2.3 Automatic Golf Swing Release

Why You Need This:

Do you struggle with a slice? Do you feel like no matter what you do, you just can’t release the golf club?

You may be surprised to find out there may be some hidden forces making it nearly impossible for you to release the golf club and get that pretty draw you are seeking.

If you want to learn a motion that will allow for the automatic golf swing release, you are in the correct spot.

 

What's Covered: How coming down a little inside the swing plane, will allow the club to kick to the right and for the face to roll over to automatically release the golf club.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 13:27

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. Now I know some of you out there have been struggling maybe with a slice, not being able to release that club and to get that face to turn on over to hit that nice, soft draw.

Well in this video, we’re going to talk about something that’s called the automatic face release.

So we’re actually going to do a couple motions that are going to help your club face to automatically release.

And we’re going to talk about how to do that in the straight line release and pair everything up so you can get that nice draw, get that club face to release, pick up some speed, pick up some compression, and really start hitting that buttery smooth draw.

So if that sounds interesting to you, let’s go ahead and get started.

Now whenever we’re releasing the golf club, what we want to have happen is in the down swing, let’s pretend that I’m lined up in this direction and toward the blue flag that you see directly ahead.

Now in the down swing, as I’m about half way down, is my club is parallel with this line, I would like for my face to be straight up and down.

That’s going to be in an open position from where it will be coming through contact.

You’ll see this with all good players, in the down swing that face is going to be toe up as the club’s getting parallel to the ground.

As I rotate on through to contact, now that face is going to be square as I have compression, I’m hitting this ball.

Then as I come on through, now my face is going to be rolling closed as I’m coming on through and now the face is straight up and down as I’m about parallel coming on through to the finish.

It will actually be closing a little bit harder, and you’ll see with most top pros if you watch a lot of slow-motion footage, that the face is a little past being vertical, it’s actually closed a little bit more as it’s coming on through.

Now the reason for this is a couple things. Number one, it’s speed.

So whenever our club releases, as this hosel, you know, stays fairly still. It’s moving with the club shaft. The toe is going to be releasing and moving a lot faster than the hosel of the club.

So the toe of the club can move as much as 20 miles an hour faster than the hill of the club, that’s about 8 miles an hour faster, and we’re talking about the driver here, but 8 miles an hour faster in the center.

That’s 24 yards with perfect launch conditions, so that’s a big difference if you’re not releasing that club, you’re going to lose a lot of speed.

Number two, is it’s a lot easier to swing this way.

We can actually be more consistent if we let this club release, because we let the club do the work, we let this automatically happen and we don’t have to force it with our hands.

To do this, there’s something that we talk about called the speed trail, where the club and our force that we’re putting in the club is always going to be leading, and the mass of the club is going to be trailing behind.

Now it sounds really complicated, I’ve got a great way to break this down for you, it’s going to be really, really easy here, and it will start to make a lot of sense.

So let’s imagine that I’m going to be pulling this club directly toward my ball.

This isn’t going to be a golf shot, we’re just talking kind of general idea here.

If I pull this club directly toward my ball, and I’m putting force in the handle which is how I swing the club, that’s the only place I can put force into the club is in the handle where I’m holding on, and I’m going to pull it straight toward this golf ball.

Well the club head, or the center of mass, is going to track right with that golf ball. So I’m going to go up here just so I can make sure that you can see this.

So the mass, center of mass, center of gravity in the club head is up there. I’m putting force directly toward my target, and that’s going to trail right along behind with it.

So my club is just going to trace right with that. But what happens when my club gets a little bit to the inside of this?

So now let’s imagine my club head to the inside, and I’m going to pull – let me go back here so I make sure you guys can see that on camera – I’m going to pull directly toward my target.

Since the center of mass is behind that, watch what happens, it starts to try to line up.

It always wants to line up with the direction that I’m pulling the club, and that the club head, the center of mass of the club head, is going to kick out to the right.

As this happens, the face also wants to share to release as we’re coming through there.

As long as my club head is a little bit under my swing plane, which we’ll get to in a minute, it’s going to automatically want to release as I’m coming through contact.

Now for those of you that are struggling with the slice, the opposite is happening.

If I’m coming over the top, and now my club head is outside the swing plane, again we’ll go over that in a minute.

My club head’s going to want to be falling back and the face is going to want to be opening up like this. Let me demonstrate this for you.

I’m again, instead of having my club inside, now I’m going to be pulling straight toward my target there, now my club head’s going to be outside of this, and watch what happens when I pull this way.

Now the club head wants to kick this way.

So if you’ve been struggling with a slice or an over the top move, what’s been happening is you’re club has been getting outside, then as you’re releasing this club, as this club is coming through contact, it’s actually falling back in which is slowing it down.

It’s falling away from the target, and the club face is opening up instead of releasing out and rotating on through.

So now let’s go to the second part of this video where I talk about swing plane, I give you a couple easy drills to feel this, and I’m going to start to hit some draws, and we start to get that club face to automatically release.

So first let’s go ahead and talk about the swing plane.

The way we’re going to measure this is what I call the elbow plane.

We won’t get into the details of why we do it this way, but you don’t actually swing on the plane of the shaft.

There’s a lot of mass in the club head that’s going to be pulling this shaft more vertical as you’re swinging down.

So when I want to measure my swing plane, I’m going to line the camera up down the toes and toward the target.

Down to my toe line, about waist high toward the target, and I’m going to draw a line from the hosel of the club to the bottom of my elbow as I’m setting up for address.

As I draw that line, as you’ll see here, that’s going to be my swing plane.

So if I’m delivering the club on plane, I’m going to stay parallel with this throughout the swing. I’m going to come down roughly on that swing plane, and then exit on that swing plane too, which is going to allow me to be very consistent.

In reality, if we really want to talk about how to get this thing to automatically release, you actually want to be slightly under the swing plane.

Let me go over again why this matters, and how we can actually do a drill doing this.

You will need to use your camera to check this out, but this will make a world of difference if you ever struggle with the slice.

So if I’m coming in the down swing, and now let’s imagine that I have my swing plane here, and if I’m underneath this swing plane slightly.

So now my club head is a little bit to the inside of that swing plane that I just drew there, as my club is coming down, well now my force, the direction I’m putting force with the club, is going more down and toward my target.

This club head is automatically going to kick out and the face of the club is automatically going to roll on through, right?

Because whenever we got inside the swing plane, so if this was a straight line, if we’re inside of that, if I pull the direction of my target, it’s automatically going to want to kick out to the right and the face is going to want to roll on over.

Now for those of you that have been struggling with a slice, what’s been going on here, is that your club has tipped outside that swing plane, right?

And now when my hands go forward, watch what the club does.

It opens up and it goes back away from the target. So your club head speed slows down, your club face opens up, and you struggle with the slice no matter what.

So now that we know that, it’s all very, very simple.

We can go ahead and set up, what we’re going to do is I’m going to set up a ball.

Imagine I’m going to hit a ball here, and I’m going to set up something down my toe line toward my target in the distance, and then as I’m coming into the downswing, what I want you to do, is I want you to pause as you’re halfway down.

This would be basically perfectly on plane, so if I draw my swing plane there again, this would be on plane, where my club face is in line with that plane, and everything’s right in great alignment.

This is going to be a little to the inside.

So if you’re struggling with hitting a draw, you’re slicing the ball, what we’re going to work in here is you’re going to pause when your club’s parallel to the ground, and I want your club head to be very slightly, we’re talking one to two inches, inside that swing plane.

That’s what you’re going to see what a lot of pros that hit a draw, that’s where they’re going to be.

Now as you’re coming through, that face is going to kick out and it’s going to automatically roll on over.

So the opposite of that if I’m hitting a slice would be this, where my face is now outside of my hands as I’m coming down, outside that swing plane, and now the face would be rolling open like that.

So if we can do that, we’re going to pause in that position, and then we’re going to pair that up with the straight line release.

So let’s go ahead and get the ball out of the way for a couple of repetitions.

I’m going to go ahead and set up to the ball, I’m going to pause half way down, my club slightly to the inside.

I don’t want it way back here, and we’re asking to really start flipping that thing out to the right.

I want it just a little bit to the inside, and then from there, I’m going to go to my straight line release point where the ball would be four feet in front.

So here’s my target, it’s roughly going to be right there, I don’t have this perfectly lined up or anything.

But I’m going to pause as my club’s parallel, it’s a little to the inside, and then as I release, I’m going to release to that and my face I can feel that really wanting to roll on over.

Now after I feel that a few times pausing, you know take 5, 10 reps, 15 reps if you need too.

Once I feel that a few times, now I’m going to go ahead and hit some little mini chip shots and feel that face to the inside, feel my shoulders are staying back, and I’m going to really feel that turning on over and releasing as I come on through.

I’m going to hit a little 15-20 yard shot, and you can really see that thing starting to hook.

So I went a little too fast there, that was probably 30 or 40 yard shot, but you can see it start to turn right to left as I went through contact.

Now as I do that, now I’ve got the feeling of how I can automatically get that club to release.

As long as it’s inside my swing plane, that club wants to turn over and release.

So let’s go ahead and do that again, and I’m going to go a little bit easier this time, and you’re going to be able to see the ball turn over a little bit right to left.

There you go, so you can see that ball start to curve right to left.

You can see that my swing plane was from the inside, and this is on the down swing.

Doesn’t matter what you do on the back swing, this is on the down swing, so a little to the inside, and then as I come through it’s naturally going to want to turn on over.

Now we’ll go through a progression where you just build up the speed with this, and you guys will be hitting that nice draw.

So now as I speed this up, I’m just going to go a little bit faster.

So I start out going 40 or 50 yards, then I’ll go 60, 70, 100, and then all the way up to a full swing.

A couple things to keep in mind as we finish up here, number one if we’re releasing the club properly, let’s imagine I’m hitting toward the camera here.

As I get into my straight line release, that club face should be turned over about 45 degrees.

So you can see my club face angle is about 45 degrees.

If my club face is still square to the target like this, I’m holding everything open and that’s going to be a slice or a fade.

I want to go ahead and let that turn over, and that will happen pretty much automatically if I’m slightly to the inside of the swing plane as I’m coming down.

If I start to turn it over too much, then I might start to hook, and then the ball really start to turn over, that’s when you know when you’re over doing it.

So you can’t overdo this, we want to watch our ball flight, and if I start to hit shots where my club is getting quite a bit to the inside and swinging out to the right, I may start to block shots well to the right, or I may start to hook shots.

Then I know that I’m doing the right motion for a draw, I’m just doing too much of it, I want to get closer and closer to being on that plane instead of being so far to the inside, I’m just overdoing it, getting too far inside.

Conversely if I start to slice, if I’m pulling the shots to the left, if I’m hitting a big left to right fade or a slice, I know I’m getting outside that line, I need to feel like my hands, or my club head is a little bit more inside my hands as I’m doing that.

When we’re done, we’d ideally like to have that club just barely inside the swing plane as we’re coming down, and then releasing nicely as we come through.

That ball should result in a really straight shot.

I’ll go ahead and make a swing here, I’ll actually bring the ball a little bit to the inside so we can see my target line a little bit easier here.

If I can do this, I’ll be nice and consistent, I had a dead straight shot.

There we go, so that took off really straight, that was within two or three yards of my target just a two or three yard draw there, right to left.

So work on this drill, get that club face barely underneath the plane that’s going to help it automatically release.

It’s going to get rid of a lot of that forcing, and fighting, and manipulating you think you’re trying to do with the club face for those of you who are struggling with your ball flight.

Get about 100 repetitions in pausing in the positions, slightly inside, the release, the straight line release position, getting that club face to roll over about 45 degrees, and then do one of those between every single full shot, or every single progression that you hit.

So we’re going to do about 100 practice swings to start out, you can do those in your living room.

100 where we pause in that position, pause in the straight line release, and then we’re going to hit a nice little easy shot to try to ingrain that.

I’m watching my ball flight, trying to get that nice little draw shot shape in there.

Then after we’ve done that, we’re going to get up to the full swing, and we’re eventually get to where we hit 100 full swings getting the right type of curvature, and we’re either going a little bit more inside to get some more draw, or a little bit more on the plane to straighten that out.

So when you’re done with that you’re going to have some pretty good control, have your draw.

Good luck to you guys, keep up the hard work, and I’ll see you all soon.