Hand Action

When I read articles and books about all these things and look at all the pictures the authors use to validate their words I remember another thing Henry Cotton said to me, "the worst thing to happen to golf instruction was high speed photography".

People get caught up in micro issues before they have actually grasped the macro issues of cause and effect in the golf swing. I will bet you can’t find a 14 year old kid who has been playing for 3 years who has any trouble with any of the above words. He won’t even know what your are talking about if you ask him about ‘ release’ or ‘late hitting’. He doesn’t think about anything except hitting the ball. So what does that mean for you? I shall try to explain.

When I have a pupil who has trouble with any of the above I must first work on their ‘tension levels’. There are no tight muscles in the golf swing! Before I can do anything with someone’s swing I must have freedom of movement. If your hands and arms are tight it is like driving your car with the handbrake on.

Once I have freedom of movement I will work on contact. If the arms are tight the hands will always beat the clubhead to the ball, with a normal grip that will produce an open clubface, which makes the ball slice. To teach yourself the correct hand action and correct relationship between your arms and your body try this exercise.

Take your normal stance, then stand with your spine vertical and hold the club out horizontally in front of you at shoulder height. Totally relax your arms and hands while still holding the club in a horizontal position. Rotate your body as for a backswing keeping the shaft horizontal; as your body completes its rotation your arms have to rotate to maintain the shaft in a horizontal position. This folds your right elbow (sorry lefties) against your side. Do not ‘keep’ your left arm straight, allow it to bend if it wants. The back of your left hand should be horizontal as should the shaft. Your weight should be on your back foot, body fully rotated to the right.

Now reverse the movement, as the body rotates to the left the arms must also rotate to keep the shaft horizontal. As the arms rotate they return the clubface to a vertical position opposite your nose (more or less where the ball would be) with the right hand passing over the left through the impact position. To do this the left arm must have remained soft allowing the left arm to rotate and the left elbow to fold, still keeping the shaft horizontal.

The swing finishes with the shaft still horizontal, the body fully rotated and balanced on the front foot. This exercise, repeated with increasing speed, teaches you the correct hand action and correct relationship between your arms and your body. It can only work if there is absence of tension in the arms and hands.

Now I have used too many words! I usually teach this exercise by showing and not speaking! And, that is always more effective!