Why You Need This:

Have you been told to pull through impact? Do you feel like your hands are tight as you hit the ball? Are you getting tired of being out-driven by guys that are weaker, slower, and less athletic than you?

What if I told you that swing speed is less about strength and more about using the club as a lever.

I will go over the secrets to golf swing acceleration, and give step by step progression on how to turn your club into a giant lever.

What's Covered: How to turn you club into a giant lever to release your lag for speed.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:52

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. I’m Clay Ballard with Top Speed Golf and today we’re going to talk about how to properly release the golf club to get more speed.

I know you all want to out drive your friends.

I’ll tell you what, when I out drive somebody, especially if it’s somebody that I play with a lot, maybe a lawn player, if I get 10 or 20 yards by them, I feel great.

It’s a great feeling, I think everybody should have that feeling, and we’re going to work on that today by releasing the club with a lot more speed.

And we’re going to talk about how you actually turn up the butt end of the club as you’re coming through contact which allows the club to release, and there’s three separate motions that are going to allow you to do this.

So if you want more speed, let’s go ahead and get started.

All right, so as we’re releasing the club, this is where the speed actually happens.

Prior to this, we’re going to be creating lag in the down swing.

So we’re creating an angle between the forearms and the club shaft, and we’re actually increasing this angle as we’re starting down.

As soon as we max this out, we don’t want to hold it, we’re actually going to release it at that point to get the speed.

So it’s really, really crucial to do this in the proper manner, and it really comes down to one thing I think people can really focus on that allows for speed, is creating a pendulum at the end of the club.

The very tip of the club, and actually turning this back up toward the center of your body so the club can be released down and through.

Sounds pretty complicated, it’s actually really, really easy.

So first let’s talk about what the pendulum comes from.

So if you could imagine I’m swinging this club, I want to create the most leverage I can with this club.

So I want my hinge in the club to be way back up here toward the tip of the club.

This is really one of the areas that you’re going to get a lot of speed from.

Imagine a driver that’s 46 inches long, is pretty much the standard today, imagine you have that long driver and then imagine you have a pitching wedge.

What’s the main reason you could swing a driver faster than a pitching wedge?

If you’re just talking about sheer speed, we’re not talking about distance, or loft, or any of that thing, but actually moving the head fast, it’s the length of the shaft.

The longer the lever I can create, the more leverage I’m going to have and the more speed I’m going to have.

So that’s the first key to this, is when I’m swinging the club I want the pressure to be in these bottom two fingers of my left hand.

So my pinky and my ring finger are going to be the pressure, and that’s where I’m creating my fulcrum, that’s where I’m creating my hinge as I’m releasing this club.

The second piece of this is as we’re coming down, as I mentioned we have lag, and this club is going to have an angle in relationship to the ball there.

As I release this club, the butt end of the club is actually going to turn back up toward the center of my body.

So at the low point it’s going to be down here, and then it’s going to begin to turn back up which allows the club to be released down and through, and creating a whip-like action.

So the butt end of your club can actually turn back up a good five or six inches as you’re coming through contact which really accelerates that golf club.

So let me explain the three motions that are happening that allow this to happen very effortlessly.

The first one here, we’re going to be using our wrist, and we’re actually going to be turning our wrist down.

So if you can imagine you take your thumb and you pull it back up like this, you’re creating an angle in your wrist.

So your golf club would be just like this, that’s called radial deviation.

As you release this, what you’re doing is you’re gripping with these bottom two fingers and you’re turning that club downward, that’s called ulnar deviation.

So as you’re coming through contact, if you watch my club as it’s being lagged, as it has a lot of lag here, as the club is released it’s going to turn back up and I’m having ulnar deviation.

So my wrists is going from here, and it’s turning down like this as the club is rotating on through.

It’s going to be in full ulnar deviation as I’m at the full release point here 45° past.

So that’s the piece, I actually want to feel like I’m turning my wrist up like this as I’m coming through contact, and that’s going to allow me to really accelerate the club.

The second piece has to do with my weight shift.

You guys have probably heard of ground force reaction, a lot of people are talking about this, but it’s really widely misunderstood.

The reason we have to have ground force reaction, the reason we want to be driving up and really driving into this left leg, is so that we can be putting pressure into the ground and helping turn this club back up toward our center.

As we move the butt end of the club toward our center, that’s going to allow it to be released down.

So here’s how we do that. As you’re starting your down swing, as you’re creating lag, your legs are going to bend a little bit and I’m going to feel some pressure to go into my inside of my left ankle.

As my hips are going, my hips are unwinding, I’m starting to get closer and closer to impact, now I’m going to feel like I’m planting into my left leg and I’m driving into the ground.

So I’m going to feel like if there was something small under my left ankle, I would really be pressing that into the ground on the inside of my ankle, and that’s also going to help you to turn the butt end of the club up.

Now the third piece to this, is the left shoulder.

As I’m releasing the club, my left shoulder is actually turning in behind my body as my club is releasing and it’s allowing the club to be released with a lot of speed.

So as I’m coming through contact, my shoulders are going to be pretty level, and then as I’m continuing to go on through as I’m driving the left side, as my hand is turning down, my left shoulder is going to be turning up.

We talk about that in the compression line, and our spine tilt, this shoulder’s angled back, and as that continues to angle back, that’s really going to allow me to accelerate the club through there.

So I want you to go really slow, do 100 repetitions of each of these motions.

Do 100 repetitions focusing on the wrist, turning back up, really feeling that club whip.

Do 100 feeling like you’re driving your left ankle into the ground as you’re releasing the club, and if we can pause here in the full release to really get a feel for that.

And do 100 feeling like you’re turning your left shoulder back up as you’re coming through, and that’s also going to help you to really get the feeling.

100 repetitions of each of these motions, then you’re going to do 100 repetitions tying all three of them together.

Then you’re going to be ready to go hit some golf balls.

So good luck to you guys, go practice hard, and I’ll see you all soon.