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A problem that I often see with more skilled or lower handicap players is the idea that there is no such thing as too much "lag". Or in other words, I will see players making a conscious effort to lead excessively with the hands into impact, such that there is still a sharp angle between the lead arm and club well into the downswing. Of course, this is done under the notion that more lag equals more distance and straighter, more solidly struck golf shots.
Unfortunately though, you can have too much of a "good thing" when it comes to lag and we need to be careful about holding onto the radial deviation, or hinge of the wrists, during the downswing. Ideally, we want to start releasing the lag, or unhinging the wrists, when the lead arm gets to shaft parallel. Not only will this begin to shallow the club earlier, but it will allow for a more optimal transfer of energy to the club. As several biomechanics experts have mentioned, lag is necessary to create the potential for power, but there needs to be a conscious act to release what as been stored.
At first, players who have overcooked the lag pattern may feel as if they are now casting or "dumping" the club in transition. However, (2) great tips for making this unhinging pattern more powerful are:
- That the unhinging of the wrists is triggered by the push and vertical action of the lead leg.
- That the trail wrist is gaining extension as the wrists are unhinging.
Of course, do not be afraid to work through some of the progressions mentioned in the video; the timing of this pattern is very important for consistent and powerful ball-striking, so you should see benefits from training it.
Playlists: Keys To Transition, Get More Distance, Swing Plane Simplified - Working with steeps and shallows
Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Not Enough Distance, Transition, Release, Drill, Advanced
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This video is discussing lag and the timing of the unhinged.
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So I'd say that one of the most common discussions that I have to have with better players
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is the timing of the unhinged.
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So many golfers who struggle with driver or who struggle with contact do so because they're
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too steep coming on the way down, especially during the release kind of through here.
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And I'll talk to them about, we'll using some of this unhinged to get the shallowing
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and get the club closer to the ground so that they can approach the golf wall from a
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more shallow or inside path.
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And oftentimes they're resistant to that because they think it's a cast movement and you
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may be feeling the same thing that this movement is the cast movement.
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Well, 3D helped clarify how this works for me and I'm going to help discuss when the timing
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of that unhinged take place, hopefully it clarifies what we're doing in the downswing
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for you.
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So if I go up to the top of the swing, yes, if I increase the hinge of the wrist, so if
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I do a little bit of this motion, that can create some lag or that can create some power.
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But I can also create some power by increasing the extension of this wrist kind of like
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that.
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So I could lose the wrist this way or I could load the wrist vertically.
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But tends to happen is on 3D, you'll see a little bit possibly of increased load.
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But that increased load is going to start coming out or I'm going to start unloading when
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the arm is about parallel to the ground or 45 kind of somewhere around belly button height
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right about here.
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So what I see a lot of golfers do is they want to practice keeping that lag really long,
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kind of pass that point or even through here.
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And you'll see that this would be a very challenging position to then make contact with
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the golf ball from.
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From the down the line that was starting to go more outside in or get really steep from
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the face on view that club was really high.
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So what you'll want to work on is from right about here, getting that feeling of unhinging
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the wrist all the way down.
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The the biomex number of biomechanics professors who I've talked to about this will explain
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is basically look lag is great for creating power but that just gives you the ability to
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get that power out into the club head better.
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If there's no magical force or thing that is going to get the energy into the club head
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for you, you actually have to do it.
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Now so what many amateurs try to do is they just hold onto the club and they think
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there's something that's going to create more power by holding that angle.
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But it's really you only want to hold that angle for that first early transition until
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we get to about here and then it's trying to get as much speed and energy into the club
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head as I can by releasing that angle and releasing that energy.
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What typically happens is they will start to release this angle right about here.
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But at the same time they're increasing that extension of the trail wrist kind of
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like so which keeps the club more behind keeps the club keep some lag from this face
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on view even though now the club is getting wider and closer to the ground.
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So you've got these two different angles one going this way and one going this way.
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This one's going to come out sooner or earlier than this one.
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The timing of this one coming out right around this shaft parallel or sorry right around
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this belly button height is driven by the vertical action of the leg.
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So when I get into this position if I start really pushing with my leg you can see that
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that vertical motion of the leg and the left side of my body is going to help get that
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club going down the ground.
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So I usually work through it in a little progression here.
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What I'll usually do is take the club and exaggerate or get it fully unhinged all the way
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back here so a 9 to 3 with full unhinging.
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Now keeping that unhinged I'm just going to rotate through and I'll start to feel that
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there's a very gentle or shallowness to the contacts with the ground and I'll start to feel
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that the club face doesn't feel like it changes a whole lot down through there.
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So I've really good ground contact and what feels like a pretty consistent club face that
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tends to be a good feeling to have.
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So then how do I take that into a more dynamic motion?
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I go up to that position here.
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I'm going to extend or increase the angle of that right wrist but then from here I'm going to
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basically try to get that feeling I just had while doing the isolated owner 9 to 3.
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Once I have a feeling of doing it from a dead stop there kind of up at 3.4 height so I'm going
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down just like so once I have that feeling then I'm going to do some 3.4 swings or 10 to 2s
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trying to tie that together and just monitor turf contact.
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Typically golfers who have more of this increased hinge really late will have really steep or clunky
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contacts with the ground unless they come way from the inside and have a really good timing of
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when to kind of swivel or roll or flip that release. So now we'll do a little 10 to 2 where we
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get some angle set there at the top but then we're going to make sure that we start releasing it
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before or right around this belly button height.
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Now that should have that same gentle smooth feeling to the ground and a pretty stable or consistent
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club face position going through. So I know this one's a tough subject because a lot of people
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have thought that you've just got a hold on to that angle forever but holding on to that angle
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forever actually snaps you of power. Rob's you've consistency makes the driver tough so it's
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better to figure out what's the timing of when I need to get that arm out to maximize
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chalonus face control and ultimately get a really good solid balance to your steep some chalons.
