One of the key moves that generally most good players will share, whether it's a good handicap golfer or a good golfer that you see on the TV, one of the world's best players, one of the key moves that they share will be a late release. They create lag in the back swing. They hold their lag and then they release it at the last minute. That's one of the things that makes the guys on the TV look like they're hitting the golf ball such a long way with what can look like quite an effortless golf swing. It's just the timing and the release of the stored up power because you might feel that when you're playing you're trying your hardest to hit the ball as hard as you can and you're just not getting a good strike on the golf ball. You're not delivering the power that you think you should be. It's the timing of when you release the power.
So we’re going to talk late release and lag. When we set up the golf ball, lag is created in the back swing by hinging the wrists up trying to create an L shape of around about 90 degrees or more between the shaft and the left forearm, creating lag into the back swing and then holding the lag as we pull down towards the ball. At this point when you've got your lag, it's all about how you release the lag into the golf ball. If you flipped out of your angle here, you've lost all of your power. You've got nothing left to hit the golf ball with. So you'd like to be able to create a lag, hold the lag on the way down and then straighten up for impact with a straight left forearm and extending and chasing the golf ball down the target line. So if you feel that you're hitting the ball as hard as you can but not creating a lag angle, you need to change the way you're doing things a little bit.
Let’s go ahead and just make a couple of little practice drills here. So we turn back and we set our L shape, up to chest and then hit through the tee peg and feel how you extend it on this side to again another lagged position or angled position. So again it's back, set the angle, up to chest height and release the angle. If I can get the feeling of creating lag in my back swing, storing it in my down swing and releasing through as I finish, you'll find I’ll be able to hit the golf ball nearly my full distance with actually what would appear to be little three-quarter swing so a short back, loads of angle, all the way through to a lagged finish and I’ll be able to create lots and lots of fast clubhead speed and power and good ball striking ability if I can keep my lag. It's one of the common traits that you'll see across the world's best players — lag, late release, loads of power. Have a go doing that.