"The Release" comes to life.....

[GeoffDickson]

My left wrist was really bent and the club was up my right arm at last parallel post impact. Same with Mike.

I am mesmerized by that image at approx 42 secs into the video...the right arm and club as one...how do you do that?

 

[Richard the Nerd]

JW....could you detail the backswing changes? This seems way different too.....what was the rationale?

 

[Jared Willerson]

I made zero changes feel wise to the backswing. I have always been in and up with the hands.

 

[spktho]

So, does it feel as if you are throwing the club more with your hands/arms and just using the body to keep up with or support the club with a jump and back extension through impact?

I am dying to try this release because since learning to drag the handle I lost about 5-8 mph on the driver. Unfortunately, I am currently only 4 weeks out of ACL reconstruction and unable to make a properly supported full swing.

 

[mgranato]

So, does it feel as if you are throwing the club more with your hands/arms and just using the body to keep up with or support the club with a jump and back extension through impact?

I am dying to try this release because since learning to drag the handle I lost about 5-8 mph on the driver. Unfortunately, I am currently only 4 weeks out of ACL reconstruction and unable to make a properly supported full swing.

This was a big dose of the feel that I had/have to get better at. Sounds sooo simple, but...

"Swing the arms more" is something I heard more than once.

 

[wulsy]

BTW, does "back extension" refer to a kind of "reverse C-ing" or does it just mean standing more erect?

 

[Burner]

Burner...does it look like I am flipping to you? It shouldn't, my left wrist is flat as a pancake at impact, so was niblicks, so was Mike's and so was Mike's dad. The only difference is I am not trying to hold it flat post impact..

Jared,

I am not commenting on your motion, although I cannot see either a flick or a flip.

My concern is your terminology, with flick and flip being synonyms; different words with almost identical or similar meanings, neither of which sit comfortably with this release motion as we are led to believe.

 

[Burner]

My basic definition is that a "flip" is the unintentional release--straightening of the right wrist and extension of the left wrist for a right handed golfer--prior to impact with the subsequent loss of ideal golf club alignment at impact.

Thanks for that spktho.

Had I been asked to describe a "flick" of the club head at the ball I would have said much the same thing.

 

[dbl]

Why wouldn't you consider flick to allow right wrist unbending and still allowing the FLW at impact?; (after impact flw not a requirement). Brian explains this in SD.

 

[Jay Schwarz]

Can anyone give me a suggestion on a release problem with the driver? I've been working on learning Brian's soft draw pattern. I'm doing pretty good with everything except the Driver. With the Driver, I get the butt of the club pointing at the target as I approach impact and then something happens and I hit pulls and pull hooks. It feels like the club head is never going to catch up. I'm not sure if I'm flipping or heaving my shoulders to try to square it up. Any ideas??? Thanks!

 

[JDMAC]

Looking good Jared and Mike. I can feel the excitement in your posts. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

 

[JEREMY5577]

Can anyone give me a suggestion on a release problem with the driver? I've been working on learning Brian's soft draw pattern. I'm doing pretty good with everything except the Driver. With the Driver, I get the butt of the club pointing at the target as I approach impact and then something happens and I hit pulls and pull hooks. It feels like the club head is never going to catch up. I'm not sure if I'm flipping or heaving my shoulders to try to square it up. Any ideas??? Thanks!

Jay, In Soft Draw Brian advocates getting the butt of the club to point at the target after impact into the finish. Not as your approaching impact.

 

[Robbohank]

Jay,

In addition to what Jeremy stated you might also focus on getting the butt of the club to point at your belt buckle/navel area AT impact. The driver (due to it's length) takes longer to "line up" relative to the other clubs, so you may have to really feel like your releasing it from the top to accomplish that.

 

[BertramSterling]

Can anyone give me a suggestion on a release problem with the driver? I've been working on learning Brian's soft draw pattern. I'm doing pretty good with everything except the Driver. With the Driver, I get the butt of the club pointing at the target as I approach impact and then something happens and I hit pulls and pull hooks. It feels like the club head is never going to catch up. I'm not sure if I'm flipping or heaving my shoulders to try to square it up. Any ideas??? Thanks!

Jay, In Soft Draw Brian advocates getting the butt of the club to point at the target after impact into the finish. Not as your approaching impact.

Although I've not seen Soft Draw for a while, I believe the idea is to have the shaft pointing at the target (slightly right of actual target) both before, after, and at the very end of the swing as a final check. That is, when the club shaft is horizontal for the last time pre-impact it parallels the target line and points to the target. The same should occur when the club is horizontal post-impact, and just because we can at the end of the swing too (just some insurance).

I think this needs some tumble and a decent hand path to achieve, if you are backing up the shaft and try it you will probably run out of room. IE if you are too steep before the first parallel and/or your hands travel out toward the ball, you'll have to back up the shaft some. Now you could probably have the shaft pointing way right of target at this parallel position, and it *might* swing outward enough to offset the hand path (which is something you could pick up as a fix). This combination with a shaft 'at the target' though, will result in hitting the ball from the outside.

Jay -
My thoughts would be to shallow out the early downswing (either slightly more laid off with the driver, or shallow it out more in transition) and keep the hands more inside the ball. This will effectively move the club/hands/arms unit further from (inside) the ball, allowing the club head to swing more out to the ball.