Small to most, but big to me.

Well, I've had a marvelous breakthrough.

I've struggled a lot this year with my distances. Let me qualify that. I know what my distances were with each club, but for a swing that felt smooth and efficient, I didn't seem to be getting much distance (pulling 7i from 150 yards).

I made one small change to my setup, and one change to my swing, and now I've gained 2 clubs across the board, and fantastic accuracy.

The setup change has to do with my right arm. At address, I often gave no thought to my right side, specifically my right hand and arm. Now I pay attention to it. I spent an afternoon at golfdigest.com looking at swing sequences, and noticing where the pros set their arms. Invariably their forearm and hand are pretty much straight. I used to have a bit of a cupping going on - and I've learned that I was subtracting loft because of this. After some time in front of the mirror and the video camera, I've now got a relatively flat right wrist. Oddly enough, it feels better, too.

So I take that and compound it to the following:

I now conciously set my wrists (contrary to my pro's advice) early in the swing, and conciously fire them during the swing. I will add that this approach is probably not for everyone. I only need to do it while warming up, and I seem to do it automatically from there on in. I'm sure that this forced late release is the other reason that I've gained some distance.

Viewing high-speed video of myself, I had a fairly late release (better than the average amateur), but now I've got power and accuracy (a wonderfully cupped right wrist at impact). There are times when I can sense my right hand fine-tuning the swing at impact. It's neat, because I don't normally 'feel' much during the swing.

I was really wary of trying to manipulate my hands during the swing (being a big believer in passive hands and arms) - and my biggest fear was having to 'time the swat', as Greg puts it. But either I'm doing something right, and I just think I'm controlling my wrists, or I've got incredible timing.

__________________
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter - www.pcsgep.com
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

If I understand what you're saying here, your right wrist is not cupped at setup, but is cupped at impact, is that right?

Why do you suppose not cupping the wrist at setup helps to create club head lag at impact?

My only assumption is that by having a cupped right wrist at address, it did two things for/to me.

The first was add loft. Now, I don't think I'm adding 4º (although, it'd be interesting to measure, now), but I'm sure I was giving up 1/2 club.

But the other thing the cupped right wrist did to me was limit my wrist cock. It was as though I had 'pre cocked' my wrists at address. So with the very limited wrist cock, there wasn't much 'uncocking' available. Sure, it made for some straight shots, but very little power.

Now, it seems, I've got the best of both worlds.

__________________
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter - www.pcsgep.com
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

A forward press should deloft your club....