Tension and THE Final Swing Thought

How many times have we heard the various descriptions of grip tension? Sam Snead said that one should grip the club "like you're holding a bird" and Bobby Eldridge says that one should hold the club "like you're holding a child's hand." These produce images of extremely relaxed arms. Hank Haney, on the other hand, seems to advocate a slightly firmer grip (but still relaxed), and many pros state that relaxed is better because our unconscious minds will automatically apply the right amount of tension during the swing.

Tension creeps into our swings and setups when we're not paying attention. Nothing good comes from tension. Tension in the hands at address can produce tension in the wrists, arms, and rest of the body, and vice versa. Tension in the arms can happen when one tries to consciously manipulate the arms through the impact zone, such as "rolling the forearms," "turning the knuckles down," pushing the arms "out towards right field," and so on. Grip tension can block the club face from closing and produce slices, pushes, and pulls. Arm tension (from grip tension) can pull the arms in towards the body, leading to chicken wings, tops, and skulled shots. Grip tension can hinder full wrist action, which can lead to fat shots and loss of distance.

A method of relaxing grip tension is the waggle, which seems to be used less and less these days.

Tension even creeps in during the putting setup. A relaxed grip in putting is very important for feeling the putter head.

My final swing thought (before I turn my shoulders, use my back to the target, and lift my arms in front of my chest and then over my right shoulder to the top of my backswing) is to consciously relax my grip and forearm tension. Putting: Same thing--I relax my grip. I do this because grip tension can increase without awareness; one must constantly monitor it. Ironically, relaxing the grip tension relaxes the arms and the rest of the body, leading to a more flowing, smoother swing. If golfers would do this then they could save themselves a few strokes per hole. It's that important.

A light grip pressure, with your arms relaxed at address and throughout the swing, allows you to release the club freely and with full extension. The result will be more distance with less effort. Johnny Bench and I guarantee it.

[From Lighten your grip: Golf Digest]

...practice more relaxation in your grip, stance, and swing. Check the tension level in your grip. The hand pressure on the club should be light. If it is too tight, your takeaway will tend to be jerky and too fast. If your are not sure of the amount of pressure, let your hands feel the difference by squeezing tightly and then releasing to a very light grip.

Notice that when you squeeze tightly, your forearms are tense. This generates tension throughout the body. You want just enough grip pressure so that you won' t lose the club during the swing. No white knuckle! What little pressure you do feel should be in the last three fingers of the let hand, and the third and fourth fingers of the right.

[From Golf Tips - Relaxation During the Swing]

First, try producing less pressure and tension in your grip. Gripping the club too tightly will cause your forearms and shoulders to become restricted, thus resulting in a shorter turn in the backswing. The grip pressure is similar to taking a banana, peeling it, and gripping the banana without putting any fingerprints on it. When done properly, you will feel more relaxed in your arms when gripping the club in your set up.

Secondly, at the top or completion of your backswing, eliminate tension in your arms by making them feel as if they are wet noodles. Staying relaxed at this point of the swing will help you sync your arms with your body efficiently.

[From Golf Tip: Relax The Arms For More Distance | Brad Hauer - Golf Lessons]

I would like you to believe for a moment that to play to your greatest potential, you must understand what your golf club is doing throughout the golf swing. Most of us cannot due to excessive grip pressure. By choking the golf club, you lose all sense of where the clubhead is and what it's doing.

I suggest that to play your best golf next season and reach your potential, you must concentrate on your grip pressure and when it changes. You can get incrementally better by working on mechanical problems with your swing, but you can get exceptionally better by learning to feel your clubhead.

[From Saturday, January 20, 2001 - COLUMN: GOLF: Relax grip and feel the club - Las Vegas View Neighborhood Newspapers]

Hold tight onto the club and the golfer has to use a great deal of effort and the ball often ends up being pulled, pushed, sliced or hooked – going two thirds of the required distance. Relax the grip maintaining directional control and the ball flies straight to the full distance of the club and swing used.

[From Loosen your grip to be in more control | GAINMORE Golf]

Keep your grip pressure light and constant throughout the stroke to avoid snatching or casting the putter, abrupt transitions in the stroke, or tempo fluctuations, as this promotes a smooth stroke, with good accuracy in the stroke path, and consistently solid contact.

[From Get a Grip on Putting: Keep the Pressure Light and Constant]

 

My Golf Lesson: Laid Off

I recently took some online video lessons with famed teaching professional Bobby Eldridge out in AZ. I highly recommend giving Bobby a shout; he's very good!

To my surprise, Bobby immediately picked up on something I hadn't considered: I was too laid off at the top. In other words, my club shaft pointed well left of the target line instead of more parallel to my target line. This move was causing my pulls, pull hooks, deep divots, and slices, because one unconsciously corrects for this by coming over the top (OTT). This is something that is hotly debated among golfers and professionals, as there have been many great golfers who appear 'laid off' at the top of their swings. Ben Hogan has even been accused of this sin. For clarity, the opposite of being laid off is being across the line, meaning the club shaft points right of the target at the top, and this move supposedly leads to hooks and coming too much from the inside.

It's also important to note that having the club point left of the target doesn't necessarily mean that one is "laid off" in the negative sense. What's important is being "on plane." When you're on plane it's not neccessary to get the club to parallel (reference Hank Haney's 7-Steps book). A better description of being "laid off" is a swing plane that is too flat, regardless of where the club points at the top.

Bobby didn't think so, but from my previous Hank Haney online lesson, I know that I have failed in the past to get a full 90 degree shoulder turn; this can contribute to a laid off backswing. It's easy to comprehend that an incomplete shoulder turn will cause the club to point left at the top.

Now, what I'm describing flies in the face of a reversed loop swing that I've championed before; let's face it, a reversed loop swing is a correction (i.e., defeating a steep backswing with a shallow downswing). It works well for some professional golfers with impeccable timing, and it helped me too (for a while). But because it's a correction and requires timing, it's not easy to do (for me anyway).

As I'm a mere mortal (beginning golfer), how much better would it be if I could keep the club on plane all the way through? This is what Bobby was getting at with my backswing. The correct feeling has more to do with the arms and club staying in front of the chest, back and through. For me, it feels very vertical, but it definitely agrees with Shawn Clement's commentary on the arms "falling down the plane." It seems easier to hold the lag and allow the arcing motion of the club shaft to happen late (more due to arm rotation than shoulder rotation), thereby producing an inside-out club head motion. When I swing down this way, I focus on the inside of the ball, as if that's where I'm trying to hit it (the only way to do that is by this arcing motion with retained lag). Extension back and through seems more natural as well, and a 90 degree shoulder turn is important to get the club pointing down the target line (without the arms collapsing). And as you can see from Clement's explanation, the right elbow-right hip relationship is important too, with the right elbow falling down IN FRONT of the hip--not attaching or crashing into the side of the hip. The hips must rotate to shallow out the vertical motion.

One should feel as if one is pointing the club shaft at the target at the top of the backswing; if the club points to the left of the target, it will be too laid off, which can cause nasty slices and pulls on the way down, depending on the corrections one makes in the downswing. Here are some tests to determine whether one is laid off at the top:

Take a full backswing but stop at the top of your swing. Simply loosen your grip and allow the club to fall on you. If the club is on plane correctly, it should fall on the tip of your right shoulder. If the club falls too much toward your neck or head, your plane is too steep. If the club falls below your shoulder, your swing path is too laid off or flat.

[From Golf Swing Plane Tips]

Wherever your eyes are looking, your hands and the clubhead will want to go. If your eyes are looking at the back of the ball at address, then you are probably trying to square the clubface to the back of the ball at impact. Address and impact are two very different alignments in golf. Focus your eyes on the inside quadrant of the ball at address and your hands will strive to reach your new focal point. By making this small change, you will be well on your way to improving your downswing and obtaining much more manageable misses.

[From Classic Swing Golf School]

Following the takeaway, focus on folding the right elbow up, not out behind you. Your swing should feel much more vertical than before. More importantly, it should feel shorter. That’s a good thing since, whether you believe it or not, a good backswing is only 18 inches long. From setup to the top, your right elbow should move just about a foot and a half, from the center of your torso to just outside the right hip.

[From Golf Tips - Elbow Room]

The key is we have to fight this by trying to keep the shaft as vertical as we can in the transition and down to impact. If we let the shaft fall back it will lay off as much as parallel to the ground or more and also fall more inside. This will cause getting trapped behind the body approaching the ball, causing a big inside out swing path that will hit big blocks. To stop the blocks, big time over rotation of the arms hits big pulls.

[From Laid off at the top of the Backswing…Cures, Tests and Drills - Surge's Daily Golf Swing Tips]

One classic problem is leaving the club pointing left at the top or as we call it laid off. This can be caused by an inability or unwillingness to complete the turn on the back swing. If you only turn your shoulders 45 degrees instead of the preferred 90 degrees, the club will likely be 45 degrees left of target, a major cause of the classic pull or slice swing. Even players who typically do it correctly on the range may find that the tension of the golf course prevents them from completing the back swing and causing an improper path.

[From Club Position]

Think of yourself as a righthanded batter, with a golf ball sitting on home plate. As you move into impact, try to sling the clubhead toward right centerfield. Approaching the ball from inside the target line like this—as opposed to down the target line when you try to hit the back of the ball—relates the shallow arc necessary to make centered contact and compress the ball so it shoots off your clubface like a rocket. At impact, your clubface should strike the lower-left quadrant (the one closest to you) of the ball.

[From How to Max Out your Irons | GOLF.com]

When you reach the top of your backswing, allow your hands to drop the club straight down. If the shaft hits your shoulder, then great—you’re on plane. If the shaft missed your body and the clubhead falls behind you, you’re probably laying off too much and you need to keep your hands and shaft above your shoulder in order to get back on track.

[From No Layoffs! | GolfTipsMag.com]

 

Pitching a Fit

The short game has been the bane of my existence (as it is for most amateur golfers). I've struggled with the long game too, but I can at least ADVANCE the ball to within pitching distance. But nothing is more humiliating than to be 50 yards from the green and take a big divot BEHIND the ball and have it go nowhere. Blading or pulling the pitch are just as bad.

I've made some short game strides recently with putting, chipping, and pitching. My pitching and greenside bunker goals are basic: clean contact and hit the green.

A pitch is like a shorter full swing or a longer chip (with a little wrist action); the backswing of a pitch should be like the full swing (vary the length of backswing and followthrough for the length of shot being attempted). A pitch shot is also somewhat like a greenside bunker shot, except the pitch swing might be less vigorous for the same required distance (many of the tips below apply to greenside bunkers). The arms still must stay in front of the body, but they don't travel as high (if they go higher than 9-o'clock you're really probably hitting a full wedge shot).

• Posture is EXTREMELY important; don't setup with an arched upper back and drooping shoulders. Keep a good spine angle with the shoulders back as you would for a full shot. Either bend the knees more or use a more narrow stance to maintain the correct posture
• Open the club face (a little for lower trajectory more for higher trajectory) BEFORE taking your grip; use the bounce…not the leading edge (consider the photo of Anthony Kim's club face--the club has not turned over as in a draw shot); increases margin for error and adds loft to the club
• Go with a neutral to weak grip (grip more in the palm of the left hand with the back of the left hand facing the target, and maybe turn the right hand over the top of the club a bit more); you want to prevent opening and closing the club face and digging at impact--now you're using the BOUNCE of the wedge to glide along the grass and that provides some margin for error--don't use the leading edge (same for bunker shots) unless you have a buried lie
• Grip down on the club ONLY for added control and feel (I use the middle of the grip); gripping down reduces the length of the shot, but use shot length to do this instead
• Use a tension-free swing and feel the weight of the club; think of swinging a weighted rope
• Always consider the lie--if it's tight then consider a chip if there are no obstacles
• Open the stance a little as you open the club face; the weight can be a little more to the left instep; don't shift much going back; turn the left foot out more and make the right foot more perpendicular
• At address, ground the club behind the ball ensuring the arms are straight and elbows close together; then and only then should you raise the upper body slightly to HOVER the club just above the ground and behind the ball; this helps ensure a downward blow and helps avoid fat shots
• Ball positioned well forward (really exaggerate this--especially in a greenside bunker); position the ball off your big toe but set up as if the the ball is in the middle of your stance; you'll think there's no way you'll hit a good shot but WRONG; play ball back a little more for increased spin and lower flight (ball will run more)
• Favor the left leg by pressing into it at address; on the backswing, avoid any great shift into the right leg
• Use a shallow, U-shaped swing (unless the lie is buried--then use V-shape)
• Think of using a longer takeaway; try to keep the butt end of the club pointing at the belt buckle on the backswing
• Set and hold the wrists on the backswing and into impact; use body rotation (think of turning the belt buckle towards the target and letting the arms chase)
• USE THE RIGHT HAND TO PITCH: Think of it as an underhanded throwing motion; the key is to set the wrists and leave them that way through impact--this means the left wrist will be flat but facing the sky during the follow-through, and the right wrist will remain slightly bent back through impact; the more the right palm faces the sky on the followthrough, the more loft that was added--back off from this to flight the ball down (Lanny Watkins); this is especially important for flop shots
• Follow through more around the body instead of down the line, swinging more to the inside after impact; the arm motion should circle around to your left hip on the followthrough
• Make certain to come through with the right shoulder!
• The club will often finish in a verticle position with a slight left arm chickenwing
• Brush the grass in your practice swings; feel relaxed during the motion; the club head should not dig
• Accelerate -- don't start fast and finish slow (do the opposite)
• Turn through and complete the finish (let the right foot come up)
• Watch the ball disappear before looking up! ALWAYS, ALWAYS avoid looking up too early (on all short game shots). This is the first thing to verify if chipping, pitching, and putting go awry. Keep looking down until the club makes ball contact!
• Let the finish mirror the backswing (higher for higher trajectory; lower for lower trajectory)
• For higher shots (lobs) and bunker shots with a high lip, take a wider stance and bend the knees more

When you swing the golf club back the most important aspect of pitching a golf ball, besides for using a sand wedge, is that you open the clubface and you do it with your right wrist more in the open position as opposed to bent back. You don’t need a lot of wrist cock, but you do need to feel that the right wrist is more in an open position, one that will give you loft when you come into the shot. So if you have trouble pitching the golf ball chances are that you bend your right wrist back and take the club to far back into the inside. Open the right wrist as you go back, not a lot of wrist cock, but keeping the club out in front of you with your right wrist more in an open position will make it so much easier for you to pitch the golf ball up in the air and onto the green. Open that right wrist and just let the club slide underneath the ball.

[From Video Golf Tip | Getting a Pitch Airborne]

You don’t have to have a wrist cock in your pitch shot. Watch Steve Stricker hit his pitch shots the next time he is on TV in a PGA tournament. He sets up with an open stance and open clubface but does not have a wrist cock. His club opens and closes to the target line as his arms swing on plane around his body but he avoids wrist action. This method requires a larger swing but I believe it is the easiest method for most golfers to perfect.

[From Golf Instruction by Scott Erwin » The Basic Pitch Shot]

You should feel like your hands are in almost the same relationship to your sternum as they were at address; in other words, a “one-piece” takeaway. The wrists set slightly, but do not make a significant change in angle from where they were at address.

[From Mastering The Basic Pitch Shot]

The big thing for me on pitch shots is getting the clubhead swinging and letting that move my body, not the other way around. I start with the ball slightly forward and my hands centered in front of me. I also play the face a little open for all my pitch shots. Then I hinge the club upward going back, not around my body, with the toe pointing to the sky. Coming down, the club should unhinge the same way it went back (left). I want to feel it swinging down and through. The momentum of the club pulls my body to the finish.

[From Luke Donald: Do's & Don'ts of the Short Game: Golf Digest]

A feeling to key in on is the sense of swinging to the inside after impact (as pictured below). Be sure to keep the face open or looking up while the club tracks to the inside as this will prevent the leading edge from digging.

[From Open Face | Andrew Rice Golf]

One of the ways that the professional golfers add speed to the pitch shot is that they weaken their grip. Their right hand comes to a weaker position on the golf club. This means that the ‘V’ shape that your index finger and thumb make will be pointed towards your left shoulder. This will feel very strange at first. This will allow you to accelerate through the shot and will stop you from closing the club face through the shot. Having the weak grip will help you to open the blade in the back swing (remember, this is only for the pitch shot) and will also allow your to release the club at speed without closing the face of the club at impact.

[From Golf Pitch Shot, Golf Pitching, Golf Swing Basics, Tips]

This is the "brushing of the grass." Take a few practice swings and brush the grass each time. Notice how easy it is if you are relaxed and not "gripping the devil" out of the club. Go back and forth and back and forth like a metronome.

[From GOLF TIP - The 20 to 40 Yard Pitch Shot]

As in chipping, a lot of amateurs play pitches with the ball too far back, causing the leading edge to dig at impact. The pitch is like the sand shot, except you don't swing as hard. Play the ball about middle, and keep your weight slightly forward. The club's bounce should graze the grass the way it slides under the ball in the sand. This is more forgiving than playing the ball back, because the club can actually hit the ground behind the ball and still slide through

[From Zander Golf - Breaking 100 - Don't lean too far left on chip shots]

Try to get the ball up in the air, with a slight cut action and have it land softly. This will give you the sense of keeping the face open and using the bounce of the club correctly. It will also prevent the wrists from being overly active. A feeling to key in on is the sense of swinging to the inside after impact

[From Leading Edge Digs | Andrew Rice Golf]

 

How to Close the Club Face

So, you're aimed slightly right, hitting from the inside (trying for a draw), and the ball is pushing well right (or even push-slicing). The ONLY problem here, then, is that the club face is too open for the path. As Hank Haney so correctly puts it, all slices (whether classic, straight, or push) are ultimately caused by an open club face, though other factors may be associated with or contribute to that open club face. To close or square the club face, the toe needs to be overtaking the heel through impact, while a fade has the toe and heel coming through together. The only question is: What's the best way that each one of us can achieve this goal?

The grip, hips, shoulders, and forearms must work together to square and then close the club face coming through. This becomes easier when you think of the arms crossing over ("let the wrists kiss") when the club shaft is "center mast" to the body (the belt buckle or belly button).

Here are some ways to close the club face. Be careful trying more than one of these at at time, because you might start hitting really low pull-hooks:

1. Use less grip tension (waggle the club and relax the arms at address).
2. Square the back of the left hand by the time you reach impact! Golfers who roll the forearms open in the backswing may leave the club face too open through impact and block, push, and slice the ball; they must learn to square the back of the left hand BY THE TIME impact occurs. If they overdo it they can start pulling the ball or hooking it. You may need to consciously think of hitting the ball with the back of your left hand--sort of like a tennis backhand. To do this requires EARLIER left forearm rotation than you might believe (missing right means you need to exaggerate rotating the forearm earlier). It's too easy to mistakenly roll the forearm late--once the hands reach the ball, which will usually just result in a flip with added loft. Begin rolling the left forearm once your hands reach the vicinity of your right thigh or right hip. This gives you time to square up the club face. The back of the left hand and the right palm will rotate down to point roughly 45 degrees towards the ground when the hands are in the vicinity of the right thigh; as a consequence, the club face will also point ~45 degrees down towards the ground when the club is parallel to the ground on the downswing. This should feel really closed to you if you've been leaving the face open. Now all that's required is a turn through. The continued roll or "crossing over" appearance after impact is just a product of the squaring action you started earlier!! Focus on leading the club into the ball with the left wrist coming through first--even slightly ahead of the left hand; this will prevent the left wrist from bending backward or cupping (called dorsiflexion) through impact. The left wrist should either be flat or it should slightly bow while the left forearm rotates! (This continued rotation post-impact is also called "the release"). This seems to be the best for getting a slight draw shape without a lot of manipulation. Hank Haney calls this squaring the back of the left hand, and some instructors have referred to this as making your watch face the target. Another added benefit is that this delofts the club slightly, lowering the ball flight and adding distance. If you begin to pull or pull-hook shots, you will either need to back off slightly on how early you rotate the left forearm, use a slightly weaker grip, and/or swing more out to the right. The disadvantage here is that it requires a bit of timing to ensure a square position at impact; too much rotation and you can pull-hook, too little, a block or push-slice. If you do this correctly, you'll say farewell to the balls that keep heading right; but you might say 'hello' to a pull or pull-hook. Then you'll have to think more about the way to get the ball started more to the right so that it can spin back to the left! This is a welcome dilemma if you've been a chronic slicer.
3. Takeaway: Ensure the club face matches your spine angle! This is really just another way of accomplishing #2 above without having to reverse-roll your left forearm clockwise in the downswing. To do this, have the feeling that the back of your left hand faces the ball for as long as possible in the backswing (there should be no sensation of rolling the forearm counter-clockwise); this should make it easy to return the club face to square at impact. Another way to put this is to keep the club head outside your hands in the takeaway. Also, be careful to avoid the urge to lean left on the backswing when using no forearm rotation; make sure you still lean right and shift into the right leg.
4. "Shake hands" with the target using the right hand. This doesn't mean letting the right hand take over, which can cause the left wrist to cup or flip as above; in a sense, the right wrist straightens and the right hand rotates slightly over the top of the left, with the watch facing the ground just after impact. This is the one that I can use to hit a big hook, because it's very hard to time properly (i.e., tough to know how much rotation is too much rotation and when). This one is often called letting the wrists kiss or cross over each other.
5. Grip the club more in the fingers and away from the palm (automatically applies less tension).
6. Use a stronger grip (rotate both hands to the right with "V's" towards right shoulder).
7. Physically hood the club face at address (close it a few degrees then take your usual grip). This one doesn't work for me.
8. Consciously turn the left hand knuckles down at impact. This another way to think of #2 above; but I think it's better to think of leading with the left wrist, as there's less manipulation involved than when using this swing thought. This is often taught as turning the door knob with the left hand or revving the motorcycle throttle.

It's important to keep in mind that the club path works in concert with the face to produce the desired ball flight. That is, the club face can be closed but still open to the path, causing some form of slice (push, straight, or pull--depending on the direction the face was aiming at impact). The club face must be closed to the path to produce a hook (hitting inside-out with a face that's closing is critical).

You'll know you've gone to far when you start duck hooking the ball or getting a really low ball flight. Tom Watson wrote in his book, The Timeless Swing , that you should use as strong a grip as you can without hooking the ball.

Don't be afraid to try the "left wrist leading" even with your fades. The kicker is to hold off the release (i.e., slap the ball with the back of the left hand and then let the back of the left hand--or the right palm--continue chasing after the ball instead of rotating over). With an open set-up, the ball flight should be a slight fade as opposed to a large one.

In addition, the left wrist should be flat or bowed through impact. In the April 1956 issue of Golf Digest, Hogan wrote, "I've noticed one thing that all good golfers do and all bad golfers do not. The good ones have their left wrist leading at impact. It seems a small thing, but I've found it to be universally true. At impact the left wrist of a good player is slightly convex, while that of a poor player is generally concave."

[From Grouchy Golf Blog]

The more you grip the golf club in the fingers (#1), the faster you can swing the golf club and the quicker the clubface will close (causing a hook or draw ball flight). If you grip the golf club further up in the palm (#2), the slower the golf club will travel and the longer it takes for the clubface to close (causing a slice or a fade). If you are slicing the golf ball, you will want to move the grip more into the fingers (the base of the fingers), if you are hooking the golf ball, you will want to move the grip more into the palm area (higher up in the left hand).

[From Golf Swing Instruction Articles and Lessons to Shave 7 Strokes Off Your Game]

While the left hand swings back horizontally so that the back of the left hand is always perpendicular to the ground (vertically-oriented like a door opening) it "feels" slightly supinated relative to the inclined plane on which the clubshaft is traveling, and a golfer "feels" as if the left hand is rolling slightly over (supinating) during the followthrough. Tiger Woods states that he he tries to get a "feeling" that the knuckles of his left hand start to rotate groundwards (supinate) immediately after impact, and what he is describing in simple "feel" terms is the "roll-feel" movement of the left hand during the horizontal hinging action. The back of the left hand should never face groundwards during a horizontal hinging action (even though there is a "roll-feel" during a HH action), and it should actually remain vertical to the ground.

Impact

There are only two options for the club to be released through impact. You can either keep turning the body through at a high rate of speed, or you can keep your hands soft and rotate the left wrist counterclockwise. Which one sounds more efficient?

Golf Left Hand Release Drill - RotarySwing.com

If the player is not aware of or not expecting that change, it can be frustrating to watch every shot go right after supposedly getting on the ideal swing plane. The secret is to make the necessary adjustment in wrist and clubface action to deal with the new flatter plane.

A key checkpoint is the half-way position in the downswing once the hands are about waist high. It is imperative that the right palm is beginning to face down as the back of the left hand is also facing down toward the ground. This is part of the infamous pronation and supination referred to in descriptions of Ben Hogan’s downswing and impact positions.

Picture turning your watch face down toward the ground during the downswing, assuming you are a right handed golfer wearing a watch on the left arm. Another way to see it and feel it is to turn the knuckles of the left hand downward so they face the ground and are essentially out of view at the waist-high position coming down.

Stop Slicing Pushing Blocking Golf Shots – Herman Williams Golf

Flick suggests a drill to eliminate flipping that works best initially with shorter irons. Practice hitting balls while letting your right hand come off the grip just after impact. This removal of the right hand emphasizes the need for the left hand and arm to lead the swing, bowing the wrist with the hinge, rotating through impact with the ball and finishing the follow-through by folding up at the elbow.

Drills For People Who Flip In Golf | LIVESTRONG.COM

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Tiger does not delay the unhinging of his wrists for as long as possible. As soon as he initiates his downswing, he starts rotating his left forearm. That action starts to square the face and begins the gradual release of the clubhead. Halfway down, his wrists are already uncocking.

Golf Swing Tips to Boost Power | GOLF.com

"At impact the back of the left hand faces toward your target. The wrist bone is definitely raised. It points to the target and, at the moment the ball is contacted, it is out in front, nearer to the target than any part of the hand.

"When the left wrist is in this position, the left hand will not check or interrupt the speed with which your clubhead is traveling. There's no danger either that the right hand will overpower the left and twist the club over. It can't. As far as applying power goes, I wish that I had three right hands!

Saturday Morning Tip: Supinate your wrists like Hogan : The Instruction Blog: Golf Digest

The back of your left hand, assuming you've got a decent grip, will show you where the clubface is through impact. The common mistake a high-handicapper makes is swinging through the shot with the back of the left hand -- and the clubface -- pointed up. When the side of the hand leads the way like that, you'll hit weak slices.

To hit straighter, more powerful shots, you need to release your hands through impact. As you swing into the ball, turn your hands so the back of your left hand -- the logo on your glove -- points down the target line. That corresponds to a square clubface.

Get back to square: Golf Digest

To create more speed, here's a great swing thought: Rotate your forearms counter-clockwise as you start down, turning the face of your driver to the ground. Another good feel is to get the back of your glove pointing down, as if you were going to drag your knuckles along the turf. This move will help you maintain your wrist hinge longer coming down. Remember, power comes from clubhead lag, where the clubhead lags behind your hands until your wrists release at the bottom of the swing.

One word of caution here: Because you're closing the clubface earlier than you're probably used to, you might start hitting hooks, until you adjust your path into the ball. Feel as if you're swinging out to the right of the target. Do that, and you'll turn those left misses into power draws.

Rick Smith: Turn The Face Down For Bigger Drives: Golf Digest