If we now understand how important this L-shape is and then the release of the L-shape, the release of the lag. We know how important that is as well. It's very difficult to actually check what's going on as you're hitting a golf ball. Just purely because the speed of everything that goes on down here and even with slow motion video replays, it's often difficult to see exactly when and what happens through this hitting area. It's also very difficult for a golfer to feel that. So I always think one of the best exercises to encourage the feel of what's going on with the lag is actually just a pitching exercise.
It's basically using the lag at the right time, but at a slower swing. So we're not trying to hit this at 100 miles an hour. Pitching might be even 30, 40 miles an hour to serve only 30, 40 percent of your full powered swing. But it really helps you understand and feel what the lag is doing at the right time. When you're good at your pitching, you can then start to take the shot out a little bit further. So we're going to set up with the ball in the center of the feet, gripping down on the golf club and then just focus a lot on taking quite a handsy takeaway.
So I stress this is not a normal golf swing where we're focused on wide arcs. This is a pitching swing where it's a little bit more hands in the early takeaway and a good release with the hands in the follow through as well. So we want quite a handsy little pitching technique the ball should pop up in the air quiet high. And I think just by taking this pitching action to the range and just working on a sort of 40, 50 yard shot where we can have lots and lots hand action in the swing, you really start to feel like you can get more hand action in the takeaway, more hand action in the follow-through. Doing that will actually start to lead into some better pitching actions and then that should follow up to the bigger swings.
So when you get up to your seven irons, your eight irons you really get that idea of good quality L-shape, good quality chop through the ball. So once you've hit a few 30, 40 yarders, billed them out a little bit further, start to take your pitching shots through a fuller swing; the better you get at those fuller swings you're going out 70, 80, 90 yards you then take that lag into your full swing. So it's lots of hand action in the back swing to create the L-shape, hold on to that lag angle and then release in the follow through. If you can do that well with your pitching shots hopefully you'll do it well with your full swings which will ultimately result in more power throughout your whole bag.