Instruction
The 6 Actions of the Wrists and Forearms
Before I became a professional golfer, I was a computer engineer and before that I went to college to be a pharmacist.
Little did I know at the time that the pharmaceutical courses I took covering physics, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, etc., would serve me well in my golf career as far as understanding things like angular momentum, pendular motion, coil springs, lever types, joint functions, etc.
In this article I want to spend a little time going over six actions of the wrists and forearms and then discussing how those actions can affect the golf club.
Medically speaking, the six actions are pronation versus supination, radial deviation versus ulnar deviation and palmar flexion versus dorsiflexion.
Now for the big questions — what do those actions mean in simpler terms, what effect do they have on the golf club and what are some pros and cons of one versus another?
Supination is the rotation of the hand and forearm (not to be confused with rotating from the shoulder socket) so the palm faces upward. The mnemonic I use to remember this one is to rotate the palm up to hold soup in it.
Pronation is the opposite rotation of the hand and forearm (also not to be confused with rotating from the shoulder socket) so the palm faces downward. This action would pour the soup out of the palm.
In golf terms, these are often expressed by telling someone to roll the wrists over through impact.
Another analogy that you may have come across that has the same rolling effect is to shake someone’s hand on the backswing (which rolls the club open) and then to do the same on the opposite side of the through swing (which rolls the club back over).
Pronation and supination are very commonly taught. One reason why some instructors teach these hand actions is that they say speed can be added to the club head. While it can be argued that this is true in that the toe of the club would be moving faster through the hitting zone than the heel, hitting the ball consistently straight becomes much more difficult because the club face is constantly pointing to a different spot when you pronate and supinate.
Also, the extra club head speed may not even correlate to more ball speed. Despite impact happening in approximately 1/2000th of a second, that’s still enough time for a club with a high rate of rotation to have a glancing impact blow (the center of gravity of the club probably wouldn’t be driving directly through the center of gravity of the ball) and adversely affect the shot.
That being said, there are no doubt many PGA Tour players that use this type of hand action through the impact area. However, most that do it have likely been doing it for a long time and they also practice and play more than the majority of people. Rolling can work, but it’s also a type of action that I would consider to be high maintenance and these type of players can be streaky.
If you are struggling to hit the ball straight and have unpredictable and inconsistent curvature, I would look to minimize the amount of rotation you are using in your swing, especially through the hitting area.
Be careful when looking at club-face rotation in your swing to not confuse it with the club-face rotation that can come from the ball and socket joints in your shoulders. In my observation, that has a tendency to happen in the back swing from people that pull their lead arm well across their chest and conversely when the trailing arm gets pulled well across the chest in to the follow through.
On the flip side of wrist rolling, perhaps you have also heard of counter-rotating the club on the back swing. This action wouldn’t have the same level of directional problems with the club face as rolling and I would definitely advocate it to my students over rolling. However, it is still a level of manipulation that may or may not be worth doing.
Ulnar and radial deviation are also fairly common. Ulnar deviation is a bending of the wrist toward the pinky. I remember ulnar deviation by thinking that the pinky is under the thumb when I grip the club.
Radial deviation is the opposite bending of the wrist towards the thumb.
Golf-wise, you may hear of radial deviation referred to as cocking and ulnar deviation as uncocking.
These hand actions are often used together with pronating and supinating. For example, someone might say:
“Rotate the club open on the way back and cock it upwards on the back swing. On the way down, uncock the club, roll it over through impact, and re-cock it in the follow through.”
That’s all four actions being used.
Using radial and ulnar deviation by themselves aren’t all that bad. For one thing, there aren’t the directional and timing problems that come with the wrist rolling of pronation and supination. But personally, assuming a neutral grip position at setup, for some reason I find radial deviation difficult to conceptualize and I lose sense of where the club is in the back swing. However, with a stronger grip (where I turn my lead hand clockwise around the grip as per my vantage point), radial deviation with my lead hand in the back swing works great for me.
Lastly, palmar flexion is a bending of the palm towards the forearm or inside of the wrist. I think of this one as flex the palm.
Conversely, dorsiflexion is the bending of the back of the hand towards the forearm away from the inside of the wrist.
Palmar flexion is sometimes referred to in golf as having a bowed wrist, where as dorsiflexion would be having a cupped wrist.
A related taboo golf term for these hand actions through impact would be flipping. Although, in many cases I don’t think flipping is so much a problem with the hand and wrist action as it is an inactive lower body. If you look closely at swings of various Tour players and golfers like Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Vijay Singh or Mike Austin you’ll see some hit, slap or flip in all of their swings as they move through the hitting area. It’s just that they’re not stalling with their lower bodies.
I would characterize players that flip as golfers who might generate more spin and who could be high-ball hitters depending on some other variables.
Like ulnar and radial deviation, it’s also nice that palmar and dorsiflexion don’t have the directional problems associated with the club face as when pronating and supinating. Some might argue that palmar and dorsiflexion will cause trajectory problems, but I don’t think this is always the case assuming you swing in a pendular fashion. If you don’t try to over-control the pendulum, gravity can take care of getting the club face back to the same place every time. Besides, on average, there is more of a full-swing problem with directional ball flight control than distance control. Palmar and dorsiflexion can be a good choice for having directional control.
Assuming that each of the six actions has a neutral position, that’s 27 different combinations per wrist/forearm not counting the degrees of variation between all of the positions.
Depending on where you start your wrists and hands at setup, there are certainly a lot of different things you can do throughout the entirety of the swing, each with their own pros and cons.
This may be a lot to take in, so here are a few final summary comments and general suggestions that you might consider, at least for the part of the swing when the club is coming through the hitting zone.
- Excessive rolling through impact can be inconsistent for controlling shot curvature. Sometimes rollers will try to play only a draw or only a fade because they will likely have the most difficult time controlling the accuracy and precision of their shot curvature. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but certain swing styles and teaching methods have come about that focus more on hitting only a draw or only a fade versus learning to hit straight.
- Despite the taboo term, a flipping action can give you more spin, shot height and pop on the ball presuming your lower body isn’t stalling and possibly some other variables. Mike Austin, the man who hit a Guinness World Record 515-yard drive in the U.S. National Senior Open, is a good example of this. Austin hit the ball really far, high and was all carry. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good putter (he three-putted for bogey on the par-4 he hit the 515-yard drive) but that’s another story.
- Going from a cupped-lead hand position at the top of your back swing and bowing through impact will probably spin the ball the least (some guys do it well but I have a hard time doing this).
- Having a non-wrist action can be good for pitching or where you need consistency and control of direction and trajectory but not power. Steve Stricker uses a little bit of rotation during his swings and pitches, which I wouldn’t advocate, but other than that he’s a pretty good example of the success of relatively passive hands and wrists.
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more tips!
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Pingback: How to use your hands in the golf swing for power and accuracy – GolfWRX
justin
Jun 26, 2013 at 6:30 pm
great article jaacob. I damaged my socket joints on my left shoulder and left elbow when i was younger and i tend to stop releasing making me go straight right or flipping it over to compensate. Due to this problem i spin the ball too much on every club. i even have my club speed about 108-110(driver) and i only produce about 155-158 ball speed. i feel like i’m losing speed at impact do to this problem. what would you recommend me to try?
Jaacob Bowden
Jul 6, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Thanks, Justin.
The mean smash factor on Tour is about 1.481 or 1.482. So with 108-110 club head speed, getting in the 159-163 range should be doable for you assuming you play a normal lofted driver by Tour standards (the higher the loft on a club the lower the smash factor and less ball speed you get and vice versa).
It sounds like you are either not hitting the sweet spot very consistently (I’m guessing you’d mostly be between 1.409 to 1.473), perhaps you are using a driver with too much loft, or maybe your club head could be somewhat unstable due to how you are moving the club through impact.
How is your ball striking? Impact tape or some foot powder can help you see where you are hitting on the club face.
What kind of spin do you have on the driver? What’s the exact driver loft? Know your launch angle? Perhaps less loft on your driver would help but whether or not I would recommend changng that partially depends on your launch conditions among other things.
Beyond that, it’s a bit difficult for me to say without seeing some video of you.
If you’ve got some and can get the info I was asking about above, feel free to shoot me an email through one of my websites and we can go through it.
viper
Mar 19, 2013 at 9:40 am
Jaacob do you think the Joe Dante’s early wrist cock is consider palmar flexion?
Jaacob Bowden
Jul 6, 2013 at 5:32 pm
Hi Viper, I don’t have my “Four Magic Moves” book handy, so I’m going by memory…but if I remember correctly, yes, it would be left hand palmar flexion and right hand dorsiflexion for a right handed golfer assuming a setup grip where the palms basically face one another.
joaquin
Mar 11, 2013 at 12:46 am
I’m trying to limit myself to one swing thought. 6 actions NOT to do and thats the wrist alone? Oh my. So what do I do now?
Jaacob Bowden
Mar 12, 2013 at 5:25 am
Hi Joaquin, yeah, some people like to get in to the nitty-gritty of what you can do and what is possible. Especially for teachers, this can be good.
But it’s not always necessary or ideal for everyone. In the end, in particular when it’s time to play, I think it’s better to get rid of swing thoughts or limit yourself down to just one or maybe two.
What do you currently think of? Does it work well for you?
If you want some assistance feel free to shoot me an email through my website. I’d be glad to try to help.
Oeystein Ikdahl
Feb 6, 2013 at 9:32 pm
How important would each of these be for distance, and how actively are the long hitters using their hands/forearms? I cant imagine you can hit a 380yds shot with “dead hands”?
Jaacob Bowden
Feb 7, 2013 at 8:07 am
That’s another good question and also one worth further research.
With 27 different positions each wrist could be in at any given point (not counting all the spots in-between each of them), that’s a lot of combinations to compare and contrast.
I agree with you that the dead hands one wouldn’t be the most powerful. It’s definitely not something I would recommend for a long drive competitor. Although, I would say it’s incredibly consistent for regular golf. For pitching (or maybe if you only ever play short and tight courses) it’s worth a look.
As an example, when I first turned Pro, I had become a long hitter and I played a bomb and gouge strategy. But during one several month stretch, for the sake of experimentation, I tried playing the straight, short, and safe strategy and used nothing but dead hands all the way around the course.
One of the tournaments was on a relatively short course by Tour standards. I shot 71-68 to make the cut. Hehe, I remember someone saying I was boring to play with because I was always hitting fairways and greens. But then the next tournament was at one of the longer tour courses I’ve played. I hit pretty consistent and straight again but I just couldn’t compete on the longer course because I was always so far back in the fairway for my approaches and I wasn’t reaching any par 5’s in two.
So the gist of that is, yes, the dead hands one isn’t the most powerful, but it does have advantages.
To your other questions…in my observation, to be a long hitter you simply have to use your forearms/wrists in at least some fashion to take advantage of them as an additional point of leverage and speed generation.
But, like you ask, which one (or combination of more than one) is best for distance?
Since I haven’t sat down and exhausted every single possibility, I can’t say for absolute certainty what’s optimal for distance. There’s also the added complications to consider of club face control (as opposed to just swinging a plain old stick), transfer of energy in to ball speed from impact dynamics, finding something that you can conceptualize and repeat, working with what you naturally do, etc.
That said, here are some thoughts…
I don’t think pronating and/or supinating through the hitting zone is a good idea. Since those cause a rotating club face, controlling where you hit the shot becomes much more difficult. Plus, as I mentioned in the article, an overly rotating club face won’t have as quality of a strike and you could lose power on average. That’s not to say you couldn’t use pronation and supination elsewhere in the swing. I just wouldn’t intentionally do it anywhere through impact.
Perhaps putting together all six could generate the most club head speed. Consider a rear-hand submarine throwing motion. Assuming you start out at setup in a neutral rear-hand position, in the back swing you could dorsiflect, pronate, and radial deviate (basically winding up to throw). The downswing would start with supinating and ulnar deviating back to neutral (starting to build momentum by unwinding)…followed by palmar flexion through impact (taking the momentum buildup and transitioning in to slapping or throwing).
I’ve hit as far as anything else doing that, but on the downside I’m a little inconsistent with that sequence. For some reason I lose a bit of club awareness during the windup.
Presently, the thing that I’m doing that I feel like is giving me the greatest blend of accurate and controllable power is this…
At setup I start with a fairly neutral lead hand grip. Although, if you were to look at me face-on it would look like a strong grip because my natural and relaxed wrist position is a little bit strong looking, plus my arm gets rotated a little bit from the shoulder socket when I put my arm up over my chest. So even though the grip has a strong look, it’s actually a neutral wrist position for me.
On a side note, I think a neutral grip is a good general start for the setup…for a couple reasons. First, swinging with as little tension as possible is important for distance. You’ll hear a lot of long drivers talk about that. Think of it like opening a door that has a rusty hinge. You use a lot of energy muscling the door open, but it’s much more efficient and the door can move faster if you oil it up and let it move freely.
Second, there’s a lot of centrifugal force (outward pull) when you swing the club…so why fight or try to control it? Sort of like a tether ball, just let the ball pull the rope out. Don’t try to control the length of the rope. It’ll come around to the same spot on the other side on it’s own.
Last, muscles that are shortened or stretched will tend to go back to a neutral spot anyway when relaxed. So just make it easier and start out in a neutral spot because if you don’t try to control it you’ll just get pulled back there at impact anyway.
From there all I do is just ulnar deviate in the back swing (which with the stronger setup gives me an overly “closed” looking club face at the top)…and radial deviate back to impact. Very simple, basically just a chopping lead hand motion. I don’t even really have to try to control it because the momentum of my back swing will set my wrist cock naturally.
After impact, to avoid injury, my shoulder socket rotates my lead arm slightly so that I can then dorsiflect with the lead wrist and also ulnar deviate.
As for the trail hand, I start out fairly neutral, dorsiflect in the back swing and palmar flex to impact (basically a slap), have a slight bit of rotation of the arm in the shoulder socket after impact, which leads in to some ulnar deviation. For me, it’s a simple and natural motion that I can do with a nice level of consistency, accuracy, and power (what you were asking about) that I can control.
It’d be a big project, but at some point I think it’d be cool to look at a large sampling of both long drivers and also tour players to see what they are doing with their wrists/forearms and look for patterns…and then to contemplate all the sequencing possibilities in general to see if perhaps there are better ways to do it that people aren’t doing or being taught.
Oeystein Ikdahl
Feb 14, 2013 at 11:38 pm
Hi Jaacob, – thank you for the elaborate reply – much appreciated.
It seems to me that the swing you are describing is a bit similar to what another long hitting golfer, Jamie Sadlowski, is doing although his grip is from what I can tell very strong. I believe in line with with your description that a fairly simple swing, where you can utilize Radial/Ulnar deviation with limited other complicating movements, can increase swingspeed.
When I try this I can fairly easily add 5 mph on the radar – but most of the time I end up with a bad push slice due to pulling the club through with an open clubface. (Maybe that is suggesting that I am supinating unconsciously in the backswing and not pronating again in the downswing? – hmmmm – have to check that) Its a tough game 🙂
Jaacob Bowden
Feb 15, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Sure thing, glad to help.
I’d be curious to know if Jamie’s strong looking grip is coming from a turning in his shoulder socket or in his wrist. A little difficult to tell from just looking at video…but yes, good observation.
I think with my hand action I actually fall a bit between where Jamie is…and Ryan Palmer. If I were still competing in long drive I would probably utilize my hands more like Jamie. But for regular golf, it’s more like towards Ryan’s end of the spectrum with a slightly stifled hand action. I cock a little bit more with my lead hand than Ryan at the top of the back swing, but other than that it’s really similar.
Search for him on YouTube and notice how simple his back swing and downswing hand action is…really low maintenance. I like it a lot because it’s relatively simple to conceptualize, easy to repeat, and I don’t have to worry as much about the timing problems from pronating and supinating (he does pronate/supinate eventually, but it occurs a foot and a half or so after impact).
Flynn Kavanagh
Feb 6, 2013 at 12:30 am
Interesting – Just wondering if any of these wrist/hand moves done excessively would contribute to injury i.e golfers elbow?
Jaacob Bowden
Feb 7, 2013 at 5:43 am
Hmmm, that’s a good question, I don’t know. This would make for a good research project.
None of the moves in and of themselves would cause you to get hurt…but certainly any human movement done excessively could cause injury and my guess is that there would be better and worse combinations of these movements. For example, perhaps it is good to transition from one movement to another from impact to finish as a way of braking the club and spreading out the strain of stopping the club on any one part of the body.
A site that I find rather interesting that you might look at is RacquetResearch.com. It’s a tennis site and the racquet data is over 10 years old, but the science and research I think is still applicable towards golf.
Some of the things I actually read there about tennis elbow made me change some things in my golf game…using bigger grips, heavier shafts, vibration dampeners, and trying to employ more of a semi-sweeping swing rather than a digging one (I’ve hurt my wrists before from taking repeated divots and/or striking the driving range mats too hard and too often).
Flynn
Feb 7, 2013 at 11:02 pm
Yeah golfer’s elbow is definitely a perplexing (and frustrating) injury for me, appreciate the feedback.
Blanco
Feb 18, 2013 at 5:52 pm
I can say that after taking up the game I used an interlocking grip which took me from rare hand/wrist pain associated with my work (writing), to early stage carpal tunnel and advanced tendinitis, all within 10 months or so. It also produced weak ball striking and slicing as I could never fully release the club with my pinky and index finger entwined together. My play with wedges and general touch around the greens was always exceptional however.
Out of necessity I experimented with a ten finger grip and almost immediately dropped 10 strokes off my handicap, because of a newfound ability to play without pain and make true athletic passes at the ball- allowing my hands to turn over through the ball as they would with a ping pong paddle or tennis racket.
Thanks for the article– I always appriciate learning more about the physiology behind the swing.