Fix Ulnar Deviation Issues for Better Swing Path

If your club keeps approaching the ball too steeply, or your divots are deep and punishing instead of shallow and predictable, your wrists may be holding their hinge too long. One common missing piece is ulnar deviation—the unhinging of the wrists as the club moves through the release. Many golfers benefit from learning this motion more actively in practice, then allowing it to happen more naturally in the swing. When it is missing or delayed, the club tends to stay too high for too long, making it harder to shallow the shaft, rotate through cleanly, and produce wide, stable extension after impact.

What It Looks Like

The pattern usually shows up in two places: during the delivery into impact and again in the follow-through. In both cases, the club appears too “hinged” for too long.

From down the line: the club stays high and steep

On a down-the-line video, look at the downswing when the shaft is roughly parallel to the ground and then a few frames after that. If you are holding too much radial deviation—the wrist hinge—you will often see the clubhead staying unusually high in that window.

That creates a chain reaction:

• The shaft remains more upright instead of flattening into a shallower delivery.
• The club approaches the ball on a steeper path.
• You may need excessive side bend just to get the club down to the ball.
• Even with compensation, the club can still look too “angled” relative to your lead arm.

In a better release pattern, the wrists begin to unhinge at the proper time, which helps the club lower and shallow earlier. The shaft tends to look flatter, and the club lines up more naturally with your forearms as it approaches impact.

From face-on: the follow-through looks narrow

The second visual is in the follow-through. If you did not unhinge well enough on the way down, the club often remains too bent at the wrists after impact. Instead of the club extending outward with width, the follow-through looks cramped and narrow.

You may notice:

• A short, tight-looking extension after impact
• A noticeable angle still present between the shaft and the lead arm
• The wrists looking “held” rather than released
• The club not fully extending until much later than it should

With a better release, the club moves out with more width through the strike. The wrists appear more fully unhinged, and the club extends more naturally in front of your body before it begins to rehinge.

Common ball-flight and contact clues

This pattern often comes with a specific set of misses. If you hold the hinge too long, you may recognize some of these tendencies:

• Pulls, especially when the steep path sends the club left through impact
• Diggy contact with irons
• Severe chunks rather than slightly fat shots
• A feeling that the club is “stabbing” into the turf
• Difficulty producing a shallow, brushing strike

Those misses do not guarantee that ulnar deviation is the only issue, but they are strong clues that the release may be arriving too late.

Why It Happens

The root problem is usually not that you are incapable of unhinging the wrists. More often, you are trying to preserve lag or wrist hinge too long because it feels powerful or controlled. In reality, that delayed release can work against the motion you need through impact.

Trying to hold lag too long

Many golfers have been taught to maintain wrist angles deep into the downswing. While lag has a place, trying to “save” it too long often prevents the club from lowering properly. The result is a shaft that stays too vertical and a clubhead that never gets into a good delivery position.

In other words, what feels like stored power may actually be creating a poor path.

The club cannot shallow effectively

Ulnar deviation helps the club move from a more hinged condition into a more extended one. When that does not happen soon enough, the club tends to remain up and out in front of you. That makes it harder for the club to approach from a shallower inside path.

This is why delayed unhinging often pairs with a steep downswing. The body may still rotate well, but the club is not organizing itself in a way that complements that rotation.

You rely on body compensation

If the club stays too high, your body has to find another way to get the clubhead to the ball. A common compensation is adding more side bend through the strike. Some side bend is normal, but too much of it becomes a rescue move.

Even then, the strike can still be steep because the wrists never released in a way that allowed the club to flatten and extend properly.

The release and body motion are out of sync

A good release works with body rotation. When the wrists unhinge at the right time, the club lowers, the shaft shallows, and the clubhead can travel through impact with width. That tends to match up nicely with continued rotation.

When unhinging is delayed, the body and club are no longer synchronized. The body may be turning, but the club is still trapped in a more hinged, steeper condition. That mismatch often produces the narrow, abrupt follow-through seen on video.

How to Check

You can diagnose this pattern with two simple video checkpoints: one from down the line and one from face-on. These are practical ways to see whether your release is helping or hurting your path.

Checkpoint 1: Down the line in the downswing

Film your swing from down the line and pause the video when the shaft is approximately parallel to the ground in the downswing. Then move forward a few frames.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Does the clubhead still look high above the hands?
• Does the shaft look steep or upright?
• Is there a pronounced angle between the shaft and your lead arm?
• Does it look like the club is coming down sharply rather than flattening?

If the answer is yes to most of those, you are likely holding your hinge too long.

In a better pattern, that same window shows the club sitting lower and flatter. The shaft looks more in line with your forearms, and the club appears to be approaching from a shallower delivery.

Checkpoint 2: Face-on in the follow-through

Now film from face-on and look just after impact into the early follow-through. With an iron, full unhinging may occur around or just before shaft parallel in the follow-through. With a driver, it can happen a bit later. The exact timing varies, but the key is whether the club is extending with width rather than staying trapped in a hinged condition.

Look for these signs:

• Is the follow-through narrow instead of wide?
• Do you still see a clear wrist angle after impact?
• Does the club look “held off” rather than released outward?
• Are your arms and club failing to extend naturally away from your body?

If so, the release likely happened too late or not fully enough.

Use your misses as supporting evidence

Video is best, but your ball flight and turf interaction can support the diagnosis. You are more likely dealing with this issue if you regularly see:

• Pulls that start left quickly
• Deep, harsh divots
• Heavy shots that lose a lot of speed
• Inconsistent low point control

Those patterns often go hand in hand with a late unhinging release.

What to Work On

If this is your pattern, the goal is not to throw the clubhead early in a careless way. The goal is to train earlier and better-timed ulnar deviation so the club can shallow, lower, and extend properly through the strike.

Train the unhinging motion directly

For many golfers, it helps to exaggerate the feeling in practice. Learn what it feels like to actively unhinge the wrists, then gradually blend that into a more natural swing. This can be especially useful if you have spent years trying to hold lag.

You are not trying to cast from the top. You are training the club to organize itself correctly in the delivery and release.

Use a pump drill

A pump drill is a good way to rehearse the downswing checkpoint without rushing into a full swing.

1. Take the club to the top.
2. Move slowly into the downswing.
3. Pause around shaft-parallel.
4. Rehearse the feeling of the wrists unhinging so the club lowers and shallows.
5. Repeat several times before hitting a shot.

As you do this, you want to see the club sitting lower and flatter, not staying up in a steep, held position.

Use a 9-to-3 drill

A 9-to-3 drill is another strong choice because it highlights both checkpoints: the delivery into impact and the width of the follow-through.

1. Make a backswing to about lead-arm parallel.
2. Swing through to about trail-arm parallel.
3. Focus on unhinging the wrists so the club enters shallow.
4. Then let the club extend out with width after impact.

This drill is excellent because it removes the distraction of a full swing and lets you feel the release more clearly.

Match the release to body rotation

As you improve the wrist action, make sure you are not stopping your body and flipping your hands. The point of earlier ulnar deviation is to help the club work better with rotation, not replace it.

A good checkpoint is this: when the wrists unhinge properly, the club should feel like it stays low and wide through the strike while your chest continues turning. That combination is what tends to produce shallower contact and a larger margin for error.

Prioritize shallow turf interaction

One of the biggest benefits of this improvement is better ground contact. When the release is timed well, the club tends to interact with the turf more shallowly. That does not just look better on video—it gives you more forgiveness in real play.

Instead of needing everything to be perfect, you gain a little more room for timing and low point. That is why golfers who learn to unhinge better often see immediate improvement in strike quality.

• The club enters the turf less abruptly
• Divots become shallower and more predictable
• Heavy misses become less severe
• The path tends to improve along with contact

If your swing looks steep from down the line and narrow from face-on, delayed ulnar deviation is a strong suspect. Start by checking those two camera angles. If the club is staying hinged too long, work on training a better-timed unhinging motion with pump drills and 9-to-3 swings. As that release improves, you will usually see the club shallow more easily, the follow-through widen, and the turf interaction become much more forgiving.