Understanding What Wrist Hinge In The Golf Swing Is

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

00:10 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

00:28 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.

00:41 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

00:51 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?

01:01 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,

01:16 depending on my own mobility,

01:18 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.

01:29 The most important thing when it comes to power

01:31 in the golf swing is that wrist set

01:35 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.

01:46 You over swing and you lose power.

01:49 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,

02:08 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 whether the source

02:23 of the problem is from holding the club in the wrong place.

02:27 A lot of the time they tend to hold it more in the palm

02:29 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

02:36 of power through the ball.

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

02:40 the golf game will feel a lot easier.

02:43 It's efficient power.

02:45 It's a way of actually creating a good bit of fizz

02:48 through the ball 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, they don't know

02:56 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 with a swing

03:01 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 is you start to get

03:17 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,

03:24 your swing is more efficient.

03:25 And a more efficient swing means that you're going

03:28 to last longer out on the golf course

03:30 hitting more decent shots.

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

03:34 during a round of golf?

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

03:37 midway through the round, then the likelihood

03:39 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,

03:44 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,

03:52 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, and you'll start seeing

04:07 those iron shots really get a decent strike on them.

04:10 (gentle music)

04:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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