The right arm is the 'good guy,' no matter what you've been told.
Students often come to me because they have problems with the longer irons and woods.The primary reason they have difficulty is because the longer clubs are flatter. What happens is the longer clubs, being flatter because of their length, are thus swung on a slightly flatter plane, even though we are swinging them basically as vertical as the shorter ones.
The key here is that in both the backswing lift and the forward upswing lift, the law of centrifugal force wants to keep the club on the same path through impact on through to the finish, which is lower, flatter and more tilted, due to shaft length. Add gravity in the forward swing, fighting your wanting the club to go up also adds to the dilemma of lifting the club up vertically.
Thus, in the forward swing, like in the backswing, once the club is into the mitt (parallel to the ground) the main player becomes the right hand.The right hand, the hand that everyone has been told is a “Bad Guy” because it is blamed for every handsy evil in the backswing, especially in the forward swing, is held lightly and has been trained to be passive so it won't over release.
The key to swinging vertical is that the right hand has to take over, and take over BT (Big Time) to lift the club to the vertical T Finish over the left shoulder. Once you are approaching impact, the right hand and forearm have to be activating, so once the club reaches the mitt (parallel to the ground) the hand and forearm can stop the arms and club from rotating past palms perpendicular to the ground and club, toe up, and make the club go straight up to 12:00 o'clock.
This can only happen with a strong, activated, committed and forceful right hand forcing the issue of changing the direction of the shaft off the diagonal plane into the more upright and vertical plane, both in the backswing lift and especially in the forward up swing lift.
The forward up swing change of direction and lift has to be even more forceful because of the simple fact that the upswing speed of the club is way faster than in the backswing. So, more speed needs more energy and effort to change the direction, especially up, which is going against gravity.
An image I use to show and somewhat feel this to imagine is that after impact, as you reach the mitt, you have the tree behind the mitt. (For those of you who don't have baseball as a National past time, try this. The tree is behing you, on the aiming line. There's a target with a bullseye in the center. You want the clubhead to hit the center of the bullseye, then up.)
The key is to feel that shaft, just above the clubhead, bounces off the tree trunk.This ricochets the club and arms straight up. In other words, the tree stops the club on its diagonal path to the left, which is flat, deep and wide of the shoulders, and bounces it straight up over the left shoulder to the T Finish. The right hand is still active because once the club direction is changed, we have to make sure it goes straight up and not bounce diagonally the other way.
What we are doing is swinging with active and powerful hands and arms, especially the right hand.I have a “Surgism” about swinging the club: “I must swing the club, the club does not swing me.”
When I swing a club, the club only does what I want it to do. And when it is in motion, especially in the forward up swing, you must have actively engaged arms, and forearms (especially the right) to change the plane from diagonal to more vertical. The longer the club, the more energy and emphasis needs to be applied in this vertical bounce off the tree.
So forget about the passive right hand.Energize it to do the job it has to do of forcing the club up in the vertical plane where it has to go to hit the ball solid, straight and longer.
The Surge!