To Hinge or Not to Hinge

I always knew that an active wrist hinge, as taught in traditional golf instruction, changed the club face and was not repeatable. This wrist hinge was done only in preparation for throwing the club head at the ball for power. Well, you may get a little power from it, but for every action, there is an opposite reaction. So, essentially, hinging on the backswing leads to flipping on the downswing. The chances of timing this to produce a solid, straight golf shot are very small.

Plus, when everything is hinging at the wrists, the radius of the swing is cut in half—the length is only from the wrists to the club head. So, as my method progressed, I wanted to have a full radius at impact—the front arm in line with the shaft and leading the club head—and use the body’s rotation as the source of power. I could see this in other athletic movements, like throwing a ball.

For many years, I taught “passive hands” and “constant grip pressure.” Some of my earlier teaching mentions letting the wrists passively hinge and unhinge on their own. This was in the hope that we could remove the inconsistencies of active hinging and active unhinging. These concepts of passive hands and constant grip pressure did help improve consistency.

As time passed, many of my students still had the urge to throw the club head and struggled to stop flipping. It then dawned on me that, since we want the front arm and club shaft to form a straight line at impact, we could set up that way to begin with. Then, we could maintain that setup shape, using only the shoulders to carry the arms and club to the top of the backswing—a Steve Stricker look.

Since there would be no change in the wrists, there would be no urge to flip to return the shaft to its position in line with the front arm or to square the club face at impact. We could simply use the body to unwind, bringing the arms and club back down in front of the body and around to the left for a right-handed golfer.

Using this concept, I realized we could set up with the shaft in line with the front arm, keep the elbows close together, and set the wrists* just as we want them to be at impact. Then, we simply maintain that shape—holding the wrists in position and keeping the elbows pinched together—and use only the shoulders for the backswing. This winds the large back muscles for a ton of potential power. Then, we just use the body to unwind.

*Experiment with the amount of grip pressure. Squeeze and hold fairly tightly throughout the entire swing, and simply use your turn to trap the ball. You should hit a nice, solid shot through your body’s rotation, not your hands.