Aggressive Wrist Cock Serves As a Learning Aid

For 99% of the golfers out there, taking a vigorous wrist cock may be the answer to understanding the correct golf swing. When the club is taken back and extremely cocked, the twisted body is pulled further. This in turn turns a switch in the brain to pull the club with the body rather than starting the downswing with the hands. The feeling of the over cocked clubs leaves the mind hopelessly incapable of flipping the club back with the hands. It (the mind) orders the body to un-twist first and at the desired moment when it feels it has control of the club, let the hands do its work.

The technique is sound, however, considering my physique, it may be better to let the left wrist to act in concert with the right hand (middle two fingers holding the club) to accomplish this extreme twisting. Let the left wrist start the movement by flipping the club towards the left and around - the right hand taking over somewhere and cocking the club. The right arm movement bringing the club tightly to the top will force an upper body twist. At this point at the top, the upper body will automatically recoil and bring the club head towards the ball.

It is best to imagine and "see" the path of the club head through the ball so that the left hand can bring the club head back along the same path and the upper body can recoil back to the same path.

The delayed hit with the open and close technique

I have been wondering why an 11 year old kid can out-drive and out-score me in golf. The memorable thing is his picture taken at the tournament with his arms fully extended right after impact. It is not the muscles that is out driving me; it is the technique. My swing is still a hit from the top - as described by most of the books I read. But how do I do it? How do I develop a nice follow through like this kid has?

On a closer inspection of the techniques employed by the professionals, it is apparent that there is an open and closing of the hands at impact. In the driving range, in order for me to get the ball reasonably straight, I had to shift my weight first but purposely snap (open and close) at the ball with my hands. This, however, I concluded is difficult for me since it is an unnatural move for me. This is just not the way to go.

What I had to do is change my mental image of my swing. When I changed my mental image of the downswing to the left hand pulling the club to the ball, this created the natural open and close hit of Hogan. In order to accomplish this naturally, I had to change the swing techniques enumerated on the preceding posting. Instead of the right hand doing the flipping back of the club, it has to be my left shoulder pushing the left arm and club around and up while at the same time the left wrists flips or cocks the ball upwards to the top (in a very pronounced way). If the cocking of the club by the left wrist is strongly done, you can feel the club inertia actually pulling and tightening more the coiled upper body.

This movement brings the club up where it is ready to be pulled down towards the ball. As a matter of fact, you can feel when you are at the top that there is no other way to execute the "pulling" by the arms - except starting it with the shifting of the weight to the left and turning the body towards the ball and around to a C finish.

Let me repeat: The pulling of the hands is done by the transfer of the weight to the right. The result is an automatic weight shift, a delayed hit and a perfect finish.