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The
Elusive Secret - Achieving perfect pace and shaft lag.
As
I watched the final round of the Walt Disney World FUNAI Classic
in late October, I saw my student, Ryan Palmer, was 8-under-par
after 13 holes and 21-under for the tournament. He actually
finished tied for third place behind Tom Pernice Jr. and Lucas
Glover, the eventual winner who holed a bunker shot on 18
to get to 23-under.
While I watched, I thought: There are two things that Ryan
does in his golf swing that he has done all his life with
grace and power. First, he has what I call “Freddie
Couples tempo.” He also has an incredible “shaft
lag.”
When Ryan was 15 years old, Freddie won the Master’s
in 1992. I believe that Ryan’s tempo was formed from
watching Freddie. Last year at the Shell Houston Open, I was
with Ryan on the range, and low and behold Freddie Couples
starts to practice right next to Ryan. I stood and watched
Ryan from his chest with Freddie in the close background,
and it was uncanny how their tempo and pace matched exactly.
Two words spring to my mind: effortless power. They both have
effortless power. Ryan grew up in Amarillo, where the wind
tends to blow all day, every day. Thus, he often needed to
hit the ball low to cut through (and under) the winds. Because
of that, he learned about shaft lag and impact.
Have you ever heard the opposite of effortless power is powerless
effort? Probably not … read on to learn more.
There is an elusive secret to the game of golf. It’s
called “lag.” What is lag? Technically speaking,
it’s a conservation of angular momentum on the downswing.
It is the ability to lean the club shaft forward at the moment
of impact with the hands winning the race. When I was younger,
I had a teacher who told me two things about my downswing,
and they have stayed in my head forever.
1. The club-head will follow the handle of the club everywhere
it goes.
2. Figure out how to get the hands/handle to win the race,
meaning you need to get your hands in front of the club face.
The only way to compress the ball is to have lag in the downswing
and the hands in front of your clubhead at impact. Once the
clubhead is thrown, lag will never be recovered.
Ben Hogan said, “It feels as if I have a pistol in my
left hand shooting the ground behind the ball at impact.”
Claude Harmon said, “You want your wrists like stainless
steel through impact, not like linguini.”
Harvey Penick taught impact first with short chip shots and
little pitch shots around the green, and then he blended the
golf swing to the developed impact. He was brilliant!
The average player arrives at impact with the hands behind
the ball at impact and club shaft leaning backward. This will
add more loft to the club making a 7-iron into an 8-iron or
an 8 into a 9-iron. The dreaded dropkick and/or scoop at impact
are evident when the clubhead is ahead of the hands at impact.
When the bottom of the swing is behind the ball, you’ll
hit fat shots. When the clubhead is on its way up at impact,
you’ll hit thin shots.
Neither are very fun, but there is a way to improve your shaft
lag. Try these drills, and over time you can come closer to
achieving the effortless power display every weekend by guys
like Ryan Palmer and Freddie Couples.
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Great players have the ability to square and de-loft the clubface
through impact and control the launch of the bal,l turning
their 9 iron into an 8- or 7-iron. These great players have
the ability to lead the handle of the club with the club-head
trailing the hands with steady acceleration through the impact.
They have better distance control and launch angle through
all their clubs. |
The average player over-accelerates their hands reaching maximum
speed before impact and losing their lag. This over-acceleration
of the hands is usually caused from a need to “catch
up” to the body on the downswing. It can also be caused
from too open of a clubface and the necessity to throw the
club to square the face prior to impact. These two drills
will help you.
Practice short backswings with Ryan Palmer-like pace. Feel
what it’s like to get the hands in front of the ball
creating knockdown, punch shots. Use a pitching wedge and
develop an awareness at impact with the hands ahead of the
clubhead. The two things to look for when you are hitting
shots are the lower launch of the ball and the bottom of the
swing, is there a divot in front of the ball? (There should
be one.) |
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Then practice full swings with Ryan Palmer-like pace and
hit an impact bag to develop the feel of lag and impact
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Great Golf, Neil Wilkins |
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