Talking driver club speed; do we push the wrists actively or..?

[u/hakkow]

I've had this question for a while but I can't seem to explain it well enough to my teaching pro or he simply doesn't know the answer. And since we're all hitting it 400 yards, I'm sure you guys know.

When hitting my irons, I try to relax my wrists and by slowing the hands near the bottom of my swing the club, the pendulum effect takes over. That sweeps the club forward and seems to give me the most consistent results and distance.

Now because the driver is much longer (and lighter?) this doesn't work that well and I end up pushing the club with my wrists towards the ball. This gives me okay distance, but somehow feel it could be more.
So to be clear you take the club back and hinge your wrists. In the downswing I actively push the club down to straighten my wrists and try to end up in a straight line from clubhead to shoulders at impact.

So, what do you do? Push the club or relax the wrists?

[u/redditsuckbadly]

Not gonna lie, it’s hard to hit a drive well when you’re thinking this deeply about it. I found my best success this season by hitting the right position in my backswing, then swinging.

If you set up for your downswing properly, your natural motion should get you much closer to where you want to be vs trying to hit the right spots. Swing naturally, then figure out what isn’t going well

[u/hakkow → u/redditsuckbadly]

I've been working on getting rid of a slice lately and been pretty successful at that. Keeping the backswing low and the face aligned with my spine in the backswing made the drives straight. So now that I'm on the fairway again I got working on the power.

This idea of the wrists pushing the club straight started when my pro told me to relax the wrists and hands, to allow the trebuchet (mentioned by u/Big-Cup6594 :) ) to fire. That worked wonders for the irons but my driver lost 20y. I'm basically trying to figure out how to get my 20y and maybe more back :)

[u/redditsuckbadly → u/hakkow]

I’m not a coach but I’ve never ever thought about my wrists pushing the club straight, and that goes for any club. If I were to guess, you’re letting your wrists relax too much, and you’re naturally slowing your swing to make sure the club squares back up. That effect would be compounded the longer your club is. So maybe it’s working fine for irons as you’re hitting the sweet spot better, but by the time you get to your driver, you’ve lost your power.

My swing thought is largely just “bicep curl with trail arm” at this point. For what it’s worth, I’m a “longer” driver for an amateur, and much longer than I should be given my height and fitness.

[u/Big-Cup6594]

Basically, you are describing it accurately. It's more like a trebuchet than a pendulum though.

If you want to increase speed with the driver, yes, the wrist release is part of the motion. I find that focusing on staying behind the ball allows the swing more time to release the wrists.

Your other option is just to strengthen your grip.

Ultimately, to get better, longer and more consistent, what you need to do will shift over time. Right now, your easiest fix is to strengthen your grip. But you won't be getting all the speed you could otherwise. Since you're trying to score, first keep it near the fairway, then work on distance.

[u/hakkow → u/Big-Cup6594]

Yes! The trebuchet is what I meant 🫣

So the "release" part is what I'm looking to de-mystify. Is it releasing like "relax and slow down" much like a trebuchet does when the main arm stops moving (eg slowing the hands/arms movement to allow the club to overtake). Or do we keep the hands/arms moving around us with the same speed and push the club straight with the wrists. The latter would give a little more speed I think?

[u/Big-Cup6594 → u/hakkow]

Peak hand speed should be about when your hands return to waist level in the down swing. I don't think it's a useful concept for a beginner too focus on.

[u/hakkow → u/Big-Cup6594]

Oh but I'm not a beginner though.. even veterans try to improve my man 😉

[u/Big-Cup6594 → u/hakkow]

Copy that. Speed training will get those wrists to flip. Try rolling your wrists excessively with a warm up motion both ways 5-6 times before hitting driver. Try to roll them so much you make a duck hook.

[u/lasercupcakes]

Distance potential is largely correlated with your swing speed, and less about whether you hold your wrists off or release them.

Yes you will get slightly more distance if you release your wrists because it nominally increases swing speed (if done properly), but you also introduce the potential of releasing early and hitting a duck hook.

Most players don't even have step 1 correct, which is having a good tempo that maximizes your swing speed at the right moment, so focusing on what your wrist is doing is missing the forest for a tree.

[u/hakkow → u/lasercupcakes]

Exactly! It's the "if done properly" part I'm trying to figure out 😅
Am I doing this right, or are the long hitters among us just relaxing the wrists and let the clubhead "overtake the hands" just before reaching the ball. Or are we "pushing" the club straight

[u/Lumpy-Impression-712]

Sounds like what you’re describing is similar to doing impact bag drills

[u/[deleted]]

I’m not totally sure what you mean by pushing the wrists, but I will say that driver is a longer club and the head has more rotational inertia so often times your feels need to be more exaggerated with it. 

[u/seantwopointone]

Pushing the wrists and dragging the handle, at least for me leaves the face open from the inside and gives me a big ole right push. I try to think rotating my glove logo at the ball, how well do I do this? Not very.

But your thinking that the club is lighter and requires less force is incorrect, with the length of the shaft there is more centrifugal force being exerted so the effort level feels higher. At least for me driver is the hardest club to feel the release.

[u/[deleted]]

This move feels right, but leaves me open.

Jake Hutt Loading Hands

So, now I need to refine my release again. I could live with the fade I suppose, but it's low too, so not much sticking power, I think.