Proper Swing Release Very Close Forearms - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
Proper Swing Release Very Close Forearms - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

If I asked the question do you want to hit the ball further and straighter, you’ll all be shouting at the camera, yes please. So, what I’m going to try and do now is try and explain how to hit that ball further, straighter but with control. First of all, let me just tackle what goes wrong with a golf swing. When golfers come in to hit the golf ball they tend to come in and tend not to what we call release the club, so if they don’t release the club, it means that they tend to come in like this with their arms open wide, what we refer as to chicken wings. This position here, as you can just imagine, the clubface is open, it’s aiming down the line, the clubface is open and what they will create is one or two shots. It will create either a slight fade, which is a left to right shot for right-handed golfer, left-handed just reverse it or a slice, that’s really carving away, so, by putting those arms into a chicken wing position that’s what it will actually create.

So, now we know what golfers tend to do wrong, so let’s just say what should they be doing right, so how do we release those hands, what is release? Well release is basically trying to get this club head traveling a lot faster and keeping ahead of the hands. So, as an example, if I get the clubs here, the club has actually got ahead of the hands, so we release the club through the ball, okay? So, from here we ought to release. Now, by releasing the club, releasing the club will actually create club head speed. Two things. As the hands release, the club face will tend to come through much more square, in which case that will hit straighter golf shots. Remember, when we didn’t release the hands, the clubface was in this position and it was open by hitting that ball down the right it was, like, trying to steer the shot, so by releasing those hands the clubface will come in squarer, hitting that ball straighter, but by releasing the hands the club head has now overtaken the hands and is creating a faster club head speed, which is going to give us more distance.

So, we’ve got to get those two things together. So, how do we go about it? Very very simple. The whole idea is that when we swing the club back, we want to concentrate as the club comes down, that my right forearm will start to rotate over towards my left forearm, so they almost feel as if they’re going to touch each other. So, how do we kind of get this sort of sensation when you’re actually out there and you want to put this into practice? Well, let’s think about it. The easiest way in the world is to say let’s just stand up and imagine it’s a baseball bat in your hands and all we want to do from here is…if I said now just swing the club back here, like a baseball player and come through, look at my right forearm.

It’s actually rotated over the left arm, so this is a very, very simple practice technique, going back here and this is building up the feel of what you actually want to achieve. Remember, we’re trying to release that club through the ball, bad release, good release. So, there’s a very, very simple exercise. Stand here, swing that just like a baseball player and then try and hit that baseball shot and without even thinking about it you’ve got yourself exactly where you wished. So, have a go at that tip and believe me, that will actually help you to hit straighter and further golf shots.

 2013-08-07

If I asked the question do you want to hit the ball further and straighter, you’ll all be shouting at the camera, yes please. So, what I’m going to try and do now is try and explain how to hit that ball further, straighter but with control. First of all, let me just tackle what goes wrong with a golf swing. When golfers come in to hit the golf ball they tend to come in and tend not to what we call release the club, so if they don’t release the club, it means that they tend to come in like this with their arms open wide, what we refer as to chicken wings. This position here, as you can just imagine, the clubface is open, it’s aiming down the line, the clubface is open and what they will create is one or two shots. It will create either a slight fade, which is a left to right shot for right-handed golfer, left-handed just reverse it or a slice, that’s really carving away, so, by putting those arms into a chicken wing position that’s what it will actually create.

So, now we know what golfers tend to do wrong, so let’s just say what should they be doing right, so how do we release those hands, what is release? Well release is basically trying to get this club head traveling a lot faster and keeping ahead of the hands. So, as an example, if I get the clubs here, the club has actually got ahead of the hands, so we release the club through the ball, okay? So, from here we ought to release. Now, by releasing the club, releasing the club will actually create club head speed. Two things. As the hands release, the club face will tend to come through much more square, in which case that will hit straighter golf shots. Remember, when we didn’t release the hands, the clubface was in this position and it was open by hitting that ball down the right it was, like, trying to steer the shot, so by releasing those hands the clubface will come in squarer, hitting that ball straighter, but by releasing the hands the club head has now overtaken the hands and is creating a faster club head speed, which is going to give us more distance.

So, we’ve got to get those two things together. So, how do we go about it? Very very simple. The whole idea is that when we swing the club back, we want to concentrate as the club comes down, that my right forearm will start to rotate over towards my left forearm, so they almost feel as if they’re going to touch each other. So, how do we kind of get this sort of sensation when you’re actually out there and you want to put this into practice? Well, let’s think about it. The easiest way in the world is to say let’s just stand up and imagine it’s a baseball bat in your hands and all we want to do from here is…if I said now just swing the club back here, like a baseball player and come through, look at my right forearm.

It’s actually rotated over the left arm, so this is a very, very simple practice technique, going back here and this is building up the feel of what you actually want to achieve. Remember, we’re trying to release that club through the ball, bad release, good release. So, there’s a very, very simple exercise. Stand here, swing that just like a baseball player and then try and hit that baseball shot and without even thinking about it you’ve got yourself exactly where you wished. So, have a go at that tip and believe me, that will actually help you to hit straighter and further golf shots.