If you imagine your wrists, arms and hands in a race to impact, who should win? The clubhead? Your arms? Your wrists? The answer is – your wrists. The clubhead should trail your wrists coming into impact, because your wrists should still be releasing from their cocked position. This can only happen properly if you created lag on the downswing. This last minute snap at impact leads to more power.
Many amateurs don’t seem to understand this concept. They make an arms-only over-the-top swing into the ball, and struggle to hit their drives over 200 yards. The wrists are so influential in the golf swing because they help set the club at the top of the backswing in the proper position which, during the downswing, will lead to a proper 'lag' position. Lag is the secret move in golf for more distance.
Watch the downswing of any professional. From the top, the first movement down is from the wrists setting the club in the classic reverse "L" position, indicative of lag. This position continues until the arms are at about 8:00. From here the wrists begin to uncock, quickly snapping the "L" into a straight line moments before impact. And as you will notice in the image to the right, my wrists pass the finish line first.
This move is the key to more distance, use this race image on the range and see if you can start developing more power and yards.
Give it a try!