Club Release

[Khamelion]

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

 

[DaveM]

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.

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

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:

 

[Val]

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.

 

[Oddsocks]

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

 

[One Planer]

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

 

[JustOne]

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,

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:

 

[RGDave]

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)

 

[Khamelion]

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:

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.

 

[Khamelion]

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.

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.

 

[Khamelion]

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

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.

 

[Khamelion]

You are ingraining your own problem (by opening the face too much)..... the toe should be slighty turned down not vertical at hip height....

Gotcha, I see exactly where you're coming from, the video helps as well. thank you

 

[JustOne]

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.

 

[Khamelion]

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.

 

[bobmac]

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.

 

[Curls]

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

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

 

[One Planer]

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.

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.

 

[Khamelion]

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.

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

 

[JustOne]

Hey up Justone,.....

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

 

[Khamelion]

No offence was meant....

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