# Club Release



## Khamelion (May 27, 2012)

Evevning,

Anyone got any good drills for getting it ingrained that I have to release the club through impact to square up the face?

Everything else is going great with my swing, just I have the tendancy to leave the face open at impact and thus I slice. It's not a bad slice mind you, but a slice none the less.

The one drill I have is to hold a club in my right hand only swing back to hip high making sure toe of club is pointing up, swing through squaring the club face as  I hit the ball and turn the club so that it's toe up on follow through, thus promoting me to release the club.

If I can only get this part of my swing ingrained so it's second nature I know the good game within will be able to escape its shackles.

cheers
Dave


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## DaveM (May 27, 2012)

The hand release just happens on its own, as long as you have hinged your wrists correctly. Done try and force it. As you say a good drill is to swing, your arms from parallel to parallel with your club 90* to that line ,at the top of the backswing/to finish. But dont try an force the release as I have said it will happen naturally. Oh and dont let yourself sway keep centred.


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## Deleted Member 1156 (May 27, 2012)

You need to be careful about releasing your hands if you are hitting a slice as you will turn your slice into a pull hook if your hands get overactive. Bad place to be as you end up aiming left to allow for the slice then hitting it even further left. 

I'd suggest you get a lesson booked with a decent pro or you could end up in big trouble.

:thup:


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## Val (May 27, 2012)

The likely hood is you are casting the club at the top and in turn releasing the club early forcing out to in and a slice. If you work at coming inside on the downswing the release will come naturally but it does take lots of work at the range and practice.


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## Oddsocks (May 27, 2012)

as above get a lesson booked. Â£25-30 on  decent drill could save Â£100's+ trying to cure the faults ingrained by a self fix.


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## One Planer (May 27, 2012)

When you say release, do you mean roll them through impact?


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## JustOne (May 27, 2012)

Khamelion said:



			Everything else is going great with my swing, just I have the tendancy to leave the face open at impact and thus I slice. It's not a bad slice mind you, but a slice none the less.

The one drill I have is to hold a club in my right hand only swing back to hip high making sure toe of club is pointing up,
		
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You are ingraining your own problem (by opening the face too much)..... the toe should be slighty turned down not vertical at hip height....

here's one in slow-mo for you.....

[video=youtube;08rpqW2Z9Vw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08rpqW2Z9Vw[/video]

:thup:


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## RGDave (May 27, 2012)

I love that Luke video, such a great way to see the clubface on the backswing.

To think, I spent years slicing and pushing, only to have it suggested to me that actually it's better NOT to have the toe pointing skyward at 9 o'clock.

Horses for courses, maybe, but I check this a lot. I believe Clemshaw makes a big deal of it also (if you like his stuff)


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

drive4show said:



			You need to be careful about releasing your hands if you are hitting a slice as you will turn your slice into a pull hook if your hands get overactive. Bad place to be as you end up aiming left to allow for the slice then hitting it even further left. 

I'd suggest you get a lesson booked with a decent pro or you could end up in big trouble.

:thup:
		
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I am having lessons and if you had seen my swing at the start to what it is now, it's chalk and cheese, the pro teaching me, is very very good. 

As you say the pull hook is bad place to be and I can achieve that by over rotating the hands after impact and by turning my shoulders to early. Holding the shoulders so my left shoulder is held facing the target longer stops the pull hook, but I still occasionally slice, due to my right hand being underneath my left at impact.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

Valentino said:



			The likely hood is you are casting the club at the top and in turn releasing the club early forcing out to in and a slice. If you work at coming inside on the downswing the release will come naturally but it does take lots of work at the range and practice.
		
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Casting the club was one of the many things the lessons have put right, I'm now, I think the best way to describe the action is pulling the butt of the grip away from me and around rather than flipping like casting a fly rod. The casting action was simply cured by cocking my wrists at the top of my back swing, which made my club parallel to the ground and had the added bonus of an additional 6mph club head speed.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

Gareth said:



			When you say release, do you mean roll them through impact?
		
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Yes, release, roll, the action you do at some point on your down swing that squares the club face up to the ball at impact.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

JustOne said:



			You are ingraining your own problem (by opening the face too much)..... the toe should be slighty turned down not vertical at hip height....
		
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Gotcha, I see exactly where you're coming from, the video helps as well. thank you


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## JustOne (May 28, 2012)

Khamelion you are making a lot of 'justifications' for what you perceive you are doing and why, just about all of them are wrong. You need to take your hands OUT of the swing, there IS NO ROLL either into the ball OR after it. What you actually do the millifraction after the ball makes no difference whatsoever, you could even let go of the club of you wanted to and chuck it up the fairway, the ball has already GONE.

To consider how to square the face properly take a look at this video below... it will also give you an idea of what you should be doing with your shoulders... instead of guessing 

[video=youtube;ySwyKwsWL0k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySwyKwsWL0k[/video]


As you notice the club actually squares itself if you turn properly, no rolling the wrists/arms etc.
hope that helps :thup:


In terms of RELEASE (which was your original question), about 20-30" after you've hit the ball BOTH your arms should be STRAIGHT, the club is still practically pointing at the ground but you are fully extended, that is a release, in fact it's a FULL release.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

Hey up Justone, I'm not guessing and while what I have written is being perceived as guess work, I am having lessons and the pro who is teaching me is very very good.

If you had seen my swing a few month ago and looked at it now, the difference is enormous.

I started playing about 18 month ago give or take and had lessons with a teaching pro, while she was okay she was young and to be fair and this is my opinion she relied a lot on the flight scope system to diagnose faults and while she offered advice as to stance etc... she seemed more interested in the flight scope than improving me. To give a balanced view though, one of my mates has lessons with her regularly and to him she is brilliant.

The pro who is teaching me now, while he does use the flight scope system, it is kind of mandatory, he has a lot of experience and can tell me how I've hit the ball before the flight scope, at which point the flight scope corroborates what he has just told me.

He has taught me more in 2 lessons than what the previous teaching pro did in 7, he has sorted my swing no end, I'm more comfortable at address, my over the top, casting Jim Furyk style loop has gone, my head wandered all over the place but that now stays pretty much stationary, all in all my swing technique while not flawless is a gazillion time better than what it was.

The only annoying issue I have is that at impact my right hand is underneath thus I have an open club face and a slight slice, hence the question in my original post.


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## bobmac (May 28, 2012)

You shouldn't have to think about releasing the hands/rolling the wrists or anything else.
As James said, the clubhead  should not be vertical in the backswing but toe down.
If it is vertical, you've opened the face.


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## Curls (May 28, 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln1T2ZPyuuw&feature=related

There's a series of them so watch from the start, I found these excellent


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## One Planer (May 28, 2012)

bobmac said:



			You shouldn't have to think about releasing the hands/rolling the wrists or anything else.
As James said, the clubhead  should not be vertical in the backswing but toe down.
If it is vertical, you've opened the face.
		
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As Bob said.

I used to suffer from a horrendous slice for the same reason as you. I used to roll my wrist open on the back swing then try and roll them closed at impact. It never worked.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

bobmac said:



			You shouldn't have to think about releasing the hands/rolling the wrists or anything else.
As James said, the clubhead  should not be vertical in the backswing but toe down.
If it is vertical, you've opened the face.
		
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I've got three rounds coming up over the bank holiday weekend and three days this week to get to the driving range to practice. The Luke Donald images above have made me realise that I've interpreted what I was shown as a drill, wrong, at the range this evening I'll make sure, or at the very least I'll try my damndest (is that a word?) to try and get the club toe down and see where I go from there.

I'm happy with the way my swing is working all bar the open face at impact thing, so if the above sorts it and the slice out, if we ever meet for a round, I'll get the beers in


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## JustOne (May 28, 2012)

Khamelion said:



			Hey up Justone,.....
		
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No offence was meant. If you have a decent pro that you trust then that's great... do what he/she says and voila! (hopefully) 

My buddy off 5 h/cap constantly waffles on about what he's working on, how it's helping him, what's causing it, what's helping yadda yadaa..... all crap, he hasn't got a clue.... BUT he does play off 5, he gets the job done, seemingly by accident with his 'Furyk meets Gulbis' style swing, so I just let him get on with it... every day is something different


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

JustOne said:



			No offence was meant....
		
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No Offence taken, I welcome all the comments, if nothing else when I hit the range in the next 10mins it has given me something to think about, along with the other 37 things


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

JustOne said:



			As you notice the club actually squares itself if you turn properly, no rolling the wrists/arms etc.
hope that helps :thup:
		
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Just watched the video you embedded, couldn't do it at work, and the shoulder going up brings back memories, all bad ones at that, but the video does make sense and I now have 38 things to think about now :mmm:


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## sawtooth (May 28, 2012)

I dont think that you ought to think about this. If you hold the club correctly and you do not have too much grip tension or tension in the arms, then this action should be automatic.


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## Khamelion (May 28, 2012)

sawtooth said:



			I dont think that you ought to think about this. If you hold the club correctly and you do not have too much grip tension or tension in the arms, then this action should be automatic.
		
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That's pretty much the picture that has been painted in the replies.  I am trying to get rid of the stranglers grip, its just finding the fine line between gripping the club, feeling comfortable and not worrying about losing to much control. I'll get there eventually


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## sawtooth (May 28, 2012)

bobmac said:



			You shouldn't have to think about releasing the hands/rolling the wrists or anything else.
As James said, the clubhead should not be vertical in the backswing but toe down.
If it is vertical, you've opened the face.

View attachment 1760

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Bobmac,  there is more than one way to skin a cat right?

I mean I've read some top coaches advocate that the leading edge of the club should be vertical at the same point above.


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## bobmac (May 29, 2012)

sawtooth said:



			Bobmac,  there is more than one way to skin a cat right?

I mean I've read some top coaches advocate that the leading edge of the club should be vertical at the same point above.
		
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It's the backswing.
You can do what you want on the backswing
It's the downswing that counts.
However, if you get something wrong on the backswing, you have to fix it either in the transition or the downswing.
Keep everything neutral in the backswing simplifies everything and means no adjustments are required in the transition or downswing.
If you look at the line on the clubface and compare it to the angle of Luke's body, I'd say that's square


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## SocketRocket (May 29, 2012)

I completely agree with what Bob and JustOne have said.  The clubface should be pointing at the same angle as your spine forward tilt at the halfway back position.  This keeps it perfectly square to the swingpath.  

As Bob says you can do what you wish with it but if it gets off plane and out of square in the backswing then you will have to make compensations on the way down and this is not good.  Keep the clubface sitting square to the swingpath as long as possible.


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## Khamelion (May 29, 2012)

So two nights this week so far at the driving range and for the most part the irons at going straight or at the very least for my level straight enough so as not to have to worry about the rough. Happy with that for the time being.

However, my driver, I just cannot get that to go straight. Prior to my last lesson it was going straight, but now it's the big slice again. The only thing that has changed is my grip has been tweaked.

How do I get my driver to go straight?

THree things tend to happen with me:-

1 - My shoulders spin out to early and I pull hook, easy fix and I know what i need to do to remedy that, to the point that this is become a rarity rather than a common event.

2 - I don't get my weight onto my left side and end up leaning back and it's a huge slice, again easy fix and I know what to do to sort that out.

3 - I don't spin out and I get my weight over onto my left but my right hand is under and I suppose behind at impact, thus an open face and yet another slice.

It's starting to drive me nuts.

Every other point my teacher has told me to do, I grasped within the same lesson to the point he even said that I'm picking up the instruction very quick, yet I cannot stop slicing.


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## SocketRocket (May 29, 2012)

You slice because your swingpath is left of the direction your clubface points at impact.  Now this may be due to you having the clubface open or it maybe that you are swinging out to in, or both.

In what direction does the ball initially take off ?


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## Khamelion (May 29, 2012)

SocketRocket said:



			In what direction does the ball initially take off ?
		
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With the lessons I have had I can safely say my swing path is in to out as near as dammed on the same swing plane as my back swing.

The ball starts straight for the first half of it's flight then bends right


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## Dave B (May 30, 2012)

If you are having lessons your pro should be able to identify exactly what is wrong if the basic fundamentals and grip are correct.

If you go to the range put two clubs down forming a cross to ensure that you are square and that the ball is just inside the left foot in the correct position teed up at the correct height.

As you address the ball and set yourself up make sure your spine angle is tilted very slightly to the right so that your head is behind the ball and the majority of your weight is on your back foot with your right leg braced. Now check to ensure you right shoulder is tucked back and not leaning inwards toward the ball and then start your take away low and slow making sure the club travels in a straight line for the first few inches.

The shoulder part is very important because one of the biggest faults for slicers, is to bring the right shoulder forward so that it is pointing at the ball, in an effort to hit it right however all this does is create an exadgerated out to in swing as you are effectively forced to swing around the shoulder rather than though the inside which is what you do when the shoulder is cleared, (if your shoulders are square and correctly alligned with the rest of your body it is not an issue however most of us think our shoulder, feet and hips are correctly alligned when in fact they are at odds with each other).

Keep your hips quiet during the back swing bracing against the right leg will help you retain balance and accuracy in addition to creating coil tension in the swing when you release from the top. If you keep you head still and behind the ball before the point of impact, because you have cleared you right shoulder you will swing through on an inside/neutral swing path which will ensure that the club is square at impact.

It may take a while to get used to it and as long as you don't try to force the swing from the start you should find your ball going a lot straighter. Once you get used to swinging on the inside you will then start to build confidence, swing speed and distance.

Setting up how I have described may not be text book style but it doe address many of the common issues faced by slicers.


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## Khamelion (May 30, 2012)

The points you mention are some of the points my teacher has told me. I was addressing the ball with my shoulders pointing left of target, or as you put with the right should pointing at the ball, that issue is sorted now and is part of my routine marking sure my shoulders are lined up.

My head moving all over the place was another, partly because I had my chin on my chest, trying to not to move it in the classic keep yoor head down scenario everyone gets told. THe result of that was on the back swing me head would move right to make room for my shoulder, again issue fixed.

I'm at the driving range tomorrow before I play on Friday, ther are a lot of things whihc people have suggested in this thread, some of which I'm already doing, some of which I may try, but if the worst comes to the worst I'll just use my 3 metal off the tee which I know I can hit straight.

Cheers
Dave


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## SocketRocket (May 31, 2012)

Khamelion said:



			With the lessons I have had I can safely say my swing path is in to out as near as dammed on the same swing plane as my back swing.

The ball starts straight for the first half of it's flight then bends right
		
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If this is your ball flight then your clubface is square to target and your swingpath is to the left (Out to in).
You need to attack the ball more on its inside quadrant.


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