Visit today to learn more about training for a career in golf at National University Golf Academy.
**********************************
AUDIO FROM THE VIDEO
**********************************
Hi, I’m Ted Norby, Director of Golf Instruction for the National University Golf Academy. What we’re going to talk about today is hinging or setting the club on the backswing. We hear about both of those. Some people talk about hinging the club, other people use the word setting the club, but somewhere back here as I’m making a backswing the club should set in my right hand and the hands and wrists are going to hinge.
What actually happens is the left hand is hinging and the right hand is setting. I don’t want the hands to do the same thing. I think that’s where the misinterpretation or the miscommunication between instructors and students come. So happens in the backswing is the left hand will hinge. So, now, you have to have a good grip, you have to have the leverage on top of it and you have to have the hands in the right place so there’s no place to hinge or set the club properly with a bad grip so we have to have a good grip first, but if the left hand is on there correctly, there is a hinging motion. I’m really not even lifting the club up but I’m pushing down on the butt of the club which gets the club head to leverage up in front of me, so this left wrist is hinging. I personally feel like I’m pushing the butt of the club down. There are others that keep some width back here and they’re letting the club come up but it’s a hinging motion with this left hand.
With the right hand, when it’s also in the right place and I have those correct pressure points the club is now going to set into that right hand. I can’t just hinge both of them up in the air because as I come back to impact that club head is already passing my hands. What I want to do is have the shaft leaning forward through impact which this right wrist needs to be set a little bit different. If you can get the difference in your head of that the hinge is straight up and down and a set is more of a cupping of this right wrist.
So, the left wrist is hinging, the right wrist is setting or cupping halfway back and if I put those two together at this kind of halfway and some do it a third of a way, halfway almost to the top. That doesn’t matter too much but just the fact that somewhere back here, the left wrist is hinging and the right wrist sets, so it can feel also like the weight of the club kind of pops up into that right wrist. Again, not straight up, but kind of up into this cupped right wrist right here.
If I show it to you from this other view, if I just set both hands you can see that club is not on plane. It’s too far out in front of me, but if I set, or if I hinge the left wrist and set my right wrist, now as I turn back, now the club is in the right swing plane so it’s a feeling almost. The butt of the club goes down with the left hand, that’s the hinging of the left as the weight of the club kind of comes up into that right wrist right here. That squares the club face and gives me a good set position on the plane. When I have the club set correctly in the right hand and hinged in the left, now I’m in a position where I can lead back forward and be in that good strong hitting position.
So remember, I’m hinging and setting the club on the backswing and if you know the difference between the two: that the left wrist is hinging and the right wrist sets now the club can be set correctly at the top of the swing.
