Techniques For Tackling the Delayed Hit To Cure a Slice

Techniques For Tackling the Delayed Hit To Cure a Slice

Even the most-experienced golf teacher is hesitant to take on this topic. Teaching the delayed hit, or ‘lag’ as it is commonly called, is difficult. Since this is a challenging skill to learn, most golfers will get worse before they get better while working on this point. For the golf teacher, that presents an interesting problem. Even if learning lag is in the best interest of the golfer in the long run, making the player worse in the meantime might cause the student to go looking for another teacher. Only confident golf teachers will dare venture into this area, knowing that it will eventually help the student get the most out of his or her game.

So, if this is such a tricky skill to learn, should you even bother? The answer, as you might have guessed, is yes. You should absolutely attempt to learn how to lag the club properly, as the potential reward for learning this skill is significant. You can improve both your distance and your accuracy with this addition to your game, and those two things don’t come along in the same package very often.

To help you get started, we have collected three tips below which will hopefully help you begin down the road toward a delayed hit. This skill is going to take plenty of practice, make no mistake, but we hope these tips help.

Make some one-handed practice swings. By swinging the club with just your left hand, you can get a feel for how the delayed hit should work. Without having your right hand on the club to fire the release during the downswing, you will be left to sweep the club head through the hitting area after your body has turned through. You don’t want to actually hit balls this way, but making some simple practice swings can help you get started on the process of learning lag.

Hit some pitch shots. Once you have made some one-handed practice swings, try putting your right hand back on the club so you can hit some pitch shots of 30-40 yards. When you hit these shots, pay attention to the goal of letting the club head lag behind your hands in the downswing. This should be easier than doing the same thing with a full swing, since the club won’t be moving so quickly through impact. If you achieve a delayed hit on these pitch shots, the ball should come off cleanly with a crisp sound at the moment of contact.

Start down with the lower body. One of the keys to successfully lagging the club on the way down is to start your downswing by turning your hips open to the target. This move is going to help you get your body out in front of the club head, which is exactly what needs to happen. From there, you just need to let the club ‘come along for the ride’ as you continue to turn.

This is likely to be a frustrating process as you attempt to learn how to lag the club. Don’t let your frustration get the better of you – instead, just look at this as a challenge that you are going to find a way to conquer. If you stick it out, it will be quite exciting when you start to see your hard work pay off on the course.