It’s good for your game

Timing happens for swing

By T.J Tomasi

In the consistent swing, the hands are responders, not initiators. The lower body sets up the release of the angles of power that were stored up during the backswing, removing the need for conscious timing from the equation.

Take the 90-degree angle formed by the front arm/wrist duo and the club shaft. These angles are "catchers of energy," and the emptying of the catchers is known as "the release." In a repeating swing, the release of this angle is triggered when the right side of the body runs into a posted lower left side formed by the left leg and hip.

Done correctly, there is no need to time the release because the move is timed for you by the correct use of your lower body. Imagine snapping your favorite person with a towel ― your weight hits your front foot and your arm stops abruptly, sending the snap on its way. Like the snap of the towel, the best swings require the least timing, but they also require an active lower body that moves first to start the downswing.

But understanding the release of the club and being able to do it are two different things. Release, as defined above, is the dumping of energy from the clubhead into the ball, and it can happen too early, at just the right time or too late, making the timing issue a major determiner of your swing's effectiveness. If your timing is too early or too late, your swing will be weak; if it's just right, you'll produce maximum power transfer.

I advise my students that since there is so little actual time to impact (the downswing takes less than half a second), your release cannot be left to a conscious effort. It must be a result of something else ― namely, hitting the wall established by your front leg. As shown below, the left leg forms the solid wall to hit across.

Tomasi writes for Universal UClick.