(golf ball whooshing)
- Hello, Adam Bazalgette here,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject, how to release the golf club.
I'll show you the two main components of that.
There's two different ways you can define release.
And I'll also show you some things
I think you should work on,
and the order you should work on them.
You'll have some success.
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(golf club whooshing)
(golf ball bouncing)
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So when we talk about the release,
there's two real elements of it,
at least in my opinion, that you'd look at.
This is a down-the-line view.
This is Billy Horschel.
One of them is club face.
Can the club face snap closed.
So, typically, great players,
the toe is about up at that point,
certainly not always, but generally.
And then it has to square up, and then de-loft
and close over there.
Now you see it's relatively toe-up over there.
As a general reference, when it's on that side of the body,
visually, you'll see the club face line up
about with the club shaft.
So the closing of the face is certainly one element
of the release.
The other one, there's Michelle Wie.
Let me just move her up just a touch
so we can see the ball there.
And we should look at a couple of players here.
The other one is the unhinging of the wrist.
So, she's got lots of lag,
there's a significant angle, obviously,
there between the lead arm and the club shaft.
And just watch through impact.
As she comes through, that thing snaps square.
So somewhere about in there, about this far past the ball,
is the point where, most players,
you'll see the shaft fully in line,
both wrists straight, if you like,
the shaft fully in line with the arms there.
Let's have a look at Mr. Woods there.
We'll just bump him up just a little bit as well.
And let's have a look here.
So, loads the club beautifully,
and then snap go those wrists.
He's maybe, at that point, just slightly before Michelle.
And I really believe, a couple of things,
I think unless you can, first off, load the club.
We'll get into that in a moment.
Unless you can decelerate your arms and body
and really crack the energy out to the club,
really transfer energy, you won't get this look
to the extent they will.
You will see a lot of these players,
shortly after coming past this lead thigh,
you start to see the knuckles
of that glove hand under there.
Not typical to see a higher handicap with that look there.
And I believe that if you can get this view correct,
the releasing of the wrists as we see it from the face on,
the down-the-line view, the club face bit,
will largely take care of itself.
I'll show you how these blend together
later in this video, though.
(golf ball whooshing)
So how do we go about getting this release?
What's gonna give that to you?
Well, the fact of the matter is,
you can't just manufacture it with your hands down there.
It has to be part of the overall physical force.
Think of skipping a rock.
Think of the bounce that would be in your arm
and the way you'd stop your arm
and snap that club through.
Now we're gonna get into a nice little drill, I'll show you.
But let me just show you a feature here,
that if you don't have this right,
it's not gonna be possible.
Now this video isn't about grip per-se,
but let me just say a couple of things that'll really help.
Relax your hand.
If that grip isn't fairly far down in the fingers,
under that pad, you won't have the mobility in your wrists
in order to make this happen.
And not only that, when you practice this grip a little bit,
hey, you need some grip pressure.
When that club's moving quickly, you need some pressure,
but you must have mobile wrists.
Practice that.
So get a short iron.
I've got a 9 iron here.
Go ahead and get that grip we're talking about.
And practice that feeling of some control over the club
but some looseness.
Here's the drill.
Here's what I want you to do.
Two features to it.
The swing's going to be roughly this big.
Actually, the follow-through,
in terms of your arm swing's a little shorter.
First thing you've gotta be able to do is, again,
you've gotta be responsive and soft enough.
If you thrust that club down,
you waste all the spring in the club,
it's not gonna release properly at the bottom.
And the second one, and that's, I suppose,
the focal point of this drill,
is the finish, as we go through.
And what I'm gonna try to do is,
I'm going to stop my arms as nearly past the edge
of my lead leg there, as I can.
And at that point, I want to feel the energy
having gone out into the golf club.
So I want a very sudden, abrupt stop.
So here we go.
A little swing, nice and soft.
(golf ball whooshing)
I just stop that thing right there
and I can really feel the energy transfer.
Again, if you don't load it and decelerate your arms
and stop, you're gonna not have the type of punch you need.
Well, you might say, we certainly don't want to stop
our arms that quickly in a real swing.
As we showed you with the pros earlier, though,
there's gotta be a certain amount of deceleration
to crack the whip.
Then there should be so much energy in the golf club
it takes you back around to the finish.
That's the idea.
So let's try it again, here.
(golf ball whooshing)
Just right there.
I'm hitting those balls, that's a 9 iron,
probably 120 yards, reasonably far.
Your own scale will be your own scale.
Now there's a little pitfall people often fall into.
Let's look at that.
Here's a critical point, and this is not only gonna affect
the way you release it,
but will affect, overall, point number two,
the rolling of the face through the release.
When that club snaps through,
don't let that wrist cup down here.
The idea is, as it snaps, the wrist folds under,
turns under a little bit, if you like,
and more bows this way.
So you can still snap it and bow the knuckles under,
and if you do, you'll square the club face up
a lot more effectively.
Also, you'll have a much more stable hand and club shaft
right at the moment of contact.
Let me show you Tiger doing it,
then we'll hit a few more shots.
So there's Tiger Woods, quite a while ago here.
I think this is Bay Hill.
A long par three, it appears anyway,
but watch as he comes down,
obviously very dynamic, great lag.
Here comes the snap of the wrists right there.
Here's where they pop.
But watch closely, watch the back of that left hand.
It's starting to aim downwards.
That's what you want.
It's bowing more underneath and there we go.
That's the look.
Now he may have a little cup in the wrist
by the time he gets up here somewhere,
but it's bowing downwards as he snaps the club.
That helps snap the face square,
helps de-loft the club, as well, through impact.
Now if you wanna hit solid shots,
I have brand new three-part, in-depth video course
on solid strike formula.
Just go down to the description box
and pick it up for yourself.
So now I'm trying to blend both the stop and the pop
of the club with this feeling of
turning those knuckles down a little bit.
You might hit few hooks, initially,
not a bad thing for most people.
Let's try it here.
(golf ball whooshing)
I could really feel the knuckles aiming down there.
That was a pretty solid shot.
And, of course, you get started on this,
then you start to feel that snap at the bottom.
Once you've got the feel for it,
don't hit 40 or 50 in a row or you'll feel like
you've got two swings that can't be combined.
One's my drill swing
and one's when I wanna make a full swing.
So every third or fourth shot,
or whatever discretionary mixture you choose,
go ahead and take the drill, but make it a bigger swing.
(golf ball whooshing)
And just go ahead an go on through there.
A little too much hook on that one.
And make some medium size swings, so you experience the stop
but not a complete stop.
And then make it all the way to a full swing
back and forth and so on, until you've got the feeling.
You will have a good release
Well, I hope that helps you
with how to release the golf club.
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Appreciate your interest in the golf instruction.
Hope your game is getting better.
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