So now we are going to look at a couple of really nice drills that should help us not only initiate the correct wrist hinge but also how to use that correct wrist hinge for the down swing. The first exercise is going to be a simple one piece take away exercise, so I’m going to take my set up to the golf ball, I’m going to putt the butt end of the golf club right into my stomach, right into my belly button and then just grip down on the shaft where it would normally feel comfortable. I’m now going to try and make a back swing movement and I can turn back and I can set the club in a good position here. Now, if I notice that the club was coming away from my body very quickly, I would suggest that I probably started to use too much forearm rotation too early in the back swing.

If I started to hinge the club, the club would just start to move towards my belt but it wouldn’t fully detach like it has done here. So I’d like to make a nice forearm movement to here where the forearms don’t rotate, the shoulders turn and then the club can start to work up, but higher up into the back swing. So I’m not flicking it away here with my forearms which is going to swing the club inside, so it’s hinging the club correctly after a one piece takeaway motion. Another great way of looking at that is setting up to the golf ball here and again gripping half way down so I can actually use this end as a bit of a guide, a bit of a pointer if you like and I can see that as I take the club back I should have my shaft and the line on the ground parallel to each other, not on top of each other but parallel to each other, where pointed at my intended target, then I start to swing this club up and I want to see that the shaft of my club points at that yellow line on the ground, it points at my ball to target line, because if I had the club too far behind me or too steep I know that I’ve got the wrong wrist hinge for that motion.

So turning back here, setting the club up into a good position, the club handle will then pull down the yellow line, yellow line, yellow line, now the club head takes over, down the yellow line, down the yellow line, and look in the follow through, the shaft still points at that yellow line, so pretty much all the way through the swing, the club is pointing on the plane. If I was too steep I would be up and the shaft wouldn’t point to the line on the ground and the club head wouldn’t point along the line on the ground, that’s too steep a plane of swing and then too flat a plane of swing, a swing back, this points nowhere near the line, nowhere near the line, nowhere near the line and again in the wrong position. So some really good exercises there to help you with this swing plane idea and the correct wrist hinge for your back swing. Now last exercise I’d like you to do, you can either do this with a cane or even just with the long golf club and turn it upside down, is we’re going to swing a few times with the cane and we’re going to feel how the wrist hinge and the wrist release really fire that club through the impact area. Simply if I wasn’t using my wrist in the correct way, that line swings a lot slower, doesn’t make the same noise as if I really get my hands turning over correctly. So utilizing the correct wrist hinge in your back swing and down swing is a great way of accelerating the golf club, and that’s an excellent drill for being able to feel that speed.