Got a good question from Nancy. She asks, or starts out by saying, “The shorter backswing is helping my game and preserving my back. One question. Sometimes when I get to the top of the swing my wrists still flop back a little before the downswing, even though I am attempting to keep them firm. I know this causes loss of power. Any suggestions?”
I have plenty of suggestions. The first one's going to be that ladies, as we know, are not quite as strong as men, especially in the hands, forearms and upper torso. So it becomes even more critical when one is lacking in strength and/or has arthritis which is affecting your strength, to really make sure that the grip pressure that's in your fingers, squeezing upward into your palms, and into your wrists and forearms. Make it as firm and solid. Your goal is from take away to the top of the backswing and all the way to impact and into the finish, you never feel a change in that firmness.
I think one of the most important aspects of this that everyone overlooks is because of one of the philosophies of golf instruction that has been around for as long as I've been playing golf, and we know that's going back almost 50 years now. Your lower hand, right for right handers, left for left handers, is the hand that causes casting the club at the top.
Why does it cast at the top? Because once you've lost the club and it's fallen downward and you start to pull it upward to change direction you're actually throwing the club away from the ball. It wants to keep going that way until you stop it. Remember, a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. The outside force is you, the golfer. At some point the brain says, whoa, we've got a problem. The club is going towards the sky and the ball's on the ground! I've got to stop it!
So what do you do? You always grab the club with the lowest hand because that's the one closest to the clubhead. That's where all the feelings of casting the club come from.
That will never happen of you never lose the club. The number one way to never lose the club is to use your right hand or left hand, that lower hand, to control the club. Empower yourself, use that lower hand. Heck, if you're a right hander, you right hand is your dominant hand. If you're a lefty, your left hand is your dominant hand. Use it!
But what has golf instruction been saying for as long as anybody can remember? “Oh, that's a bad hand. Don't use it. Hold it like a baby bird. Swing it with the other hand.” No. It's two hands. Equal pressure, equal speed, equal force, equal everything. Use it. That's the best way to control the club at the top. Because if you're not really using that bottom hand it can actually pull the club down, which means it can pull it and throw it back up.
So engage the bottom hand, maintain the firmness, especially for controlling the club at the top of the transition, and I think you won't see the problem of losing the club at the top.
I want to give a well done to Robert Meade who answered Nancy's question with two points and he hit it right on the head. First he said that it's very likely she's not keeping it vertical enough and it's getting laid off. Correct, that could be one of the issues. You've got to keep it vertical. Number two, he said think of locking down on the firmness of the wrists more and strengthen your hands, squeezing a ball, things like that.
Again congratulations, Robert, you hit the nail right on the head with both of your answers.
The Surge!