Why You Need This: In this video, "Downcock and Lag in Golf"...

You'll learn how to add tons of speed to your swing.

There's really no way around it...

If you want to boost your swing speed, you'll need to create more lag.

The pros create a really sharp lag angle in their swings.

This allows them to whip the club through with club head speeds of well over 110 mph (with the driver).

In the first part of this video, you'll get a great downcock drill to learn how to properly build lag and get into the downcock position.

Many players come in way too steeply with this drill, so you'll want to see this video to learn how to shallow the club in your downswing.

Also, focus on fully releasing the club at a 45 degree angle ahead of the contact area.

Watch this video now to build lag in your swing and whip the club through with tons of speed!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:00

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, we want a lot of lag in our golf swing, that’s the key to getting tons of speed. If we can create this big sharp angle like you see the pros doing in their golf swings.

Then our hand is going to slow down, that club’s going to whip on through and we’re going to get tons of power, we’re going to be able to boom those drives out there just like we see with those real long hitters at the club that don’t weigh hardly anything.

Let’s go over a downcock drill, and it’s really going to help you with this.

Now I’ve seen this drill, you’ve probably seen a downcock drill before too, but there’s one key to this that I see a lot of people mess up and it can really devastate your game. I’m going to make sure I go over that in detail.

So number one, let’s go over what is the downcock drill. Well the first piece is going to be a nice, wide takeaway. I don’t want to set the wrist very much as I’m going to the backswing. If I’m going back, I don’t want to get a lot of what’s called radial deviation, I call that thumb up.

I don’t want to get a lot of this thumb up motion, I want to keep my wrist angled down so I’m getting a nice, wide takeaway. THIs would be wrist angled up, and that would be angled down. That would be a lot of lag, I don’t want very much lag in the takeaway.

Now from there, as I go to the top of the swing, I still don’t want to fully set my angle of lag. If I fully set it back here, my natural tendency is going to be to throw that away as soon as I start down.

I’m thinking very wide, very gradual wrist set, not a lot at the top. Then as I start my downswing, I’m going to feel like this club really lays back behind my body like I really get a good sharp angle there. Then I’m going to let it go into the straight-line release.

That’s what we talk about in the Top Speed Golf System. We’re building lag into the takeaway, halfway starting down we’re reaching our maximum lag position here when our left arm’s about parallel with the ground.

Then from there, we’re going to release that angle to where everything’s gone into our straight-line release about 45° in front.

If I’m doing this downcock drill, what I want you to do, very little wrist set going back, tons of wrist set coming down, and then go ahead and release it on out in front of the ball.

So that looks like this. Let’s start out really, really slow. Let’s go about a tenth of what your normal swing speed would be. Just like that. Make sure you have good control of the club.

I don’t want to be getting kind of flippy where it’s coming out of my hands here, I want to keep my hands in control of the club as I’m doing this. I’m going to do about 15 or 20 of those to get the feeling of that.

OK, so that’s great. Everybody’s seen that one before, or a lot of people have seen that one before, but here’s the real key. Here’s the big kicker that’s going to change if you’re doing this correctly or not.

Every single Tour pro, good ball striker out there, almost every single Tour pro that you watch is going to take this club and shallow it out slightly as they’re coming into the downswing.

Usually when I think of a downcock drill, I’m thinking about steepening this club up, and my natural tendency is going to be thinking of getting this club to come straight down toward the ground. You see the shaft is coming vertical like this.

If I’m going to do this correctly, as I’m getting more downcock, I’m also shallowing this club out. I can do this by taking my left wrist and kind of rotating it. Imagine we’re turning this grip just like we’re turning a handlebar on a motorcycle.

I’m going to rotate that until my left wrist feels a little bit bowed, and I’m also going to let that shaft kind of shallow out. You watch Sergio Garcia, it’s no coincidence he has some of the most lag on Tour. He also shallows the club the most of anybody on Tour.

Then from there as I come on through, that club’s going to want to whip through and accelerate the ball, accelerate through the ball.

So that’s the big key there. As I’m getting this downcock move, as I’m doing this portion, I’m also shallowing my club out and getting this wrist nice and flat.

I see a lot of people trying to get that extra few degrees, they let that left wrist cup like that, and now that club gets very steep rather than having that left wrist flat and shallowing it on out as we’re swinging.

So that’s what I want you to do try to do. Now the last thing I want to leave you with, is we’re not going to go more than our wrist will allow.

I want you to take your left hand out in front of your body. Go ahead and get this left wrist dead flat, no angle in it whatsoever. This would be what’s called flexion, this would be extension, completely neutral.

I want you to take your thumb upward as far as you can go. So if I’m gripping this club, this is nice and flat, and I’m going to hinge my thumb upward just as far as I can let it go.

If I’m looking from this direction, you’ll see there’s not more than 90° angle there. So that’s all you’re going to get.

The reason it looks like so much more is because if I take this 90° angle and I flatten that out, I flatten it out this way, look at what that does, what it looks like from my lag. It looks much sharper even though really it’s just 90°.

So piece number one, very little wrist set going back, we’re going to increase the lag coming down.

Piece number two, I’m going to flatten the club and bow my wrist. Then piece number three, I’m only going to go as much as my wrist will let me. That’s going to allow me to have tons of lag and really rip this ball.

There we go guys. Good luck with your golf swing, good luck with that lag.