Understanding What Wrist Hinge In The Golf Swing Is

Golf Monthly

In this video, PGA Professional Katie Dawkins explains how to use wrist hinge more effectively in the golf swing.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Katie Dawkins. I am an advanced PGA professional and I'm here at West Hill Golf

00:08Club today to talk to you about wrist hinge in the golf swing. Wrist hinge is where we get power

00:15from. Imagine for example that you had a flat pebble. I'm going to skim it across a beautiful

00:21mill pond like I used to do as a kid. I'm going to first of all hinge my wrist like this. I'm

00:26going to wind everything up and the last thing I'm going to do is unhinge my wrist to get that

00:31lovely bouncing across the water. If we didn't hinge our wrist to skim that stone, you imagine that.

00:38Imagine flat pebble skimming a stone. I'm going to have to hurl myself into the drink to actually

00:44gain any sort of power at all and the pebble is probably just going to go plop. So wrist hinge

00:49in the golf swing is where power is created and club head speed.

00:56So what actually happens in the golf swing? Where do the wrist actually hinge from? The club moves

01:02away, club and arms move away together and the wrist will start hinging, almost giving you a thumbs

01:07up feeling at this point here. You can see I've created a lovely L shape between my club shaft

01:13and my arm and what's going to happen from there depending on my own mobility is I'm just going to

01:18wind myself up to the top of my back swing. Some people wind up a bit like John Rahm, some people

01:24wind up a lot like Rory McIlroy. How much you wind up, it's not a competition. The most important

01:30thing when it comes to power in the golf swing is that wrist set and for ladies especially if there's

01:36no wrist hinge early on in the golf swing and in fact there's no wrist hinge at all your club's going

01:42to hinge from somewhere and it generally tends to be here. You over swing and you lose power. So from

01:49this lovely L-shaped position that you have here all that really is required after that is a wind up to

01:56the top of the backswing. Because the wrists are set properly here they're likely to unhinge at the

02:01right point giving you a bit of a crack of the whip through the ball and giving you tons and tons of

02:07power and fizz especially in your iron play.

02:09A lot of ladies that struggle with this wrist hinge generally tend to have the club in the wrong

02:18position in the hand so it's worth going and getting a bit of a lesson just on your fundamentals

02:22to check whether the source of the problem is from holding the club in the wrong place. A lot of the

02:27time they tend to hold it more in the palm and it needs to be in the fingers. This frees the hand up

02:32and creates that lovely hinge and then of course that lovely whoosh of power through the ball.

02:37If you're hinging the wrist well the golf game will feel a lot easier. It's efficient power. It's a way

02:45of actually creating a good bit of fizz through the ball and getting a good bit of distance without

02:50busting it down there. We've all played against those players where you think golly they don't

02:56look like they're going to hit it very far. They step up with a little bit of a hockey swing and smack it

03:00out of sight with a swing that goes from here to here and that is in fact a kind of drill that you

03:05could practice on the range. Just little seven irons off a tee going from L through to L like so

03:14and what you'll find there is you start to get a bit more height with your irons and a little bit

03:19more distance as well. So if you've got a decent set of the wrists your swing is more efficient and

03:26a more efficient swing means that you're going to last longer out on the golf course hitting more

03:30decent shots and who doesn't want to hit lots of decent shots during a round of golf. If you are

03:35somebody who gets a bit tired midway through the round then the likelihood is that you're not hinging

03:40these wrists and you're doing what we talked about with the pond at the beginning which is throwing

03:44yourself at that golf ball to generate some form of power. So what I'd recommend go and get a lesson

03:51get them to check your grip. If the grip's in the good place just soften it off a little bit

03:56because if you're squeezing the life out of this club you're not going to be able to get that wrist

04:01hinge happening. So softer hands L to L and you'll start seeing those iron shots really get a decent

04:09strike on them.

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