Need drill to correct early release

[JustPlainWill]

Can someone help with a drill to help correct a problem that I have with my swing that I can best describe as early release? I can't say for absolute sure but I think that I have too much loft on the balls that I hit with my mid and short irons. I think that this is likely causing me about 10-12 yards per club. As an example, lately I am only hitting my 6-iron about 145 or so. I suspect that past of the problem is that I may be decelerating the club through the ball on the downswing, but I think that most of this problem is caused by the fact that my hands are not leading the clubhead through the ball. Anybody have any drills that can help or have any other ideas. Thanks in advance.

---Will

[Bigvivec]

How to play consistent golf: Consistency: golfdigest.com

[JPsuff]

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Sounds to me like deceleration could be your problem as well as an "over the top" tendency which tends to go with it.

The cure for both is the "Half Swing Drill"

Take your normal setup and when you begin your swing, take the club back and stop at a point at which your leading arm (you're left arm, if you're a righty) is more or less parallel with the ground and then swing forward from there.

Your brain/body will instinctively move your weight forward and accelerate your arms towards the ball in an effort to impart as much force as it can and this solves both the deceleration issues and it promotes an inside-out swing motion.
You will be surprised as to how much better the ball flies and how much better your swing feels overall. In fact, you will likely achieve as much as 90% of your total distance with this move and your accuracy will improve dramatically.


Whenever I get to a point where it seems as if I'm losing power and or control, this is the first drill I use to correct things and it's usually the only drill I need.


-JP

[Putton]

Originally Posted by JustPlainWill

Can someone help with a drill to help correct a problem that I have with my swing that I can best describe as early release? I can't say for absolute sure but I think that I have too much loft on the balls that I hit with my mid and short irons. I think that this is likely causing me about 10-12 yards per club. As an example, lately I am only hitting my 6-iron about 145 or so. I suspect that past of the problem is that I may be decelerating the club through the ball on the downswing, but I think that most of this problem is caused by the fact that my hands are not leading the clubhead through the ball. Anybody have any drills that can help or have any other ideas. Thanks in advance.

---Will

Practice having your hands forward of the ball at impact delofting the club

[Bigvivec]

Sorry Will...was short of time before...like Putton said, get your hands forward and you will be forced to hold your wrist angle longer, getting rid of that early release...check out #2 and #4 in the link I posted...one teaches you the feeling of a proper wrist set and the other the feeling of holding that set to a proper release...

[JPsuff]

.



If the problem is deceleration, then de-lofting the clubface isn't going to solve anything. All de-lofting will do is promote a lower trajectory. But without adequate clubhead speed - which translates into ball speed, all you'll produce is a low-powered shot with a lower trajectory.

The whole de-lofting craze is associated with getting a bit more distance out of a given club, but they key to that is acceleration which produces above average ball speeds to compensate for the lower trajectory and its that additional velocity that sends the ball out a considerable distance before the spin of the ball has a chance to react (or interact) with the surrounding air and begins to climb. Put another way, the ball is initially travelling too fast for it to interact with the air and once the velocity slows down, the ball's spin begins to catch the air and the ball begins to rise.
Once a ball begins to climb it also begins to slow down so the de-loft is supposed to allow the ball to sort of "knuckle" its way through the air as far as it can before that happens. The trademark flight path of such a shot is one that starts out low and then begins to rise about a third of the way through its flight. Some people refer to this as a "Pro" trajectory and it's ball speed that allows that to occur and the only way to take full advantage of de-lofting is to create a high ball speed which is the direct result of a high clubhead speed which is the result of good acceleration.

So simply de-lofting the clubface without creating a compensating ball speed really only serves to lower the trajectory but does nothing for distance. That's why a half-swing drill works. It teaches the body to move aggressively towards the ball and thus improves acceleration which in turn leads to all of the above.



-JP

[bonknhead]

Originally Posted by JPsuff

.


Sounds to me like deceleration could be your problem as well as an "over the top" tendency which tends to go with it.

The cure for both is the "Half Swing Drill"

Take your normal setup and when you begin your swing, take the club back and stop at a point at which your leading arm (you're left arm, if you're a righty) is more or less parallel with the ground and then swing forward from there.

Your brain/body will instinctively move your weight forward and accelerate your arms towards the ball in an effort to impart as much force as it can and this solves both the deceleration issues and it promotes an inside-out swing motion.
You will be surprised as to how much better the ball flies and how much better your swing feels overall. In fact, you will likely achieve as much as 90% of your total distance with this move and your accuracy will improve dramatically.


Whenever I get to a point where it seems as if I'm losing power and or control, this is the first drill I use to correct things and it's usually the only drill I need.


-JP

This is exactly what a teaching pro had me work on when I took lessons last season, and it worked. Once I was able to delay my release, he had me work on shortening up my swing because I was dipping well beyond parallel as well.

[larryrsf]

Originally Posted by JustPlainWill

Can someone help with a drill to help correct a problem that I have with my swing that I can best describe as early release? I can't say for absolute sure but I think that I have too much loft on the balls that I hit with my mid and short irons. I think that this is likely causing me about 10-12 yards per club. As an example, lately I am only hitting my 6-iron about 145 or so. I suspect that past of the problem is that I may be decelerating the club through the ball on the downswing, but I think that most of this problem is caused by the fact that my hands are not leading the clubhead through the ball. Anybody have any drills that can help or have any other ideas. Thanks in advance.

---Will

YouTube - Ben Hogan Golf Swing

Basically if your lower body doesn't lead, your upper body will-- and that is always OTT (as Hogan demonstrates).

If you don't swing "under," hips leading, you will swing "over," with shoulders leading.

Larry

[Bigvivec]

Originally Posted by JPsuff

.



If the problem is deceleration, then de-lofting the clubface isn't going to solve anything. All de-lofting will do is promote a lower trajectory. But without adequate clubhead speed - which translates into ball speed, all you'll produce is a low-powered shot with a lower trajectory.

The whole de-lofting craze is associated with getting a bit more distance out of a given club, but they key to that is acceleration which produces above average ball speeds to compensate for the lower trajectory and its that additional velocity that sends the ball out a considerable distance before the spin of the ball has a chance to react (or interact) with the surrounding air and begins to climb. Put another way, the ball is initially travelling too fast for it to interact with the air and once the velocity slows down, the ball's spin begins to catch the air and the ball begins to rise.
Once a ball begins to climb it also begins to slow down so the de-loft is supposed to allow the ball to sort of "knuckle" its way through the air as far as it can before that happens. The trademark flight path of such a shot is one that starts out low and then begins to rise about a third of the way through its flight. Some people refer to this as a "Pro" trajectory and it's ball speed that allows that to occur and the only way to take full advantage of de-lofting is to create a high ball speed which is the direct result of a high clubhead speed which is the result of good acceleration.

So simply de-lofting the clubface without creating a compensating ball speed really only serves to lower the trajectory but does nothing for distance. That's why a half-swing drill works. It teaches the body to move aggressively towards the ball and thus improves acceleration which in turn leads to all of the above.



-JP

Getting your hands in front and hitting down and through borne of a full wrist set would cure his ills I feel...

[JPsuff]

Originally Posted by Bigvivec

Getting your hands in front and hitting down and through borne of a full wrist set would cure his ills I feel...

Yes it would.

But without acceleration, it's of little consequence. The half-swing drill forces all of what we've been discussing to happen because the body is naturally trying to generate as much force as possible in a short distance. In that situation, all of the things necessary for a soild swing tend to happen all by themselves.

You know, I wish that the phrase "hitting down" never existed because I think that that image tends to create more problems than it solves. Hitting down on a ball can create either a V-shaped swing (which is not really a "swing" at all) or it can lead to deceleration because people think that they're either going to bend the club or hurt themselves trying to drive the club into the ground.

I think "Hitting Through" would be a better term. Hitting through the ball conjures up an image of trying to strike a target or an object beyond the ball which forces a more aggressive forward motion and produces a swing wherein the club contacts the ball solidly and continues past it (either taking a divot or not) and continues on an arc to a full followthrough. Taking a divot -- what most people refer to as "hitting down" -- is more the result of ball position and swing plane (swing consistency) than any conscious effort to strike a downward blow upon the ball.

A golf swing is an arc and the taking of a divot is simply the result of that arc continuing past the ball and into the turf as it describes its arc. Many people regard taking a divot as a goal but I see a divot as a result or a consequence not a deliberate act.




Thoughts?



-JP

[JustPlainWill]

Thanks for all of the help fellas. I think that there is some really good stuff in this thread. I knew that you guys would come through...you always do. I am headed to the driving range to try some of the ideas that you've offered. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks, as always.

---Will

[larryrsf]

Only if his hips lead. Otherwise it is OTT and nobody can maintain wrist set (lag) swinging OTT, shoulders before hips.

Larry