Common Mistakes With Swing Release - (Video) by Pete Styles
Common Mistakes With Swing Release - (Video) by Pete Styles

So if you are aiming for proper golf club release through the impact phase, let’s look at the three of the most common errors that people would make during this part of their swing. Actually the first error with releasing the golf club in the down swing is actually connected to the back swing and its cutting the back swing too short. If you make a back swing where you only get halfway back, you probably find that you’ve not really set the golf club into a good enough position to allow it to then release. So for a good releasing motion, we’ve got to store the power up somewhere in the first place. So we’re going to rotate the shoulders 90 degrees, and set the wrist into a good position. Now we’ve got a position that will allow us to lag and therefore release through impact. No shoulder rotation, no wrist hinge, we’re really going to struggle the hit that golf ball with any efficient releasing action. The next consideration we might have is not utilizing the hips in the down swing. So if I make a big back swing turn, I’ve done everything right to here, then I don’t use my hips and I try and hit the ball, my body weight is not moving in the correct fashion, my hands are going to flip over too early, chances are I'm going to hit this ball fat and I'm going to hit a hook and I certainly can’t get to the golf ball with a good release. It’s just going to be a waft of the hands; it’s going to hit the ball short and potentially left with a fat contact.

So we need to be winding up to the top correctly, driving the hips across correctly, then letting the release happen. One last fault and I guess this is a bit of an ironic fault since now we’re talking about releasing. And this is the fact that some golfers force their release. Some golfers don’t trust it’s going to happen, they don’t let it happen, they force it too early. So they get to the top of the backs swing, and they throw their hands and the arms down on the golf ball and they force it from here all through the impact phase, they flip their hands over. And they actually cause themselves all sorts of problems if they are swinging over the top and cutting across the ball because they released up here, or they released too fast at the golf ball, flipped their hands over and actually hits some quite bad hooks. So we don’t want to see the hands really turning down to the floor here, more extending down towards the target line is going to be okay. But with a nice smooth release, rather than a flat hook that just ducks it down the left hand side. So making sure there's a big enough back swing, making sure you’re driving your hips, and making sure you’re not trying to force your release, are three of the biggest mistakes that you might be making in trying to release the golf club correctly. 2015-11-05

So if you are aiming for proper golf club release through the impact phase, let’s look at the three of the most common errors that people would make during this part of their swing. Actually the first error with releasing the golf club in the down swing is actually connected to the back swing and its cutting the back swing too short. If you make a back swing where you only get halfway back, you probably find that you’ve not really set the golf club into a good enough position to allow it to then release. So for a good releasing motion, we’ve got to store the power up somewhere in the first place. So we’re going to rotate the shoulders 90 degrees, and set the wrist into a good position. Now we’ve got a position that will allow us to lag and therefore release through impact. No shoulder rotation, no wrist hinge, we’re really going to struggle the hit that golf ball with any efficient releasing action. The next consideration we might have is not utilizing the hips in the down swing. So if I make a big back swing turn, I’ve done everything right to here, then I don’t use my hips and I try and hit the ball, my body weight is not moving in the correct fashion, my hands are going to flip over too early, chances are I'm going to hit this ball fat and I'm going to hit a hook and I certainly can’t get to the golf ball with a good release. It’s just going to be a waft of the hands; it’s going to hit the ball short and potentially left with a fat contact.

So we need to be winding up to the top correctly, driving the hips across correctly, then letting the release happen. One last fault and I guess this is a bit of an ironic fault since now we’re talking about releasing. And this is the fact that some golfers force their release. Some golfers don’t trust it’s going to happen, they don’t let it happen, they force it too early. So they get to the top of the backs swing, and they throw their hands and the arms down on the golf ball and they force it from here all through the impact phase, they flip their hands over. And they actually cause themselves all sorts of problems if they are swinging over the top and cutting across the ball because they released up here, or they released too fast at the golf ball, flipped their hands over and actually hits some quite bad hooks. So we don’t want to see the hands really turning down to the floor here, more extending down towards the target line is going to be okay. But with a nice smooth release, rather than a flat hook that just ducks it down the left hand side. So making sure there's a big enough back swing, making sure you’re driving your hips, and making sure you’re not trying to force your release, are three of the biggest mistakes that you might be making in trying to release the golf club correctly.