Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in
America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Meet your new instructor.
Train Your Release
Subscribe now to watch the full video.
For golfers that struggle with a strong "flip" pattern, a flat flaced club (putter) can be a great tool for feeling the proper wrist and body angles at impact. To do so, we want to monitor the relationship of the clubhead and our body as we move through the release. Specifically, we want to look at the sternum's position relative to the clubhead and hands. In an early release pattern, the clubhead will pass the hands and sternum quickly after impact. In a "tour release", the sternum and hands will lead the clubhead into impact, improving both low-point control and shaft lean. Ultimately, we want to hit a few putts while focusing on the precision and timing of the body and arms; this should provide a feel that can be used to progress into some full swings and hopefully break the pattern of a flip-style release.
Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Release, Drill, Intermediate
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
This drill video is hinge and hold with a putter.
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000
So this drill is kind of a cousin to the hinge and hold
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:14,000
an idea or to the hinge in club out, basically helping a
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,000
women a big flip pattern. Sometimes I find that it's
00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:24,000
much easier to feel with a flat-faced club like a putter than it is
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,000
with say a 7-air 8-iron. So first, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,000
use the putter to establish this kind of delivery
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,000
position and then I'm going to use my body to bring the club through.
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000
So one way to look at the relationship of my
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:46,000
release and whether it's an early release or a late release or anything like that
00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000
is looking at the relationship of where my chest or my sternum is
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:54,000
compared to the club head and my hands. So as I approach impact with the
00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:00,000
putter here, if the putter catches up and passes my hands
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,000
and my chest, you'll see that this is going to have more of an early release
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:10,000
look and probably lead to some bending of the the lead arm on the way through.
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:16,000
So a later release would basically be keeping the club head further behind my
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000
chest. Now my hands can don't have to be behind. They can be in front of my
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,000
chest but you can see that if I keep that club further behind my
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000
chest and kind of this circular fashion then I will look like I have a
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:35,000
a fair amount of shaft lean or a lot of a late hit to it.
00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:39,000
So what we're going to do in this drill is we're going to hit putts instead of shots
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
to force us to force some of the precision of the body leading the arms
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,000
through impact. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to get set up as if I was hitting
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:55,000
more of a eight iron seven iron type shot and then I'm going to bring the club back to
00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,000
about a shaft parallel. I'm going to add a little bit of motorcycle but my main
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000
requirement here is I'm going to focus on the relationship of the club head compared to
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:11,000
my hand. So now I'm going to keep the club head behind and I'm just going to use my body
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:19,000
to hit a slight you know 10 15 foot putt. At the course I'll actually take them on the green
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:26,000
or I'll use the the whole in studio and I'll have them try to do more of a body leading
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:34,000
but in very controlled stroke. Now the reason I'll do that is many golfers when I put them on the
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:38,000
range they're going to get here and no matter what in their mind they're going to have this
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:44,000
impulse to hit the ball as hard as they can and this drill is more about refinement of sequencing
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:51,000
and low point control it's not really about maximizing distance so I'll challenge them to hit a
00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:59,000
putt only about 10 15 feet with this much load in the arms and I'm going to use my body coming
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:08,000
down just like so. Now the the two main issues that I'll see is one by keeping the club behind
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:13,000
their body when they come through they will be well above the golf ball because they have to use
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:19,000
their hands to get down towards the ball so that's a sign that you're struggling more with low point
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:25,000
control and you're using that early release to help get the club down to the ground. The other
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:31,000
option that I'll see is in order to hold on to the leg they'll just drift their bodies forward
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:36,000
kind of like this and then they'll still have to release the arm because they're going to be too
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:41,000
far away from the ball and they're not going to have enough space in the hip or room to complete
00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:47,000
the follow-through so make sure you stay centered and stay down just enough so that you can get the
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:53,000
putter face pretty square and pointed back at the target this will give us more of this hinge and
00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:00,000
hold look to it. Now the real challenge is going to come in when I bring the iron back in play
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:06,000
because now it's going to look different the loft can make it more challenging but my goal is to duplicate
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:16,000
that same little 10-yard putt stroke where I'm finishing just past impact. This I found is one of the
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:25,000
easiest ways to really ensure that your body is leading the club head through impact. Then once you
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:33,000
have this feeling you can gradually add length of swing or speed. So let's say now I wanted to add a little
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:40,000
bit more of the body action you'll see that my arms will naturally extend a little bit past
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:49,000
but I still maintain that kind of trail arm away lead reflects or the hinge and hold look to it.
00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:57,000
As I start to apply more and more speed the finish will look more and more like a regular finish.
00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,000
But when you're doing it on this really small scale to learn that sequencing and the relationship
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:10,000
of the club more behind your chest I find almost nothing works better than using a putter to kind of
00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,000
build that awareness of where the club is compared to your chest. Work it into your nine to three is
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:20,000
working into your 10 to two or three quarter shots and ultimately work that same feeling into the full swing.
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:25,000
A lot of golfers will say when we're going through this a lot of golfers will say
00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:32,000
I don't feel like I'm releasing the club at all and I'll say well you're learning to release it
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:39,000
more like this instead of releasing it like that. It's not that it's not a release it's just a
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,000
different style of release than you're used to and it might take a little bit of time to work through
00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:49,000
that but learning this other style will help change the way that your swing looks and have a
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,000
big impact on how you're going to control low point.
00:05:52,000 --> 00:06:02,000
So that would be more the full swing version right there.
