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Early release is a term used in connection with your down swing. Release is referring to the angle between your left arm and the shaft of the golf club, for right handed golfers, that has been created on your back swing. As you swing the golf club back away from the golf ball, you cock and set your wrists to create a ninety degree angle between your left arm and the shaft of the golf club. It is this angle that release refers to on your down swing. Creating the angle on your back swing creates a source of power for you to strike the golf ball with.

As you swing down, if you retain the angle between your left arm and the shaft of the golf club, the closer you can get the angle to the golf ball before your release it, the further you will hit the ball. Releasing the angle creates a great deal of speed in the club head and if you create this speed as the club head strikes the golf ball, you will hit the ball the longest distance possible.

Early release means that as you begin your down swing, at an early point on your down swing, you release the angle between your left arm and the club shaft, creating a straight line between the two. As a result of this release of the angle, or your wrists, you generate speed in the club head. But this speed is being generated too early and before the club head has reached the golf ball so by the time the club head does reach impact, it is decelerating and you will not hit the ball as far as you could.

Early release also causes issues in the connection that the club head achieves with the golf ball. In releasing, you create maximum length down your left arm and the golf club shaft. This length needs to be achieved at impact so that the club head strikes the ball and then the ground. Achieving this length early on the back swing will result in the club head striking the ground before the golf ball and you will hit a fat golf shot. If you manage to skim the club head above the ground so that you do not strike it, the club head will begin to swing upwards towards the golf ball and then strike it on the top, producing a thin golf shot.

Great golf swings and great players all display a late release on their down swing and through impact in order to achieve maximum shot distance. Early release is very much a feature of a higher handicappers swing or a beginner.

Early release makes it very difficult to be a consistently good ball striker. An early release causes either fat golf shots where the club head hits the ground before the golf ball. Or it produces thin golf shots as the club head misses the ground and catches the upper part of the golf ball on the up swing.

Release does cause maximum club head speed. However, an early release causes maximum club head speed before the golf club strikes the golf ball. To generate maximum club head speed at impact, you need to work on achieving a late release.