Wrist Hinge In The Golf Swing Explained

Golf Monthly

In this video, PGA Professional Katie Dawkins explains how to use wrist hinge more effectively in the golf swing.

Transcript

00:00 (golf club thwacks)

00:02 Hi, I'm Katie Dawkins.

00:05 I am an advanced PGA professional,

00:07 and I'm here at West Hill Golf Club today

00:09 to talk to you about wrist hinge in the golf swing.

00:13 Wrist hinge is where we get power from.

00:16 Imagine, for example, that you had a flat pebble.

00:19 I'm gonna skim it across a beautiful mill pond

00:21 like I used to do as a kid.

00:23 I'm gonna first of all hinge my wrist like this.

00:26 I'm then gonna wind everything up,

00:27 and the last thing I'm gonna do is unhinge my wrist

00:30 to get that lovely bouncing across the water.

00:34 If we didn't hinge our wrist to skim that stone,

00:37 you imagine that, imagine flat pebble skimming a stone.

00:40 I'm gonna have to hurl myself into the drink

00:43 to actually gain any sort of power at all,

00:45 and the pebble's probably just gonna go plop.

00:48 So wrist hinge in the golf swing

00:50 is where power is created and club head speed.

00:54 (upbeat music)

00:56 So what actually happens in the golf swing?

00:58 Where do the wrists actually hinge from?

01:00 The club moves away, club and arms move away together,

01:04 and the wrists will start hinging,

01:06 almost giving you a thumbs up feeling at this point here.

01:09 You can see I've created a lovely L shape

01:11 between my club shaft and my arm,

01:14 and what's gonna happen from there,

01:15 depending on my own mobility,

01:17 is I'm just gonna wind myself up to the top of my backswing.

01:21 Some people wind up a bit like John Rahm,

01:23 some people wind up a lot like Rory McIlroy.

01:26 How much you wind up, it's not a competition.

01:28 The most important thing when it comes to power

01:31 in the golf swing is that wrist set,

01:34 and for ladies especially,

01:36 if there's no wrist hinge early on in the golf swing,

01:39 and in fact there's no wrist hinge at all,

01:41 your club's gonna hinge from somewhere,

01:43 and it generally tends to be here.

01:45 You over swing and you lose power.

01:48 So from this lovely L-shaped position that you have here,

01:53 all that really is required after that

01:55 is a wind up to the top of the backswing.

01:57 Because the wrists are set properly here,

01:59 they're likely to unhinge at the right point,

02:02 giving you a bit of a crack of the whip through the ball,

02:05 and giving you tons and tons of power and fizz,

02:07 especially in your iron play.

02:09 A lot of ladies that struggle with this wrist hinge

02:17 generally tend to have the club

02:18 in the wrong position in the hand,

02:19 so it's worth going and getting a bit of a lesson

02:21 just on your fundamentals to check

02:22 whether the source of the problem

02:24 is from holding the club in the wrong place.

02:26 A lot of the time they tend to hold it more in the palm,

02:28 and it needs to be in the fingers.

02:30 This frees the hand up and creates that lovely hinge.

02:34 And then of course that lovely whoosh

02:35 of power through the ball.

02:37 If you're hinging the wrist well,

02:39 the golf game will feel a lot easier.

02:42 It's efficient power.

02:44 It's a way of actually creating

02:46 a good bit of fizz through the ball,

02:48 and getting a good bit of distance

02:50 without busting it down there.

02:52 We've all played against those players

02:54 where you think, golly,

02:55 they don't know how they're gonna hit it very far.

02:57 They step up with a little bit of a hockey swing

02:59 and smack it out of sight

03:01 with a swing that goes from here to here.

03:03 And that is in fact a kind of drill

03:05 that you could practice on the range.

03:07 Just little seven irons off a tee

03:09 going from L through to L, like so.

03:14 And what you'll find there

03:15 is you start to get a bit more height with your irons

03:18 and a little bit more distance as well.

03:21 So if you've got a decent set of the wrists,

03:23 your swing is more efficient.

03:25 And a more efficient swing

03:27 means that you're going to last longer out

03:29 on the golf course hitting more decent shots.

03:31 And who doesn't wanna hit lots of decent shots

03:33 during a round of golf?

03:35 If you are somebody who gets a bit tired

03:37 midway through the round,

03:38 then the likelihood is that you're not hinging these wrists

03:41 and you're doing what we talked about

03:42 with the pond at the beginning,

03:43 which is throwing yourself at that golf ball

03:46 to generate some form of power.

03:48 So what I'd recommend, go and get a lesson,

03:51 get them to check your grip.

03:53 If the grip seems a good place,

03:55 just soften it off a little bit.

03:57 'Cause if you're squeezing the life out of this club,

03:59 you're not gonna be able to get that wrist hinge happening.

04:02 So softer hands, L to L,

04:05 and you'll start seeing those iron shots

04:07 really get a decent strike on them.

04:10 (gentle music)

04:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended