Fantastic video. I've just tried it in the garden with plastic balls and using a pitching wedge and a driver, it's a magic transformation and makes the swing much easier to perform. I have never seen the swing described so well.
Russell, brilliant instruction as usual and thank you for including your student. This is long but there is a request at the end. I am a big study of Ben Hogans swing. Your videos on lower body rotation had a massive impact on my progress recently. 2 feels I take from Mr Hogan - both elbow feel like the are attached at the upper hip. And in the downswing the lead arm presses against my chest from the rotational forces you beautiful explain in a way Mr. Hogan didn't. Ok, when I combined all this with your message of do not drop the arms, and really adhere those concepts above, well, I couldn't return the club head to and through the ball with any consistency. I went back and looked at Mr. Hogan and tried to achieve that impact position - i found that side bend is necessary and a rotation of the wrists and lead arm from the elbow to the shoulder, when this is done as one cohesive unit, and while maintaining the bend in the trail wrist until release. Lag is maintained, and the right elbow and shoulder is pulled down. All this has the appearance of knuckles rolling under as you get into impact, and of course the hips are really open from rotation. I found this to capitalize on those rotational forces and whip the club head right through to the finish. Much like what I see in your student. You don't see that whip with the vast majority of amateur swings. I hope I am clearly explaining this so far. What I see as a problem is there is such a fine line when the trail elbow and therefore the lead arm (since they are working as 1 unit), a fine line between being pulled down and dropping down. Rotational forces in the lower body are key and must not stall, but there seems to be a rotational force in the upper core of the shoulder. When I harness it, it really adds to the hip rotation and keeps everything moving to harness more even power with less effort. I had to go and study the anatomy of the shoulder for me to see why it's so challenging it to create rotational forces. And I looked at other sports like discus and javelin. Ok, I will stop here. Thanks for getting through to my request. Pleased do a segment on creating rotational forces of the shoulders and how to sequence them with the rotation of the hips.
Exactly the video I needed thank you! I compress my right elbow in the backswing and then it launches out too soon during the downswing. I always feel stuck. Keeping the right elbow wide during the takeaway and bringing it in later during the downswing is exactly what I needed!
Russ Thanks so much for doing these videos! I really had a light bulb moment with this one and went to range after watching and hit em as well as I ever have. Once again you have shown me something that will improve my game!
I worked on this move today at the range and my fade turned into straight to a nice draw along with more ball speed hence longer shots. The other thing I noticed is the ball was more square on face of the club. Thank you!
Russell the chest tip is the most instant fix or gratification I’ve ever had. I tried a couple of different feels using it and found it works best when firing the right side. Can’t wait to hit the driver! Can’t say it enough thank you!
Very very good video than just the talking. Learned alot from the demonstration. Nick faldo always says move your left shoulder on the downswing, this is video shows how that's achieved but adds more. Good one!!
Russell, thanks again for a useful and to-the-point instructional video. Lag is desired but hard to create. As always, your videos help me immediately. Today at the range, keeping distance on my backswing improved my contact, with less effort. But building in the chest rotation gave great results. I’m looking forward to trying this on the course, the next time I play. ( And for me, hip turn back & through are essential, as sometimes I get too focused on my hand and arm position. ) Thank you.
Wow, she's really, really come such a long way since I first started watching you teach her. It's honestly been a while since I've seen a video with her in it. It's great to see her put so much effort and work into getting better. So many people, and it seems women especially, will just give up on it and not even try. Like, I tried to get my ex wife to get into golf and let me help her learn because I knew it would help her in the struggles she was going through (mostly self induced unfortunately), but she just wouldn't do it and I really was sad over it. It just wasn't important doing something fun and athletic with me. I'm happy for you to see your wife seeing how much this kind of thing will bring yall closer together, if you let it and are grown up enough to be able to get that out of it.
This is very helpful. Thanks a bunch! Interesting when you talked about "flattening the wrist" in your lead arm at 6:45. That this may not be desirable. This seems to conflict with many other pros saying to "throttle" or roll your wrist like revving a motor bike, but I may just be confusing the 2 moves. Since I haven't been able to successfully make that move anyway I think I'll not worry about it and think more about my chest leading. Thanks again!
Very interesting video. I'm really enjoying them. I'm a (very) senior golfer who, in the past, was a serious "flipper". I've been dealing with age-related issues and seeing a dramatic loss of distance and ball-striking abilities. My lack of a complete turn has been a contributing factor to my problems. I watched your video about playing the ball more up in my stance and am going to try it in my backyard practice area. I'm assuming that this is a drill and not something that you're advocating for my everyday swing? Thank you.
Probably one of your best videos. Much for me to try out. I’m curious that you didn’t mention starting the downswing with the hips. Presumably you would need your famous recentering move in backswing? Cheers
Lag is a function of the relationship of movement between the body's core and the club, period. The hips naturally begins its forward rotation before the club begins its downward motion. This is what creates the whip that generates the head speed. This is lag. It is the same as a tennis swing, or a cricket bat swing, or a baseball bat swing, or a hockey stick swing. I rarely hear any instructor discuss the importance of core body motion initiated by the hips.
Great tip as always, very effective, swing speed and rotation immediately improved after tried this. But should we be concerned if we focus on chest/shoulder turn then we are not doing downswing ground up? Also, will this apply to driver swing? Thank you Russ!
Russell, I think you need to make a video about the last concept where you hold your angle and just turn your chest which gives you lag, distance and compression
Great advice, can’t wait to hit the range. One question, you don’t mention the lower body nor weight shift to the lead side, will this happen by rotating your chest towards the target? Thanks.
I like your videos, and have learned a lot, but my honest feedback here is when you cut away into segments with your student it felt disconnected to the narrative because I didn't know how it related to what you were saying. Probably just me being thick
I get distance from going thru the golf ball with my lead shoulder and arm. I snap my wrists thru the ball at the last second. If I try to initiated speed with my trail arm and hips I will lose distance. Does this make sense? Just wondering?
It’s hard to explain but the involving of the wrists are due to laws of physics. So when I drive my right arm and rotate my chest my hand path will cover the ball. Maybe I’ll discuss this in a future video
Great explanation. Exactly what I needed to improve on. Just tried a couple of practice shots and compressing the ball much better. Better feel. Does this differ with the driver and woods? If so, can you explain the difference. Thank you for all your instructional videos. They are very informative.
You are not considering the physics. The real goal of a wide forceful takeaway extension is to generate enough force in the club head so that when it is forced by the golfer’s body to change direction and whip up and forward - which shortens the swing arc - it does so with enough energy to lift the dead weight of the arms and wind up the shoulders around the hips stuck 45° closed by the biomechanics of the club. The physics in the downswing is the reverse. It is the increasing of the swing arc at the point GRAVITY can accelerate the club head most efficiently - i.e., less physical effort from golfer - when the lag creating in the backswing needs to be released. The golfer simply needs to learn to let the club force do the work and steer it on the ideal path which allows it to do the work most efficiently in the takeaway. Lag is created when the mass of the club head is forced to change direction in a way that forces the wrists into thumbs-up radial deviation, extension and flexion. It is also a function of how the entire left arm rotates during the swing. It first occurs optimally if the golfer uses a controlled wide, outside the hands takeaway move with good support in from the legs and body mass. The swinging club is allowed time to create the widest possible swing arc, stretching the lead arm and pulling the wrists into ulnar thumbs-up deviation which is what sets the wrists up to change 90° from full ulnar deviation to full radial deviation when the club shaft reaches parallel with the ground and can the club MASS can’t go backwards any more. So what does the club mass do? It changes direction on the path of least resistance which is - if the golfer does not have a death grip on the club - the plane defined rotation of the entire left arm and the radial-to-ulnar deviation hinging action of the wrist. The club force creates the lag automatically it the takeaway if the golfer’s takeaway path forces it to, and their wrists allow it to. 90% don’t. Why? It is more difficult to stay in balance if letting the club extend wide and their intuitive brains tell them to force the club to cock and swing it up, narrowing the swing radius, as a subconscious solution to not being pulled backwards by the club force. As as result they never feel the force of the club pulling their left arm straight and forcing the wrists to cock when the takeaway path and swing force dictate. The lag in the takeaway move, generated optimally, accelerates the club head. Any time that happens the force of the club head mass increases by the square of the velocity. If the club head is moving 2x faster after whipping up around the wrists after an extended left arm takeaway move generates 4x as much power able to pull the arms and shoulders up and around the hips. If moving 3x faster after the INVOLUNTARY extension wrist cock? 9x the force it had in the takeaway move. That is way golfers who allow the club to pull the arm straight and parallel with the ground have such effortless shoulder turns to the top of the backswing. The club force is doing all the work! At the top of the backswing lag can be further increased to the point of bending and loading the shaft of the club at the top of the backswing. That was the cause and effect Byron Nelson discovered in the 1930s when switching to metal shafted driver and observing how much the shaft could be bent and loaded like a leaf spring without breaking like a Hickory shafted club would when jerked down in the opposite direction. Again it is the physics in action. If club mass is still traveling forward at in the backswing it will resist having its direction changes if pulled down - WITH RIGHT SIDE BEND - it will force the wrist to max out in radial deviation then after that occurs it will bend the shaft of the club. The SIDE BEND move is really the magic move for creating lag. It can be executed independently from everything else happening at the top of the backswing to pull the hands down and towards the target which will then pull the wrists into maxed out radial deviation and if done forcefully enough bend the shaft. When I learned to do that side bend move like the pros I had to switch from regular to stiff shafts then extra-stiff for driver because I was bending the shafts too much. It is the side bend move which also allows the lag created at the top be maintained. How? Again the physics explains. The downswing is triggered by a lateral shift then rotation open of the hips. That action will cause the hands and the club it is holding to lag behind the hips if the shoulders simply rotate around a vertical spine. But when the golfer side bends that action pulls the hands ahead of the hips. From the standpoint of the physics the lag in the club will only be maintained for as long as the hands are moving towards the ball faster than the hips are moving. The technique needed to do that is to constantly increase right side-bend throughout the downswing. Try initiating side bend as the hips and shoulders swing back to parallel in the downswing and keep increasing it through impact and you will get the hands moving faster than the hips though impact, sustain the lag and deliver more striking force to the ball by optimizing when the lag is released to take maximum advantage of how GRAVITY accelerates MASS. Again it is the physics that explains the ideal point in the swing to start releasing the lag.
Sounds like the ol" Over the Top my friend. Russel might have different advice, but without seeing ur swing thats my guess. Just rotating ur chest can create this. There's a tad more involved.
my right ear sure enjoyed this
😂 sorry I’ve now solved this issue for future videos
Fantastic video. I've just tried it in the garden with plastic balls and using a pitching wedge and a driver, it's a magic transformation and makes the swing much easier to perform. I have never seen the swing described so well.
Awesome
This is an excellent explanation! I now understand lag and width better. I thought I knew, but this gives me something to work on.
Russell, brilliant instruction as usual and thank you for including your student. This is long but there is a request at the end. I am a big study of Ben Hogans swing. Your videos on lower body rotation had a massive impact on my progress recently. 2 feels I take from Mr Hogan - both elbow feel like the are attached at the upper hip. And in the downswing the lead arm presses against my chest from the rotational forces you beautiful explain in a way Mr. Hogan didn't. Ok, when I combined all this with your message of do not drop the arms, and really adhere those concepts above, well, I couldn't return the club head to and through the ball with any consistency. I went back and looked at Mr. Hogan and tried to achieve that impact position - i found that side bend is necessary and a rotation of the wrists and lead arm from the elbow to the shoulder, when this is done as one cohesive unit, and while maintaining the bend in the trail wrist until release. Lag is maintained, and the right elbow and shoulder is pulled down. All this has the appearance of knuckles rolling under as you get into impact, and of course the hips are really open from rotation. I found this to capitalize on those rotational forces and whip the club head right through to the finish. Much like what I see in your student. You don't see that whip with the vast majority of amateur swings. I hope I am clearly explaining this so far. What I see as a problem is there is such a fine line when the trail elbow and therefore the lead arm (since they are working as 1 unit), a fine line between being pulled down and dropping down. Rotational forces in the lower body are key and must not stall, but there seems to be a rotational force in the upper core of the shoulder. When I harness it, it really adds to the hip rotation and keeps everything moving to harness more even power with less effort. I had to go and study the anatomy of the shoulder for me to see why it's so challenging it to create rotational forces. And I looked at other sports like discus and javelin. Ok, I will stop here. Thanks for getting through to my request. Pleased do a segment on creating rotational forces of the shoulders and how to sequence them with the rotation of the hips.
Exactly the video I needed thank you! I compress my right elbow in the backswing and then it launches out too soon during the downswing. I always feel stuck. Keeping the right elbow wide during the takeaway and bringing it in later during the downswing is exactly what I needed!
Russ Thanks so much for doing these videos! I really had a light bulb moment with this one and went to range after watching and hit em as well as I ever have. Once again you have shown me something that will improve my game!
I worked on this move today at the range and my fade turned into straight to a nice draw along with more ball speed hence longer shots. The other thing I noticed is the ball was more square on face of the club. Thank you!
Russell the chest tip is the most instant fix or gratification I’ve ever had. I tried a couple of different feels using it and found it works best when firing the right side. Can’t wait to hit the driver! Can’t say it enough thank you!
Awesome, thanks for sharing
Awesome Russell. Beautifully explained.
I think I was just getting stuck on my down swing, The rotating of my chest has really really changed my ball striking. Thank you very very much. 👏
Very very good video than just the talking. Learned alot from the demonstration. Nick faldo always says move your left shoulder on the downswing, this is video shows how that's achieved but adds more. Good one!!
Russell, thanks again for a useful and to-the-point instructional video. Lag is desired but hard to create. As always, your videos help me immediately. Today at the range, keeping distance on my backswing improved my contact, with less effort. But building in the chest rotation gave great results. I’m looking forward to trying this on the course, the next time I play. ( And for me, hip turn back & through are essential, as sometimes I get too focused on my hand and arm position. )
Thank you.
Wow, she's really, really come such a long way since I first started watching you teach her. It's honestly been a while since I've seen a video with her in it. It's great to see her put so much effort and work into getting better. So many people, and it seems women especially, will just give up on it and not even try. Like, I tried to get my ex wife to get into golf and let me help her learn because I knew it would help her in the struggles she was going through (mostly self induced unfortunately), but she just wouldn't do it and I really was sad over it. It just wasn't important doing something fun and athletic with me. I'm happy for you to see your wife seeing how much this kind of thing will bring yall closer together, if you let it and are grown up enough to be able to get that out of it.
I love this comment and thank you for the support. However this is Lynn not Anna 😂. If Anna was swinging like this I would be booking golf holidays
This is very helpful. Thanks a bunch!
Interesting when you talked about "flattening the wrist" in your lead arm at 6:45. That this may not be desirable. This seems to conflict with many other pros saying to "throttle" or roll your wrist like revving a motor bike, but I may just be confusing the 2 moves.
Since I haven't been able to successfully make that move anyway I think I'll not worry about it and think more about my chest leading.
Thanks again!
Yes I wouldn’t worry about the wrists too much
This is great! I love the way you incorporated an actual lesson into the video topic, and it all made sense while being very helpful! A+++
Very interesting video. I'm really enjoying them. I'm a (very) senior golfer who, in the past, was a serious "flipper". I've been dealing with age-related issues and seeing a dramatic loss of distance and ball-striking abilities. My lack of a complete turn has been a contributing factor to my problems. I watched your video about playing the ball more up in my stance and am going to try it in my backyard practice area. I'm assuming that this is a drill and not something that you're advocating for my everyday swing? Thank you.
I have a number of students who play the golf ball further forward 👍🏻
Thanks for sharing your wonderful explanations.
Probably one of your best videos. Much for me to try out. I’m curious that you didn’t mention starting the downswing with the hips. Presumably you would need your famous recentering move in backswing? Cheers
Didn’t want to loose focus on the width
Again Great Stuff!!!
I’ll work on the Chest First more!
My Arms want to Go after the Ball way to Fast
Thanks Again
👍🏻
I think the adage of KISS comes to mind. Excellent video Russell. Thanks.
Lag is a function of the relationship of movement between the body's core and the club, period.
The hips naturally begins its forward rotation before the club begins its downward motion.
This is what creates the whip that generates the head speed.
This is lag.
It is the same as a tennis swing, or a cricket bat swing, or a baseball bat swing, or a hockey stick swing.
I rarely hear any instructor discuss the importance of core body motion initiated by the hips.
Great tip as always, very effective, swing speed and rotation immediately improved after tried this. But should we be concerned if we focus on chest/shoulder turn then we are not doing downswing ground up? Also, will this apply to driver swing? Thank you Russ!
No I wouldn’t worry about this too much and yes apply to driver too
Well presented the lag concept 👍
Russell, I think you need to make a video about the last concept where you hold your angle and just turn your chest which gives you lag, distance and compression
Great advice, can’t wait to hit the range. One question, you don’t mention the lower body nor weight shift to the lead side, will this happen by rotating your chest towards the target? Thanks.
Yes can do I do my feel much benefit comes from thinking of separation
I like your videos, and have learned a lot, but my honest feedback here is when you cut away into segments with your student it felt disconnected to the narrative because I didn't know how it related to what you were saying. Probably just me being thick
👍🏻
4.54 is brilliant, the aha moment for me! 💡
Awesome
I get distance from going thru the golf ball with my lead shoulder and arm. I snap my wrists thru the ball at the last second. If I try to initiated speed with my trail arm and hips I will lose distance. Does this make sense? Just wondering?
Yep this is fine
Hi Russ. In your demonstration of chest rotation at 3:57 your hands are far too high for the club to get to the ground. Can you explain please.
It’s hard to explain but the involving of the wrists are due to laws of physics. So when I drive my right arm and rotate my chest my hand path will cover the ball. Maybe I’ll discuss this in a future video
Awesome. Thank you!
Great explanation. Exactly what I needed to improve on. Just tried a couple of practice shots and compressing the ball much better. Better feel. Does this differ with the driver and woods? If so, can you explain the difference. Thank you for all your instructional videos. They are very informative.
No it’s the same
Another good lesson Russ - great stuff!!
Fantastic video!!
Does trail shoulder addiction and external rotation occur simply as a result of chest rotation ?
No I don’t believe so, two separate moves but need to work together
You are not considering the physics. The real goal of a wide forceful takeaway extension is to generate enough force in the club head so that when it is forced by the golfer’s body to change direction and whip up and forward - which shortens the swing arc - it does so with enough energy to lift the dead weight of the arms and wind up the shoulders around the hips stuck 45° closed by the biomechanics of the club. The physics in the downswing is the reverse. It is the increasing of the swing arc at the point GRAVITY can accelerate the club head most efficiently - i.e., less physical effort from golfer - when the lag creating in the backswing needs to be released. The golfer simply needs to learn to let the club force do the work and steer it on the ideal path which allows it to do the work most efficiently in the takeaway.
Lag is created when the mass of the club head is forced to change direction in a way that forces the wrists into thumbs-up radial deviation, extension and flexion. It is also a function of how the entire left arm rotates during the swing. It first occurs optimally if the golfer uses a controlled wide, outside the hands takeaway move with good support in from the legs and body mass. The swinging club is allowed time to create the widest possible swing arc, stretching the lead arm and pulling the wrists into ulnar thumbs-up deviation which is what sets the wrists up to change 90° from full ulnar deviation to full radial deviation when the club shaft reaches parallel with the ground and can the club MASS can’t go backwards any more. So what does the club mass do? It changes direction on the path of least resistance which is - if the golfer does not have a death grip on the club - the plane defined rotation of the entire left arm and the radial-to-ulnar deviation hinging action of the wrist.
The club force creates the lag automatically it the takeaway if the golfer’s takeaway path forces it to, and their wrists allow it to. 90% don’t. Why? It is more difficult to stay in balance if letting the club extend wide and their intuitive brains tell them to force the club to cock and swing it up, narrowing the swing radius, as a subconscious solution to not being pulled backwards by the club force. As as result they never feel the force of the club pulling their left arm straight and forcing the wrists to cock when the takeaway path and swing force dictate.
The lag in the takeaway move, generated optimally, accelerates the club head. Any time that happens the force of the club head mass increases by the square of the velocity. If the club head is moving 2x faster after whipping up around the wrists after an extended left arm takeaway move generates 4x as much power able to pull the arms and shoulders up and around the hips. If moving 3x faster after the INVOLUNTARY extension wrist cock? 9x the force it had in the takeaway move. That is way golfers who allow the club to pull the arm straight and parallel with the ground have such effortless shoulder turns to the top of the backswing. The club force is doing all the work!
At the top of the backswing lag can be further increased to the point of bending and loading the shaft of the club at the top of the backswing. That was the cause and effect Byron Nelson discovered in the 1930s when switching to metal shafted driver and observing how much the shaft could be bent and loaded like a leaf spring without breaking like a Hickory shafted club would when jerked down in the opposite direction. Again it is the physics in action. If club mass is still traveling forward at in the backswing it will resist having its direction changes if pulled down - WITH RIGHT SIDE BEND - it will force the wrist to max out in radial deviation then after that occurs it will bend the shaft of the club.
The SIDE BEND move is really the magic move for creating lag. It can be executed independently from everything else happening at the top of the backswing to pull the hands down and towards the target which will then pull the wrists into maxed out radial deviation and if done forcefully enough bend the shaft. When I learned to do that side bend move like the pros I had to switch from regular to stiff shafts then extra-stiff for driver because I was bending the shafts too much.
It is the side bend move which also allows the lag created at the top be maintained. How? Again the physics explains.
The downswing is triggered by a lateral shift then rotation open of the hips. That action will cause the hands and the club it is holding to lag behind the hips if the shoulders simply rotate around a vertical spine. But when the golfer side bends that action pulls the hands ahead of the hips. From the standpoint of the physics the lag in the club will only be maintained for as long as the hands are moving towards the ball faster than the hips are moving. The technique needed to do that is to constantly increase right side-bend throughout the downswing.
Try initiating side bend as the hips and shoulders swing back to parallel in the downswing and keep increasing it through impact and you will get the hands moving faster than the hips though impact, sustain the lag and deliver more striking force to the ball by optimizing when the lag is released to take maximum advantage of how GRAVITY accelerates MASS. Again it is the physics that explains the ideal point in the swing to start releasing the lag.
Thank you for bringing rotation into the lag discussion. If you don’t rotate properly, game over...
Great video, as always.
When I rotate my chest I end up hitting a pull/ hook or a slice? What am I doing wrong?
Sounds like the ol" Over the Top my friend. Russel might have different advice, but without seeing ur swing thats my guess. Just rotating ur chest can create this. There's a tad more involved.
Get shallow and hit from the inside out. If you're right handed feel like you're going to hit way right
Jon main the Facebook group it’s in the description
Hey Russel, for some reason this video is only mixed through he Right audio channel, Left is getting 0%
Sorry
Thank you very much
should her right leg be straightening that much on the backswing?
It’s depends how tilted the pelvis is and how much rotation had occurred
Good.
Coaches always tell me to keep my back to the target longer....this is the exact opposite. What do you think of their advice?
I think it really depends on what your fault is. If your a little “spinney” then this would be fine advice
aren't all of hers starting at 4:10 sound thin?....
Hips before Hands
Wow. Light bulb moment
What is up with the audio?
Sorry I’ve now realised what I was doing wrong
You need to fix your volume!
Sorry now figured out problem
Think lacrosse. You're going to sling the ball toward the target.