Smallwood on Instruction: Week Four — Lag for Power
By Dave Smallwood
Greater Club Head Lag Means Greater Distance
It is likely that 98 % of all golfers have no idea what the title to this article means. Regardless all are very aware that they would like greater distance.
Venturing forward from my last articles we will move along our progression to achieving the distance increases we are all longing for. In previous articles we have covered grip, posture, wrist cock produced by passive hand and we will now continue on with the loading elements to the golf swing.
In my instruction sessions one of my first questions is always what is your dominant hand? This question usually never requires an answer because after watching a player swing the answer is always clear to the trained eye. Everyone knows the answer to this question, but I am amazed that most don’t know what dominant side is there during the golf swing. I am further amazed that a lot of students who still can’t figure it out even after the make a swing and try to determine it out for themselves.
Truthfully there are only four options.
1) A player can initiate the backswing from the right side and return the club to impact from the right side.
2) They can also initiate the backswing with the left side and return it with the left.
3) and 4) The last two are left side, right side and right side, left side!
Knowing this, as an instructor I try to eliminate bad options. Unfortunately most players, regardless of which side initiates the backswing, tend to initiate the downswing with the side farthest from the target.
This is usually the case because this also tends to be their dominant hand and their brain sends the signal to create power from their dominant hand. WELL YOUR BRAIN IS WRONG!
What the brain is unaware of is that being passive and allowing the mass of the head of the club to create its own power will allow more power for the player than trying to force the club to move faster by swinging faster.
With passive hands we can create club head lag. I have now officially lost all the readers who want to hit the ball instead of swinging the club, but lag is translates into the power for which they are striving.
The golf swing is a big muscle rotation around a fixed point on a tilted flex angle with a desired alignment. No where in that in that description would someone read into it that it was a manipulated fast pace movement of the hands.
There are plenty of instructors that teach a right side dominant swing and plenty who believe in a neutral even-balanced swing from front side to back side.
I am a strong advocate of a left side dominant swing and for the following reasons. With the front side initiating the backswing, the player has a greater ability to create a rotation from the big muscles, namely the shoulder and hips. This will create the desired passive hand that in turn creates a natural wrist cock. This wrist cock is vital in the club staying on plane and on achieving the proper club head lag. Take a look at the photo of Victor Ciesielski (right) and you’ll get a great sense of how this is supposed to look.
This lag is then maintained by the front side initiating the downswing that allows for a shallower angle to the return plane and will result in the club returning from the inside with a descending blow to create a square and solid impact position. This impact position is at maximum club head speed generated from the mass of the club reaching its highest speed through its downward thrust. The mass is then allowed to passively accelerate at a greater speed than the hands which allows the passive power and the club to square at impact.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:25 am
[...] like the headline of one of his posts, “Greater Club Head Lag Means Greater Distance”. Dave says, “It is likely that 98 % of all golfers have no idea what the title to this article [...]
February 27th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I found your blog by accident, but was intrigued by your discussion of release and it’s all in the hands.
I’m an older guy who discovered golf in his 50s and have been a pilgrim of the game for the last twelve years.
In the beginning, I was thrilled to actually get the ball in the air and to have it travel without going into hazards and out of bounds to the right. I had a 36 index back in 1998.
I now have a 20.5 index and had it down to a 15 the summer before last.
The full swing has always been my obsession. I’ve read all the books: Hogan, Boomer, Earnest and Bobby Jones, de la Torre, Davis Love Jr. & Bob Toski, Janet Coles, etc.
As you mentioned, there are so many theories on the swing. left hand, right hand, neutral, one plane/two plane, stacked, swing the handle, feel the club head, toss the club at the ball, don’t toss the club at the ball, swing with the forearms and keep the hands quiet, etc.
I’ve had my swing analyzed. Swing speed of 75 mph. That times 2.5 equals about 185 yards of carry. This prior to my new found technique.
Just recently, I started to grip the club so that it does not move in my hands as suggested by Ben Hogan. I maintain contact with the three bottom fingers of the left hand and the top two fingers of the right hand. I’ve started to let the club drop down in the downswing (Tiger Woods mentioned this) with as much lag as possible and release the club through the ball without adding any pressure in the grip, but I try to maintain control of the club (swing the handle – the little coach, Eddie Merrins) with me consciously rotating the hands with the right turning over the left. I do not mean flipping here. I’m talking about a smooth, low grip pressured pass through the ball.
As a result, I had more control of the club, less fat or thinned shots, more distance (not big time, but more) and more consistent ball flight.
I’m down here in South Georgia. So I’m playing golf at this time of year. I’ve been shooting 47s to 50s for nine holes these last few months. Yesterday, I shot a 44 on a very wet course of 6,151 yards with a rating/slope of 70.1/122 (18 holes) using my new found technique.
Now it remains to be seen if I maintain this pace.
I agree with almost all of your recommendations. It just seems that there are a number of ways to release through the ball and no clear consensus exists. If you ask many of the good golfers around the clubs of Canada and the U.S. most will tell you they do not know how they do it. And most refuse to analyze it for fear that they might screw up what they’ve got.
It is in the hands. I think Love and Toski have come the closest in there book in defining the defining moment. Now you. They call it the hitting zone.
I’ve had a goodly number of pros tell me how to play better. All have opinions about stance, swing technique, etc. But none have talked about what happens at the moment of truth. Actually, Hogan did too suplimation and pronation. Maybe it is because it is so hard to see with the naked eye or even on the video recorder that most have in their possession.
Thanks for your attention to this part of the swing.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Take a look at the photos on pages 108 & 109 of Joe Dante’s book, “Four Magic Moves” to understand lag or more technically correct, the Coefficient Of Angular Momentum (COAM).
February 25th, 2009 at 2:30 am
The fact that you bearly scratched the surface and discrbed the lagging action only in general terms (most high handicappers already know this) indicates you haven’t the slightest idea where power comes from. Good touch with “placid”hands though. -bg
July 31st, 2010 at 12:07 pm
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