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Presetting The Unhinge

The "unhinge" (or ulnar deviation) of the wrists is one of the main arm shallowers in the golf swing. Golfers who truggle with low point control or who tend to get steep in transition (without lunging), may need to improve this movement to resolve any issues with contact.

If you fall into either of these categories, you can start by "presetting" this pattern and then working through some 9-to-3 swings. This should provide an immediate sense of:

(1) How the wrists should feel at impact.

(2) How the body must rotate now that the club has shallowed early enough.

From there, you should progress by adding speed and power. However, the focus will now be to combine your pivot and "single leg jump" with the timing of the unhinge. This should feel more athletic, while also engraining the proper sequence for straighter and longer shots.

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Transition, Release, Drill, Intermediate

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The drill is pre-setting the unhinged.

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Now, the unhinged is one of the main arm-shallowing movements.

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So this can be very helpful for golfers who struggle with low-point control.

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This can be very important for golfers who struggle with getting really steep, especially

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if they tend to get steep more down in this zone.

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Without having a major lunge, it's the lack of unhinged movement that tends to cause

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the club to get steep as it enters the release.

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So in this drill, we're basically going to almost lock that wrist into as much unhinged

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as we can, keep it there and perform a 9-3 or maybe even a 10-2-style shot where we're

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just focusing on seeing if we can coordinate going through the ball while keeping that unhinged.

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So you're going to get set up.

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You're going to pre-set that unhinged.

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Now you'll see from this down the line, I'm not going straight down the target line.

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I'm going more almost back on a 30-degree angle or the wrist is working more straight

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down vertically.

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So I'm going to pre-set that unhinged from here and then from here, I'm just going to rotate

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my body into that good follow-through position.

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So for some golfers who tend to get steep because they maintain too much of that vertical

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leg kind of like this, feeling that that get it gets the club wider or that the unhinges

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already happen here is going to feel very different, but that can be a critical component

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for shallowing out the swing or for getting the path to be a little bit more in-the-out.

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Because that unhinged widens the arc and creates a much better flat bottom of the swing.

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So one more time, so we're going to bring it back, pre-set that unhinged.

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So now it's close to a 9-3-style swing and then from here, I'm just going to try and pivot

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my body all the way into that follow-through position.

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Once I've done that from a dead stop, then I can try doing it in more of a continuous

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motion.

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So from a continuous motion, I can bring it back, bring it back, unhinged first, come

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through second.

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So it's a little bit out of time just because it's this shortened version of the swing,

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but continuous motion, I'm going to bring it back, unhinged, get to that same follow-through

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position.

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So I'm feeling that that unhinged is happening.

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As I'm creating this lag, as my lower body is already left my arms behind.

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Then the last version would be trying to take this more into a full swing.

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The key here is feeling that that unhinged doesn't release my lag because I'm still keeping

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the rotational angle.

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I'm still keeping this lag back here by keeping the extension of the wrist.

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I'm just bringing while keeping that extension of the wrist, I'm pointing the club more

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down instead of pointing the club shaft more up vertically.

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So now, throwing that feeling into more of a full swing, slipped a little bit.

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So it went right, but hopefully you could see the timing, the feeling of the timing is

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very similar to just doing this little preset 9-3.

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I find that that works really well if you tend to get steep in this middle third, and

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this is one of the easiest ways to practice getting used to what it will be like to hit

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from this more unhinged position.