Why You Need This:

In this video, “How to Use the Legs to Release the Golf Club”…

You’re going to get the answer to a question I got from a student:

“Can you really feel like you throw the club and release it straight out in front of you 45° after impact if you don’t use the lower body properly?”

That’s a great question… and he’s right on the money.

Understanding the compression line is key here…

It’s all about stabilizing the lower body and using it to release the club and provide the appropriate resistance.

If you remember Newton’s Third Law…

It says that for every action there needs to be an equal and opposite reaction…

That concept can be applied to the golf swing in a number of ways.

In this case, you need to apply force into the ground to fully release this club out in front of you…

Watch this video now to discover a great drill to help you release for maximum distance!

What's Covered: How to use the legs to get a more efficient compression line, enabling the shoulders, hips, and legs to work together to release built up lag.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 3:53

Video Transcription:

Hey guys, and welcome back. In today’s video we’re going to talk about the compression line and how to properly use the lower body to be able to release the golf club.

I’ve got a great question from Charles asking can we really throw the club, can we really feel like we release this club 45 out in front and feel like we’re letting go if we’re not using the lower body properly?

The quick answer to that is we really need to stabilize with the lower body and use that to be able to release the club and provide some resistance there.

So I’m sure you’ve all heard of Newton’s third law which is for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

That means if I want to apply force and release this club out in front, I have to have an opposing force moving back up. Here’s how this works in the golf swing, I’ve got a great drill that’s going to help teach you this.

Let’s set up beside our golf ball here, and what I’m going to do is going to simulate when our club is at its lowest point.

So as I’m starting the downswing, as my club drops down, it’s going to be…my hand, or excuse me, my hand, not the club. The grip is going to be the lowest point. My hand is going to reach the bottom of its arc as it’s about in front of my right leg.

Right around in there. At this point, my club is going to be about parallel with the ground, still have a good amount of lag built up in the golf club and in the shaft.

Now here, I need to supply some type of force, some type of action with the body, and my hands, my arms, my shoulders, everything, to be able to get this butt end of the club to turn back up into release out in front.

So if you look at my hands how they’re actually moving upward as the club is releasing out and away. We’re going to do this by starting from the ground up.

So when my club gets to the lowest point, go ahead and follow along with me in your living room if you’re doing these drills.

My club is going to get the lowest, I’m bending my legs, I feel very close to the ground here with lag. Now I’m going to feel like I’m pressing into the ground with my left ankle.

So I feel like I’m putting force, imagine there’s a stick under your left ankle, and you’re going to push into the ground and snap that stick in the ground.

What that’s going to do, is that’s going to cause my left hip, my left shoulder, and my hands to move upward.

So my hands are actually doing this motion, moving up, and the butt end of the grip, if we look at the very end of this grip, imagine there’s a laser beam shooting out of that, it’s going to turn back up in towards my body.

So it goes from pointing this way to being pointing back into the center of my body when I fully release. How fast I can change the angle of this grip is going to determine how fast my club head speed can be.

So I want you to do this drill for me. Go ahead and pause as you’re halfway down and your hands are in front of that right leg, club’s parallel to the ground. Drive into your left ankle, your hip, your shoulder, and your hand should move up as you come into the release.

Go ahead and do that about 100 times, feeling that motion, that opposing force working away from your release and it’s going to allow you to stabilize the lower body as you’re coming through.

I also want to check as I’m into my release, I want my hips to be about 45° open. I want my shoulders to be facing out toward the release point, and I’m going to do that again 100 times to really feel that action.

Now after I‘ve done that, I’m going to do the same thing, 100 full swings. Nice and easy, feeling that same force, checking to make sure that I’m in my compression line as I’m doing that.

So as I get into contact, as I’m releasing the club, my left ankle, my left hip, my left shoulder are stacked up in a nice line as they’re driving up in that opposing force.

It’s going to help you to create a lot more club head speed. 100 repetitions with the full swing with that, and then we’ll be ready to take it out there to the course. Make some nice easy swings, still get a lot of distance.

There you go, guys. Work hard on that compression line, creating that opposing force, you’re going to get more club head speed, and you’re going to have a lot more stable swing.