Driving and the setting of the wrist

Hey guys,
About a month ago I was stuggling with my drives sumwhat so I changed my swing slightly...I started setting my wrist as early as i could and swinging very smoothly...I hit the ball great for about 3 weeks but this past weekend I lost my confidence...I will be at the range today so should I stick with an early setting of the wrist, or go back to a more natural setting with a long takeaway?

w/e suggestions I get that is all I am going to work on today...thanks for the input and ideas

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There are two types of criticism. They type you agree with, and the type you wont let yourself believe.

Whether either are helpfull is up to our own stubborness

I am not a big fan of the early wrist set. The golf swings needs to be repeatable, once you start consciously manipulate things in it, it is very hard to do that the same way, day in and day out. My opinion is to work more on a relaxed natural swing, try not to force things, work on tempo. Then pay attention to your ball flight, if it is not doing what you want it to do, setup changes need to be made, if you have to think about doing anything during a swing, consistancy is going to be very hard to maintain.

Anything you do naturally is going to done the same way every time. Think Jim Fuyrk, or Lee Trevino, could they with work get a more traditional swing, probably, but I don't think they would be pros anymore, just good golfers, they learned early not to fight their natural moves, they just adapted their setup to produce the shot they wanted.

hi gonavy
lee trevino is one of the best ball strikers ever and i have often wondered why no one had tried to copy his style as it does seem to be a straight forward way to hit a ball, i mean swing out and back then shift the hips and swing from inside to out and push the ball rather than swing around, i have tried his system and it works i just dont see anyone else ever trying it. what do you think?.
thanks
bill

the early wrist set feels natural to me now, since i have been doing it for quite a while...I just need to know if it would be to my benefit to go ahead and change that...with how much golf i play a week is long enough for me to make a change like that and feel comfortable doing it

Absolutely, it is great way, just not for everyone. Even Lee had a problem with setup, ball back in the stance didn't look right to him, so, he incorporated that little shuffle in his preshot, that effectively moved the ball back before he swung. In other words he adapted. You still have to follow some basics, ball contact, weight moving forward at impact, club face at impact, etc... Now having said that, each person needs to find a way to get there naturally, the biggest problem with golf today is the average joe attempting to do what they see a pro do naturally, some people physically can not get thier body to do those things, so why try. Instead study why the ball does certain things and adapt YOUR setup and swing to achieve the correct basics and forget trying to get into all these positions and early wrist cock, lag, etc...it is just not going to happen or not with any consistancy at any rate.

Sam Snead said it best, there is no secret to golf, if you hit a 1000 balls a day for thirty days, you will figure out how to hit a ball. Not saying to go and do that, but I am saying forget all these position, go out and make some adjustment until you begin to hit fairly consistantly, then forget about the swing and start playing golf to your strenghts, only hit shots you know you can hit. Learn what adjustments you need to make, using your swing to make the ball do what you want on the range, when you get consistant at it, then take it to the course. This give you more tools/option for your course management.

I think you a making a very valid point, but it still does not address the question I have about whether I should continue the early wrist cock or would it be more beneficial to alter this technique...btw I shoot in the low 70s but did not feel the control I like in my driver this weekend. I just want to know what would benefit my swing in the long run, I think my early wrist setting may have just been a temporary solution to something else I had going on in my swing. Ill try to post a video as soon as possible...maybe that will help more

__________________
There are two types of criticism. They type you agree with, and the type you wont let yourself believe.

Whether either are helpfull is up to our own stubborness

I don't know if you should or should not cock your wrist, what I am saying is ...if you have to make your wrist do something during the swing, you will have to make some other compensating move to correct that, because it will change your swing, and it will be difficult to do that consistantly.

Try this , take a ball and throw it, now take another ball and try and throw doing something funny with your elbow, or turn one foot at an odd angle, what ever...it will be very hard to throw the ball in the same direction as the first, but when you relax and just do your normal throwing motion it happens very consistantly without much thought, and goes pretty much the same way as the first throw. Golf is no different, you need that consistant motion and an address/ball position that complements that motion... swing harder, or changing that motion... will and should neccesseitate a different address or ball position...it is just that simple. More then likely when you made that wrist cock change, you slowed down just enough thinking about it, that the address setup complemented that swing, once you got used to it, you went back to a fast motion or slide back to an old natural movement, and your setup was no longer valid.

that might be true I may have my tempo messed up...I will start by checking setup and go from there
thanks

I'm always looking for drills to maintain the right wrist angle of the right hand. Golfone, do you have any?

Missed replying but wanted to; been playing too much.
I am a fan of early wrist hinge, I rationalize it this way, getting the wrist hinge out of the way early is one less thing that can go wrong in the swing.
I personally like the feel and it seems natural to just move from that point of early wrist hinge where the shaft is pointing down the target line, to a full turn of the shoulders. Easy to do and then just drop everything back down into place.
I like taking two wedges and practicing early wrist hinge, it adds flexibility to the hands and wrists and after doing 3 sets of 15 reps, taking an iron or driver in hand feels so light and easy.