In this video, PGA Professional Katie Dawkins explains how to use wrist hinge more effectively in the golf swing.
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00:00Hi, I'm Katie Dawkins. I am an advanced PGA professional and I'm here at West Hill Golf
00:08Club today to talk to you about wrist hinge in the golf swing. Wrist hinge is where we get power
00:15from. Imagine for example that you had a flat pebble. I'm going to skim it across a beautiful
00:21mill pond like I used to do as a kid. I'm going to first of all hinge my wrist like this. I'm
00:26going to wind everything up and the last thing I'm going to do is unhinge my wrist to get that
00:31lovely bouncing across the water. If we didn't hinge our wrist to skim that stone, you imagine that.
00:38Imagine flat pebble skimming a stone. I'm going to have to hurl myself into the drink to actually
00:44gain any sort of power at all and the pebble is probably just going to go plop. So wrist hinge
00:49in the golf swing is where power is created and club head speed.
00:56So what actually happens in the golf swing? Where do the wrist actually hinge from? The club moves
01:02away, club and arms move away together and the wrist will start hinging, almost giving you a thumbs
01:07up feeling at this point here. You can see I've created a lovely L shape between my club shaft
01:13and my arm and what's going to happen from there depending on my own mobility is I'm just going to
01:18wind myself up to the top of my back swing. Some people wind up a bit like John Rahm, some people
01:24wind up a lot like Rory McIlroy. How much you wind up, it's not a competition. The most important
01:30thing when it comes to power in the golf swing is that wrist set and for ladies especially if there's
01:36no wrist hinge early on in the golf swing and in fact there's no wrist hinge at all your club's going
01:42to hinge from somewhere and it generally tends to be here. You over swing and you lose power. So from
01:49this lovely L shaped position that you have here all that really is required after that is a wind up to
01:56the top of the backswing. Because the wrists are set properly here they're likely to unhinge at the
02:01right point giving you a bit of a crack of the whip through the ball and giving you tons and tons of
02:07power and fizz especially in your iron play.
02:09A lot of ladies that struggle with this wrist hinge generally tend to have the club in the wrong
02:18position in the hand so it's worth going and getting a bit of a lesson just on your fundamentals
02:22to check whether the source of the problem is from holding the club in the wrong place. A lot of the
02:27time they tend to hold it more in the palm and it needs to be in the fingers. This frees the hand up
02:32and creates that lovely hinge and then of course that lovely whoosh of power through the ball.
02:37If you're hinging the wrist well the golf game will feel a lot easier. It's efficient power. It's a way
02:45of actually creating a good bit of fizz through the ball and getting a good bit of distance without
02:50busting it down there. We've all played against those players where you think golly they don't
02:56look like they're going to hit it very far. They step up with a little bit of a hockey swing and smack it
03:00out of sight with a swing that goes from here to here. And that is in fact a kind of drill that you
03:05could practice on the range. Just little seven irons off a tee going from L through to L like so.
03:14And what you'll find there is you start to get a bit more height with your irons and a little bit
03:19more distance as well. So if you've got a decent set of the wrists your swing is more efficient and a
03:26more efficient swing means that you're going to last longer out on the golf course hitting more
03:30decent shots. And who doesn't want to hit lots of decent shots during a round of golf? If you are
03:35somebody who gets a bit tired midway through the round then the likelihood is that you're not hinging
03:40these wrists and you're doing what we talked about with the pond at the beginning which is throwing
03:44yourself at that golf ball to generate some form of power. So what I'd recommend go and get a lesson.
03:52Get them to check your grip. If the grip's in the good place just soften it off a little bit
03:56because if you're squeezing the life out of this club you're not going to be able to get that wrist
04:01hinge happening. So softer hands L to L and you'll start seeing those iron shots really get a decent
04:09strike on them.