Chisags Tip Of The Day #32

[chisag]

Hinge, Unhinge and Re-Hinge


... I was asked this week what did I consider the most important element of the golf swing. It was an interesting question and came on the heels of the admission they were struggling with multiple theories that work one day and not the next. He went over several of them and was shocked my answer was so simple. Once you strip away weight transfer, swing plane, shoulder turn and attempted lag along with many other elements that are just the tip of the iceberg ... it comes down to just hinging your wrists, unhinging them through impact and hinging again on the other side. I told him to watch some videos of an Iron Byron swing machine and he would see exactly what I meant. 

... You can stand still with little to no body rotation, no weight transfer and hardly any shoulder turn and if you hinge the club then unhinge through impact and re-hinge after contact you can hit the ball surprisingly far and straight. Whenever a student was lost in theory or struggling with swing concepts or some other element was dominating their swing, I would go back to this basic to get a feel for the one part of the swing that really matters. Feet together, legs straight, keep the hips as still as you can without forcing them, bend at the waist and none, some or more shoulder turn depending on your flexibility and just hinge the club and unhinge through the ball and re-hinge after contact. Many will be surprised how fast the club can move without any real help from the body and virtually no weight shift. The goal is to get a free flow of the club without the body getting in the way. This is one drill I use regularly. 

... Keep in mind that the faster the body moves (for all but elite players) the slower the club head moves. Watch the center of the disc where the arm of the machine is attached and you will see how slow it moves compared to the upper "arm" and the even faster lower "arm" and at the end of the chain the club head is moving very fast. But never the center of the swing. The video posted below is for illustration only so ignore swingmachine.com and just watch how the club hinges, unhinges through impact and re-hinges after contact. Once you have this movement down, you can add weight shift, body rotation and shoulder turn to compliment the movement that matters most. 


 

 

[cksurfdude]

Thx for this!!

Maybe one day I'll get to a chance to make it out to your area and stuff some "fun tickets" (Jimmy Buffett reference) into your hand to have you try to resolve my many golfing issues (extra bonus if you can do something with those other "issues", too )...

But.. for now.. for me... I'm having trouble with (dare I mention some tech terms) wrist angles, wrist flexion, extension, deviation, blah blah etc...

So for now, for me, I have to work on taking the wrists -out- of the swing ... although I do think I see what you're saying!

At the range I do spend a few minutes with the drill you described, and it definitely *does* help me to get my arms moving into and through the ball .. and I can definitely see from the ball flight if I'm, e.g., leaving the face open or shutting it down at impact.

Work In Progress!