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Some of the recent golf science has focused on the path of the hands versus the path of the clubhead and what conclusions can be drawn by measuring this in 3D. From the data, we know that the low point of the hands, or handle of the club, does not coincide with the low point of the clubhead. More specifically, we know that the low point of the handle is going to roughly occur when the hands are in front of the trail leg on the downswing, while the low point of the club head is going to occur 3-4 inches or so past impact. This pattern of getting the handle to its lowest point well before the clubhead helps promote efficient release mechanics and creates a very consistent impact zone.
Now, how do you conceptualize this for your own game? The simplest way to work on this pattern is to make sure that the body and larger muscles are setting up your transition and release. If you are allowing any excess tension to creep into your arms or are getting into more of an upper body dominated swing, you are going to have a hard time creating this relationship. Working on some "Low to High" releases will help your pivot setup delivery, so that the handle can rise through impact as you use your lower body and core to push, rotate, and fully release the club.
Playlists: Keys To Transition, Train Your Release, Understand Your Swing Plane/Path
Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Not Enough Distance, Impact, Transition, Release, Concept
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This concept video is discussing the two low points.
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So the two low points are basically referring to the low point of the path of the hands
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and the low point of the path of the club.
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If you follow some of the golf science, then you may already be aware, but if you don't,
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the low point of the handle is roughly going to be even with about the right thigh,
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or a little bit before the golf ball, kind of right about here.
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The low point of the club head for an iron shot is going to be somewhere around four inches,
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three to four inches in front of the golf ball.
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So you would think that if I was swinging this just like a pendulum, then the low points
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would coincide.
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But how can I have the low point of the grip there, and then the low point of the club
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there?
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For some, that can be a little bit of a puzzle.
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The simplest answer is that what you're going to do with the body and how you're going to pull
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on the club is going to create this relationship.
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It's not something that you actively have to force.
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But what can happen is some golfers when they try to get the handle lower so that it can
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then come up through impact, they tend to hit the ball poorly because they're doing it mostly
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with their arms instead of with the body.
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And that's really the key to this pattern of getting the low point of the hands low before
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the ball and club low after the ball is making sure that the body is powering the pivot
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or the release pattern.
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So in order to do that, one drill that I like that we have on the site is the low to high
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release.
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So if let's imagine that I'm going to, you're going to get set up and I'm going to have
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you go to impact position.
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Now if the club is coming up into impact position, then if I pressed rewind, I'm going
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to bring the middle of the grip.
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So this point here down a couple inches.
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So you can see there it is an impact.
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Now I'm going to try and get it lower to the ground through there.
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So then if I came through and I just released the hands because my grip is low, I'm going
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to really bottom out before the golf ball even with where that low point of the grip is.
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But if I get back, there's impact, if I get back there and then my body rotation brings
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the handle around and through more so than my hand action, then I can have the grip
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load of the ground and still make contact with the golf ball first and because of the arm
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extension, complimenting my body that will put the bottom of the swing out in front of the
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golf ball basically when the club catches up with my body.
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So what I find is some golfers trying to get the hands to get low before the ball,
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do so all by straightening the arms kind of like this.
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Instead of using the body to bring the hands down low, they just use the arms and if you
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just use the arms, then your body is typically going to be out of position to be able
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to bring it up on the way through and so you will tend to catch behind the ball like I did
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there.
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So if you are working on getting a little bit flatter hand path or oftentimes these golfers
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the golfers who need this are trying to get out of more of a hook pattern.
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So if you are trying to get more body rotation on the way through, trying to get the grip
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to go more up and around the plane instead of kind of down and out, then you need to
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make sure that you use your body more in transition and practicing that delivery position
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or the delivery and go or the delivery pump, those all help create the relationship of
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the grip being lower to the ground.
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Once you then have a sense of the body bringing the club lower to the ground, then
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you can try to add a little bit of arm speed down at the bottom.
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I caution golfers who are doing this because usually when you are getting out of that arm
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pattern, anytime you try to add speed, it is not so much that you swing harder, it is
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that the arms get involved earlier.
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So oftentimes when you first start doing this, you are going to have to feel like the arms
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do very little.
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The analogy I give is imagine that you were throwing punches just all like a jab and then
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I wanted you to try to get your body involved so to do that, you now through no punch
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with the arm.
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Ideally, you would start to blend it so that you went body in the arm, but if every time
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you thought about body, you went just with your arm, it wouldn't be worth training
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the pattern.
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So you may have to feel like your arms do very little.
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They are just in that delivery position all the way through with very little arm action
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and more of a sawdough or hold off move before you can really feel active arm action
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on the way through.
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But with some practice and with some training you should be able to blend the body powering
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that transition and then the arms releasing or extending or transferring all of that energy
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into the golf ball during the release.
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So if you are struggling conceptually with the hands getting low before the club gets
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low or if you are struggling practically on how to do it, hopefully this video clarifies
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why we teach some of the key movements in transition, how to get the grip low before
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hand because of what the body is doing and then how to release the club with continued
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body rotation.
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All of that creates the general shape of the grip reaching its low point even with the right
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thigh and the club head reaching its low point more even with the left foot or out
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in front of the golf ball.
