Why Should I Hinge My Wrists??

I will often get asked this question as most have heard the notion of keeping the arms straight. However as you may have come to realise, keeping the arms straight can be quite detrimental as a lack of wrist hinge starts to seep through the swing. Hinging the wrists is very important as it is a key source of power in the swing as well a determiner of trajectory. How you hinge the wrists is key as too much can cause a narrow and quite jerky action and too little can cause a break down of the left arm at the top of the swing.

Put simply the wrists should hinge as soon as you start the backswing. The wrists should be gradually hinged right to the top of the swing until a 90 degree angle is formed from the left and arm and the shaft. This amount of angle is seen to be correct as this is often the most amount of hinge we can generate whilst not losing control of the club. Losing control of the club is when the grip starts to separate from the left hand. (Based on a right hander).

The importance of hinging the wrists is likened to skimming a rock across a river. The natural action of skimming a rock across a river would be where you would naturally turn your body whilst hinging your wrist and then holding onto this hinge right up until the rock is thrown. This is exactly the same as the golf swing. You want to store the power in the wrists and then maintain this angle (90 Degrees) right up until the golf ball is hit. This will not only give you maximum power but also the ability to control trajectory as holding the wrist angle means controlling the angle of the club through the ball.

Now it’s also important to learn how to hinge properly as soon as you take the club back. You need to make sure that as you start the backswing, the clubhead is starting to rotate whilst you hinge. You ideally want to have the ‘toe’ of the club pointing to the sky when the club reaches parallel to the ground. This will mean that your thumbs are pointing up while you hinge. The mistake a lot of people make is that they try and hinge while the clubface is closed. This actually prevents a lot of hinge as the hands become quite bowed in this position.

If you’d like any further help in understanding wrist hinge just contact myself at David Waters Golf.