Lateral Wrist Break (Hinge) with a rounded shoulder turn

Golf has more than enough counter-intuitive things to worry about – but here I want to discuss one of the most basic items on that list.  Ben Hogan once remarked that when you first pick up a golf club, almost EVERY instinct you have about how to use it-  is wrong!

Lateral Wrist Break

One of the biggest mistakes I made on my golf journey was to try and learn it on my own. Being fairly athletic and a somewhat reasonable tennis player, I figured this golf thing could not possibly be that hard.

Ten years later, I have learnt my lesson.

However, one thing that I did figure out a  year or so into my golfing was that I need lessons. Since then, I have worked with at least 6 different coaches – one of whom I consider my standard, go-to guy. While they all may have tried to tell me a few different things, there was one point they were all in agreement on. The wrist break. The break has to  be lateral.

This realization (that the wrist hinge is lateral) is so fundamental and earth shattering, that I believe that one’s game cannot progress without making this fundamental connection in their brain. It is this ‘hinging’ that provides the impact of the club by ‘unhinging’ during the last part of the downswing. Without the hinge – or even with an incorrect hinge – it is not possible to make square clubface contact. (Read ‘bending from the hip’ to attain correct posture before you start the backswing).

Grip – Left thumb on top of shaft

Every book you read about golf will emphasize the last three fingers of the left hand as the pressure points. That is all well and good – and no one is arguing with that. What I encountered for a good part of my golfing career was – the shaft would ‘rotate’ in my left hand – during the takeaway. Ever so slightly – it would rotate. No matter how firm my last 3 fingers (and the fleshy part of palm) held the shaft. After reviewing several grips on good players, I came to realize that they all had their left thumb directly on top of the shaft – running straight down it. This is more than a convenient measure. This left thumb pressure on top of shaft keeps the shaft from turning/rotating in your hands! The pressure applied by the thumb and the index finger below it – keeps the shaft completely in place.  And once the shaft is kept from rotating, the wrist WILL break laterally – because that is how it is designed to break. However, should even a little shaft rotation creep in, the wrist can now break in any direction – in fact WILL break inwards – rather than laterally.

So the key to achieving the lateral wrist break is to keep the shaft from rotating during the takeaway. And the key to that is to keep it under your thumb! With this grip, you should feel the back of your left wrist flattened – and pointed at the target.

Another great benefit of the grip pressure above is what it does to your left wrist. You should sense it flattened – and pointed directly at the target. Hence the wrist is parallel to the clubface – which is also pointed at the target. This is just as it should be.

Rotating Shoulders – NOT straight up arms

If your hands are to move laterally (to achieve a lateral wrist hinge), you might start thinking about taking your arms straight up across your chest. After all – straight up will achieve the lateral hand/wrist hinge. While that is true, one should not initiate the backswing with the hands or the arms. In fact, a turning of the shoulders is what is needed to get the arms and hands moving along the correct path. It seems counter-intuitive that a turning motion (shoulder) leads to a lateral one (arms and hands moving up and around) – but that is how the shoulders and arms work in conjunction.

So, instead of ‘trying’ to achieve the wrist hinge, simply turn the shoulders – and let the motion of the arms accomplish the wrist hinge.

I also remember that as a beginner, when my coaches told me about ‘letting the wrists hinge on their own’ – I got visibly frustrated. It seemed simple to understand – but difficult to accomplish. The missing link in my reasoning was that I was still thinking of initiating an ‘arms motion’ – which would end up hinging the wrists. What I should have been thinking of instead was – a ‘shoulder turn’ – resulting in moving arms – resulting in wrists hinging. The shoulder turn is the initiator (and the power) of the swing.

The Downswing – Send the grip to the ball (read this post for more details)

Assuming you have attained the wrist break correctly, what is the best way to initiate the downswing? This tip was given to be my U.S. coach (I have an ‘India’ coach – and a U.S. coach) – and it is one of the best tips I have ever heard (and few people seem to know about it). Start the downswing by sending your grip (pulling your grip) back towards the ball. This automatically shifts my hips to the right (the so called magic move) – and drops my hands in the correct slot. More importantly, it retains all the power and all the lag that I create during the backswing. MOST importantly, it gives me something to aim with! It is so easy to visualize aiming the  grip at the ball. MUCH simpler than visualizing bringing the clubface back to the ball!

The Short Game

The benefit of understanding the lateral wrist break to the short game is tremendous. Pitching, Chipping, Bunker play all become fairly straightforward.

Summary

The wrist hinge is a slightly tricky and counter-intuitive concept in golf. To figure out the correct way that your wrists should hinge, one MUST visit a golf pro. They know – and a good pro will show you the exact hinge. This wrist hinge concept is the first step to understanding the golf swing. For me, it took a certain amount of left thumb pressure to keep the shaft steady – and to attain the correct wrist hinge. Once this wrist hinge is understood, the rest is simply a matter of a shoulder turn and an automatic downswing that results from a correct shoulder turn (and resulting wrist hinge).