I've been digging on the intergoogles for drills on properly creating lag in your swing. My swing isn't bad, but I know there is some missing distance in there that many of us could probably use.

One drill I've seen is to drag the club away - take your arms back with limp wrists while the clubhead waits to follow on the way back. I thought it would be difficult to make solid contact on the downswing, but it's actually quite easy and I really can feel the snap. That said, it's going to take a lot practice to integrate that motion into my normal swing. When I do hit it well with the drill, the ball is all over the place.

Does anyone have any other drills to properly lag the club on the way through the downswing?

    Ch. out some of the vids by Clay Ballard,he's got a bunch of drills to increase lag.

      kchacker

      It's called 'lagging club head takeaway'. Golfers like Harry Vardon and Bobby Jones and others of that era did it. Jason Dufner has a touch of it in his swing. Most teachers will advise not intentionally trying to hold the angle in the downswing. A golfers release is very individual and hard to change. If you have an early release it's very difficult to change that. Lagging club head takeaway can give you the feeling of a later release, but I think you'll find it will become harder and harder to time it correctly.

      I played several rounds doing it and had some great ball striking, but like most things in golf it was short lived. There's one Tour player from South Africa (name escapes me) who plays using a very pronounced lagging club head takeaway.

        I started following these guys via YouTube a few years back. They're excellent... I love the graphics and how simple their approach is, making things very understandable. Even today I go back and watch some of their older videos because they cover just about every potential swing fault there is, about 3-4 minute YouTube segments.

        A lot of times, we have no idea why our bad shots happen. And sometimes what we think we're doing wrong is not necessarily the case. These guys do a great job explaining the why, then show you the how.

        It's called "Me and My Golf" with Piers Ward and Andy Proudman as the head instructors, they're based out of the UK.

        If you do everything else correctly, it should happen naturally.
        Should one need to think of it, any time during a golf swing, then either you don't own the swing or you're not doing it correctly. which could result in injury.

        I go to the range and think about keeping the right palm towards the sky as long as possible. Once you are to the point you can hit the ball straight while feeling like there is no way you could ever get the face straight in time you have put your body and hands in super sync and then just take some nice easy swings until you are up to full speed, the late release happens on its own and that's what lag is all about.

        make sure you have an inside path. hard to get lag without.

        Aside from all the mythology prevalent in golf teaching, lag is simply a method to minimize the system moment of inertia where you and your golf club are the system by keeping the club as near to the axis of rotation (hopefully your spine) as possible..

        The lower the MOI the greater the angular acceleration for a given torque input (your muscles). This greater angular acceleration creates a force which is trying to sling the clubhead off at a tangent to the swing path. This force is one to one with the angular velocity so if you can get the angular velocity up by minimizing the system MOI you can create greater clubhead speed when the lag angle is eliminated.

        In order to retain lag you must be strong enough to resist the force which is trying to pull the club straight off the swing arc for as long as possible and still get the clubface squared up. The strength required is one to one with whatever torque you can apply during the swing from your large muscles i.e. the faster you can move the club from the top of you backswing the stronger you must be to hold the wrist clubshaft (lag) angle.

        The amount of additional torque you can apply with your wrists and forearms is minimal compared to what you already applied previously simply because there is very little muscle mass in those two body parts compared to your trunk and legs.


          If you are more of as arm swinger I think the early wrist break or twist away on the backswing needs to be done to get lag more easily. Without doing it, I feel myself casting or scooping the ball. A person who primarily has a body driven swing will find it easier to do the lagging club takeaway.
          I don't find creating lag to be natural when my inclination is to swing with my arms.
          So I feel you can do either but it has to matchup with what drives your swing.
          When I hit irons well it's when I bend back my right wrist when my hands reach waist height on the backswing and just go with it.

          Thanks for the links, everyone. I had already checked out the ones PA-PLAYA embedded - those guys do make a good video. Short enough to keep your attention, long enough to describe and demonstrate everything.

          The lagging clubhead takeaway drill Sneakylong mentioned is surprisingly easy. I thought it would be impossible but the clubhead naturally goes back to where it's supposed to and it really zings through. I wouldn't take that lack of accuracy to the course, but it isn't embarrassing. A guy standing next to me on the range said "I don't understand what you're doing, but keep doing it." That said, this is going to take a lot of practice.

          braveheart - I don't believe I'm an arm swinger, and I'm actually thinking the early wrist break might be part of my problem. I have a pronounced forward press and I don't ever remember not having it. One of the videos describes the move at the top, just as you're beginning to bring the club down where you set the club with your wrists - I don't think I can do that in my normal swing. My wrists are already set so far there isn't much room left for my arms to drop without the club coming along.

          ronsc1985 - my understanding of what you said on a scale of 1-10 is -4. But I appreciate the effort. 🙂 Maybe someone with an IQ well above mine will get something from it.

          A few times each year I go through a funk. The first usually occurs shortly after the season has started, but that's more because of the winter layoff and rust than anything else. I usually give my game a month to come around before I hit the panic button, it most always revolves around not quite having a feel for where the bottom of my golf swing is at that early stage of the season.

          The other funk usually happens at the end of summer, when there are no more tournaments on my calendar for the year. I pretty much go into "whatever" mode, which is where I am right now... might visit our range maybe 20 minutes prior to our start time just out of necessity to avoid hurting myself because of tightness in my lower back. But I'm not working on anything, not spending 45 minutes hitting balls with aiming sticks and going through certain clubs that are giving me trouble, etc.

          But everyone has their limit of how much frustration they're willing to endure. I used to be patient, had the interest and motivation to work through some of my swing issues on my own without help of someone else. I'm no longer that guy. If I had another three months of golf ahead of me - I'd be more inclined to maybe get a lesson to help with a current struggle I'm having. But knowing that in less than 60 days my regular golf routine is pretty much over with - it's difficult to be overly concerned about unusually high scoring rounds.

          A lot of it depends on those type circumstances beyond one's control.

          When I try to create and hold more lag, I gain distance but lose control. I'm better off just going up a club and going for the solid contact...........I don't want to learn a new technique at my age. I'd rather play golf than practice. 😄

          darpar Count Yogi on youtube

          He explained the lag very well.
          Although he did not use the term "pump" drill , it's in the video.

            4 days later


            Now that you have lag solved, why can't I hit my $#@!!?! 3 wood off the deck worth a spit? and no, I will not give up trying.
            Sorry, can't help myself .