Instruction
Why trying to create more lag can hurt your game
During what seems like every PGA Tour telecast, there’s a swing video analysis segment that mentions how a player retains the angle formed between the club shaft and the left forearm during the downswing.
This action, called “lag,” often confuses the average golfer who’s watching because they see it as a singular key to distance, power and consistency. But that’s not necessarily the case. In this article, I show the correct way to retain the angle, and also a few ineffective ways I’ve seen my students try to lag the club in the downswing.
Proper lag is mainly created during the transitional phase of the downswing and is controlled by the actions of linear force and the centrifugal rotation of the body, not through improper focus on the wrists and/or right elbow. Basically, if the pivot of the body is correct and in the proper kinematic sequence on the way down, then this angle will take care of itself. It is not a conscious thought or physical action of the arms, hands, or wrists on the way down as some players believe.
All too often, players try to make a conscious effort to retain this angle, or “delay the hit,” in order to fix an over-the-top action that they’re aggravated about. By forcing this move, they tend to put themselves into a position at belt-high where they cannot catch up. As a result, they either leave the ball our right or back up and out of it.
Whenever you cast the club or lose the angle too early in the downswing, it is usually caused by an incorrect start to the downstroke and improper body rotation. It’s here where we will discover the physiological functions that the body must follow in order to retain the lag for good, and where your swing is going wrong.
Before we dive any deeper, let’s examine the correct motion of the swing in order to create and hold the angle of the clubshaft and the left forearm. As your club reaches the top, there should be some type of angle formed between the left wrist and the forearm at the top. Most players have this angle in excess of 90 degrees to the top. In order to fix this casting action, they must first understand how lag is created, maintained, delivered and unloaded.
When the club is ALMOST to the top, several things happen and occur rapidly.
- The lower body begins to shift laterally a little to right field, which moves your center of gravity forward and shifts your weight onto the front part of the left foot. This sets the body in motion while the club is left behind.
- As the club starts to move into the downstroke, your wrist angle becomes more acute as a result of the forward motions of your body. This is due to the linear drop of the clubshaft to the inside to start the forward swing, and the increasing flex and path of the right elbow as it moves closer to your side to accommodate a flatter and more inside downstroke plane.
- From here, as the club moves between your chest and belt, your sternum and zipper now “re-connect” to some degree in order to rotate through the impact area in a more connected fashion.
- During the final rotation phase of the downstroke — belt high through impact — the angle is held off from releasing due to the body’s rotation. A natural release occurs through impact, as the club is thrown into impact via centrifugal force. This is not a conscious movement, but one that occurs naturally.
So what mistakes are amateurs making, since lag isn’t happening naturally for them?
1. Casters, Blockers, and Over-the-Toppers
Don’t try to hold the angle! By focusing your attention on the upper body, primarily the hands, wrists or right elbow, you’ll get all out of sequence on the way down. Let the body lead the club at the start of the downstroke, which will allow the club to fall linearly and let the shoulders work naturally. That way, the club can achieve the proper inside plane.
2. Right-Elbow Jammers and Spin-out Masters
Trying to hold the angle by spinning the hips rapidly to start the downstroke, in order to hold the angle or lag on the way down, causes you the most problems.
This move is incorrect because when your hips spin out from under you, the base of your spine moves toward the target while the shoulders and head lag behind, which results in a dramatic falling back of the upper body through impact. As this occurs, the body falls backward to start the downstroke, thereby eliminating the return of the right elbow back to the proper area in front of your side. By spinning out and falling back, you cause your right elbow to become jammed up behind your right hip (due to the rearward falling of the upper spine), and thus, you flip your hands through impact to regain some remnants of power you lost by jamming up your right elbow.
Utilize the proper blend of upper and lower body rotation, so they can work together, and you will hit it farther with less effort! Every swing has some degree of spinal lean to the right during impact, but you will find that the most accurate professionals control this action very well. They don’t allow the lower body to out-race the upper body; thus, their spine stays controllably tilted to the right of vertical through impact.
3. John Daly Impersonators
If your only goal in life is to hit the ball 500 yards off the tee, and you try to achieve it by utilizing only the strength in your upper body, you can lose the angle by trying to overpower the downstroke with the hands. By trying to kill the ball from the transitional area throughout the downstroke, you’re setting yourself up to lose the angle by not letting your body do the work and releasing your hands prematurely as you swing from out to in. Don’t use your arms and hands to overpower the downswing; just use your whole body!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Other Paul
Apr 9, 2016 at 1:47 am
I was taught a very different swing. I have the fast open hips, open shoulders at impact, lots of lag.
The trick with lag is to not maximize it at the top, if you do then your wrists let it go early. If you max it about 1/3 through the down swing then you release it and you get the full benefits. I added 20MPH, now swinging 115-120MPH. Hitting a nice draw to. Time to sign up to get an official handicap and play some local Amateur tournaments.
Jimmy
Apr 8, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Jack Nicklaus said that as long as you clear your hips and get your left side out of the way there is no such thing as too early of a release. I remember when Sergio first came out on tour, he used to use an Elastic band that he would attach to his wrist and the club to increase his clubhead lag. Sergio used to have WILD misses with his driver from low sweeping hooks to big push slices. He still has massive amounts of delay in his swing compared to other players but much less then when he was in the beginning of his career. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Dennis Clark
Apr 8, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Spot on pro.
Gibb Pete Ahchance
Apr 8, 2016 at 12:17 am
If you pivot correctly lag happens
cgasucks
Apr 7, 2016 at 9:01 pm
For me, I concentrate of having as much shaft lean at impact as possible and I have all the “lag” I can handle.
tony
Apr 7, 2016 at 3:38 pm
Hi Tom,
what is your opinion about moving your tailbone towards Left Center Field (for a righty) instead of the lateral shift swing thought to right field?
for whatever reason this helped my sync up my timing and eliminate early extension.
the lateral shift to right field swing thought exaggerated my early extension probably cause my right hip popped out way too soon.