I'm a flexible guy and can easily get a lot of shoulder turn. But I noticed my distance was not that great. With some lessons, I discovered my flaw: I had little to no wrist flick. That's why I've been blocking my shots about 10 degrees to the right (blocking = going straight but off target) even though I had good contact. That's why I've been sweating like a pig on the driving range from the exertion, my back and shoulders aching. My club was merely a rigid extension of my arm, not like a fishing rod attached to the end of my arm. I remember Bruce Lee saying in an interview that Karate with its stiff kicks is like hitting someone with a 2x4, pow! But he says, Jeet Kun Do with its flicking punches is like hitting someone with a ball and chain, thwack!!, and it hurts more.
I've been working with a tight, neutral grip. With that grip, I'm free to turn my wrists over as hard as I can without bad consequences. In fact, the harder I flicked, the farther the ball went. Combined with a full shoulder turn, the club speed I could generate was so much that I was struggling to hang onto the club at follow through! I always wondered why the pros had straight arms well into the follow through. Now I know why, it's because the centripedal force of the clubhead is too great to bring the arms into the body.
Now, instead of my trunk muscles and shoulders aching, it's my forearms that are aching, and I'm loving it. I hope this helps someone out there like it has helped me.
Hah I actually have the opposite problem. My hands to too quick and I turn over faster than my legs. Couple this with my in to out swing and boom a nice duck hook. I've recently started to intentionally try to block shots which slows down my hands and now I hit them long and straight. Go figure!
i have also gained distance in last week with the timing of my hinging wrists on backswing and unhinging near to the ball,its also helped with my old slice as when i was hitting more with arms i was getting my body out of way too fast and bringing arms inside causing out to in swing,the wrist action gives me a better feeling of straighter follow through,can,t wait till some friends see the difference as they hav,nt seen it,i was watching a video of professional swings and noticed it and tried it
Mizzou: Yeah, I can see your situation happening if the timing is not right. But I also noticed that if my arms were slow (happens when I'm tired), that I could compensate by taking a shorter backswing. That way, there's less time for the arms to lag behind the hands. I noticed that with a really hard wrist flick, even 1/2 swings (like in the "L to L" exercise) were going about 75% of the distance. It also helps ingrain timing.
I bet your issue is that your wrist flick is a tad too early. Keep flicking it hard, but delay the flick a split-second later, I bet you'll see an increase in distance. Once you get your timing right, you'll maintain or even increase your distance with less body exertion. I'm willing to bet the farm on this one.
I assume they're talking about a full wrist cock, which happens about halfway up the backswing, when your arms are parallel with the ground - around the same point in the downswing, you un-hinge the wrists and follow through the ball, gaining more power and mph.
The wrist flick I'm talking about is like how you fling your wrist towards the ball when hitting a powerful forehand in tennis just right before contact. This adds a lot of acceleration to the racquet at contact.
You use this in many things, throwing a ball, skipping a stone, **** That well-timed wrist flick adds a LOT of clubhead speed and power. If you're already swinging hard with your arms, you might find the flick difficult because you're trying to add more G's of acceleration to something that's accelerating hard already. That's where your right forearm muscle come in. You gotta really muscle that flick when you're doing a full swing. But, wow, but the distance gain is crazy.
Another phrase that I hear people use is "turning your hands over." I don't like the phrase "uncocking the wrists" because it implies a passive "uncoiling" of a spring. It's not a passive thing, it's an active thing that must be consciously done and even muscled in at higher swing rates. I'm grunting with the exertion when I swing at maximum, not because of my trunk muscles, but because I'm really using that right forearm muscle to flick that club over and through the ball as hard as I can.
I think I'm going to have to replace my Mizuno grips because I'm really fearful that the club is going to slip out of my hands at this rate!
Last edited by leaguegolf : June 21st, 2006 at 01:15 PM.
Reason: Inappropriate Language
June 19th, 2006, 07:01 PM
Linear Mode
Similar Threads
