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I got so focused on making sure i hit down on the ball with the back of my left hand, that for the last month 90% of my shots have gone straight and faded slighty to the right or, gone straight out right (Not by much, but enough to miss the green and be in the rough)

Now, if i dont release properly, would this cause me to block?

At the range today i focused on rotating my right hand through the shots and i had my draw back

Or it could it be not rotating through impact properly? I just read that you can make a good swing, release proper but you can hit the ball underhand which will leave the club open slightly!

"What you feel and what's real may not be the same."

You may have to feel that you have your clubface slightly closed at impact to actually have it square.

Hi: Don't have time to get into this now, but I believe that you need to process the same thing that I do. In the modern teaching methods of today, there is a new school of thought. Body release vs Hand/Arm release, (Also referred to as "Slinging"), In the Body release, you leave your hands passive, lag the club slightly, finish left by turning your body core left, handle left, so that at impact from a DTL view, the hands are already out of view. With a Hand/Arm release, you are "Throwing/Slinging" the club down the line toward your target, and it takes more adjustment to square the clubface at impact to have a repeatable swing. This also has to do with one plane vs two plane swinging. It involves letting the club release naturally vs cracking the release manually, as it were. Ernie Els and Fred Couples are examples of Hand/Arm release and Zach Johnson and Tiger Woods (On his Irons only) are examples of Body release. The "Pundits" claim that because Tiger hits his Driver with a Hand/Arm release; this accounts for his inconsistency with the Driver. However if his release timing is dead on, he hits it a mile. You have a good teaching Pro in the UK, Denis Pugh who works with Monty I believe, who has the belief that it should be a combination of the two.

Sounds like your on the path.

Relax your arms from the elbow down and the release will be more natural.
Roll with the forearms more than the wrist. Think of pointing the outside hand's knuckles at the ground at impact.
Is you hip getting ahead and blocking your release.
Try setting up away from the ball 1/2 clubhead more.

Good Luck

First of all, what do you define as a release? As we come through the ball's position, the club should reach full extension about 12-24 inches in front of where the ball was sitting. That extension is the release. It is when the swing path is at it's fullest, and then the clubhead begins the followthrough phase, and leads to the finish( when the elbows break). Many players try to flip the hands and sling the club head through the ball, and think that by releasing their hands, that they create the release move. But the club does it all by itself, unless you hold it off from getting to its fullest extension. With a player that experiences a over the top move, what happens there, is the club head is tossed out and up away from the player's body, and then it reaches an early extension behind the ball, then cuts back across the ball. Because the extension is in the wrong place, they have already released and now the club head is slowing odwn, and can not release as it did so too early. The release is just allow the club head to track towards the target side, and it is a natural flow of the swing. No minipulation at all. If you do try to help, you snap your wrist, and that can cause a snap hook. That builds a timing element into the swing, that no one needs to add, If so, then on good days you can time it, on bad days you never can. Too early, you hook. too late you slice. Too fine a line to be of any use. The object is to be consistant. If you do experience release problems, usually that is caused by either trying to minipulate it, or your too tense and it stops you from letting it happen. You hold off the release. But some shots the player does want to hold off the release. It is a fine line depending on the shot your attempting to exicute.

In a proper fundamentally sound swing, there is no minipulation. As soon as a player attempts to control the club, he loses all control. The club is engineered to do it's job all on it's own. If you try to help it, you interfeer with what it is doing, you get in it's way. Just do your job. Allow the shaft of the club to align with the lead arm at contact. That is your job. The club will do it's and the release will happen as it is physics, a natural progression.

Agree with Rony. It really depends on what swing type you have. If you are a one plane swinger the release happens naturally as you make a full shoulder turn through the ball. If you are a two plane swinger then you have to manually release. Check out "The Plane Truth" by Jim Hardy. Has some good info on releasing in both swing types.

Thanks for the replies

When i picked up the latest Todays Golfer, looked to the "What happens when" section. Its about whats happens when the arms collapse.

Read and looked at the pictures, and its my exact problem, although i thought i was doing something wrong with my hands, when in fact its my arms that are the problem!