
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Israel is free swinging supination. So free swinging supination is basically
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learning to let the speed of the club go more into creating a rotation of the
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forearm as opposed to creating some tension and preventing that rotation and
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basically holding on and going into more of a block-hold chicken wing pattern.
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A full release of allowing some forearm supination does more for improving the
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path down at the bottom of keeping it getting wider as well as keeping it going
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out to the right. That allows you to have more body rotation which also helps
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create the flat spot down at the bottom. So many golfers who struggle with a
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scuprelease or fat thin contact tend to have look a more of a look of like
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this in the follow-through we're basically with the arm and shoulder and wrist
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they're shrugging to hold the face open kind of like so. Many of these golfers
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have adapted a stronger grip to get that poor release pattern to hit it
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square and I find that training that lead arm supination in a nice relaxed way
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we're free swinging way is a great way for changing this pattern now at the
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bottom. Ultimately, golfers who work through this tend to find that they get a
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lot more distance in it easier fashion. Okay so before I show the answer I want
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you to grab a club and you're going to just swing the club in your left arm. So
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you're going to hold it just like this and then you're going to swing the
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club and then come back and look at the video and see how you did. Okay so
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hopefully you actually went through the process and swung the club first
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before I show the answer but there's a good chance even if you know the answer
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if you're wired for doing it incorrectly you'll still do it incorrectly. So
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did you when you swung it? Did you look more like this where it was basically the
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whole shoulder or did you look more like this? This would be swinging more from
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the elbow and forearm mostly more from the forearm. Now if I'm doing it like this you'll
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see that there's a fair amount of clubface rotation but when I do it in the
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swing I'm hitting it early in the pattern so the clubface rotation doesn't really
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show up until way up there instead of down at the bottom but this movement here
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like I said is a hallmark of the tour release as well as a key component for the
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longer club component of the tour release. So now how am I going to put this
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into a swinging motion? So I've got this feeling of the arm rotating and the
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slow motion version of the arm rotating is just like that single arm release so
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the thumb is pointing away and then it's pointing towards and then it's
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curling slightly up towards me so it kind of looks more like this as opposed to
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swinging more with the wrist extension and not a lot of forearm rotation.
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Okay so I've got that pattern coming up towards me free swinging. Now I'm going
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to go to that end position put my right arm on and what I'll typically feel is
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that in order to get into that pattern I had to maintain the extension of my
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wrist and really extend that arm to get over there. So now I'm going to try and do
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that right arm we're sorry that left arm swinging where the right arm is just
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the long for the ride so to make it even less powerful in the right hand I'm
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going to take my thumb and index finger off. Now I'm going to bring feet
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together and I'm just going to try and let that left arm swing just kind of
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like so. Now this may go a little bit left if it does that usually means that I'm
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swinging into it too soon kind of like that instead of directing the direction
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that I'm swinging the handle a little bit more out in front of the golf ball
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from this face on camera. So more like that and then it will tend to go straight.
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Once I have this feeling with my feet together then I'm going to try and do the
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same thing with my feet in a normal you know seven iron golf posture. So now I'm
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going to try and do that nice easy nine to three but focusing or a ten to two
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or you know half swing basically and I'm focusing on letting that left arm go
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through this motion of rotating and then up towards me in a free swinging
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motion. I will feel very little tension in my arms down at my down through the
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ball in order to let it swing that way and I may feel even a loss of control
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because I'm used to when it gets down at the bottom holding on and creating
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more tension. I can't hit the ball solid that way but frequently creates fat
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thin contact and problems with low point control with the irons. So once I've
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done that in more of these nine to three's then I can try and go all the way up
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to three quarter or full length swings and try to just feel a little bit more
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of that free release down at the bottom but now to direct it at the target I'm
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going to accompany it with the nice smooth pivot. What often happens is when
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golfers are first trying to do this they're trying to do it really hard with
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the arms and that causes the pivot to stall. So when you go up to the full swing the
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goal is to do it soft enough so that you can continue the body turning on the
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way through. If you do that it should improve your low point and energy transfer
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which should result in easier more solid contact for your second shot in the
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fairway.
