Golf Lesson 7 and Lesson 8: Hinge, Lag, Roll, and Push Out

Let's think about ALL the things when swinging

Let me be clear about this lesson 7 was expanding on lesson 6, and lesson 8 was me completely freaking out because I just couldn’t hit a golf ball anymore, like at all. But I guess we can work up to that.

To be completely transparent I haven’t felt like writing about this lesson for a month because implementing these swing changes has been a struggle. And it wasn’t from a lack of effort or time. It has taken me a while to get it. Compounding the problem was I fell into the trap of struggling on the course and trying to revert versus sticking with it which I think made me 1000 times worse. Thus leading to me going in distraught that I couldn’t hit a golf ball anymore and basically working through everything again.

It was frustrating and demoralizing.

Then I had a week off, no golf, which cleared my head, and when I picked up the clubs to start practicing again, I just stuck with it and committed to staying with the swing change.

What am I trying to accomplish?

Along with the wrist hinge in the backswing, the goal is to “lag” the club behind before making contact and rolling my wrist through the ball. Adding to this motion where I need to keep my wrists forward, which previously has been a struggle, is to push out away from my body so I don’t continue to keep my arms so close to me. It’s a LOT of simple things that turn into a complex movement in my brain, and it has been hard to do.

Not my swing

It’s frankly a lot to think about. How has my instructor broken it down?

1) Hinge at the top of my backswing: that is engrained

2) Lag in coming down and through: ½ swings with exaggerated motions of the wrist leading and trying to scrape and drag on the ground for a feel

3) Wrist roll: Against half swings, just thinking about the wrist and feeling it. If you are recording your swings, you can look at the follow-through and see where the club is ending. When I am not doing it properly the club is straight, when I am coming through the ball properly, the club is more to my left, and you can see the bend in my wrist.
4) Push Out (Properly called proper extension): When doing my full swing, I put a tee or something in front of me to the right as a target. The goal is to swing toward that target. Doing so makes me push out and reach toward that target, which in turn, gets my arms away from my body.

While I don’t feel like I have “got” this, I can feel, see, and hear the difference when I do it right. The issue is making it less of a thought and more of a routine. I feel like by focusing on this through the month and into May, I should become much more comfortable and consistent.

How is your lag?