How to Hit the Ball Straighter with a Better Release - Webinar

Learning to release the club properly at impact is probably the single best way to improve your consistency. Most players don’t understand what constitutes and properly release and how to train it. Dive deep into which release you should use in your game. Should you be a trail side, or lead side dominant released in the swing? 85% of ball flight is dictated by club face angle. Understanding how to deliver the club and have proper face angle will lead to straighter shots and lower scorers.

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All right, all right, all right, good evening everyone, how are we doing today, ready to talk about a little release, fantastic, I've got a lot of stuff to talk about tonight.

Hope everybody's having a good Wednesday so far, make sure in the chat room, let me know if you can hear me, let me know if you can see me, just in case, on my board right here on my monitor everything looks okay, but just in case, you never know, never know, all right, all good, that's good, let's see, he looks good like a, I'm trying Chris, I figure at my age, I don't have a whole lot of time left before I don't have any hair, so I've got to take advantage of it while I can, so I hope everybody's doing well today, if this is your first webinar, welcome, thanks for stopping by today, if it's not your first webinar, you're going to kind of know the rules of engagement, I'm going to kind of let everybody gather into the classroom, and then I'm going to give my spiel, or today we're going to talk about release, and then after that, we're going to leave it open to some questions, and I'm going to try to keep it nice and tidy today, the way I look at it is the release, it could be 20 webinars, to be honest with you, there's so much that myself, Chris, Chuck can talk about the release, we could be up here for hours and hours and hours, so I'm going to try to hit the highlights of it, and what I want to do is I kind of want to spend just five minutes talking about lead and trail, just kind of understanding the difference between the two, and then we're going to talk about, for about 10 minutes on each, we're going to talk about how you work on one, how you work on another, and how they both relate to one another, and then I'm going to leave the forum open to some questions, because I know in this short time frame, there's no way I'm going to get every question answered, but I'm going to try to do it, okay, so I'm going to give you all just a couple minutes to gather up in there, tomorrow magic time, thank you, David, big expectations on this course, great, David, so putting the pressure on me to start out with, I see how it is, I see how it well, hopefully it'll meet expectations, hopefully, hopefully, hope everybody's doing well, hope everybody's got their brackets filled out, hope, let's see, what else is going on in the world, hope your team and NFL free agency is going well, I would like to thank the last, I know the participant, but I'd like to thank the last participant who gave me tips on who to bet on in the Super Bowl, Hopefully, everything going well, all right, getting t-shirts made with Morrow magic, I like it, I like it, well, the room seems to be filling up a little bit, I'll give you all about one more minute, but so while I wait, I might as well go ahead and talk about some stuff while I wait for everybody to fill in, when we have the webinars and when we do these kind of live sessions, we always like to get feedback from the members of what you'd like to hear about it, what you would like to discuss, because we know all this golf stuff, but what do you want to hear?

So if you have any suggestion for future webinars, please leave them in the comments, we'll do them.

If you throw it up there and it's a decent enough topic, I mean, if it's, you know, about my diet, I don't think you want to hear about that, but if it's a good enough topic, we're happy to sit here and discuss it, it's what we do, we want you to understand the swing to the best of your ability.

Also, with this webinar, it's funny how when it got released, I started getting messaged out the wazoo, okay, I had students that were messaging me like, hey, Craig, should I do this webinar, you know, what are you going to talk about, what's going on with it?

And so I explained to them, you know, kind of the gist of what I was going to And one common theme that popped up a lot was more discussion on the trail side release.

You know, we'll get into it.

So today, just for fun, when I'm talking about release, I'm actually going to mix it up a little bit.

I'm actually going to start with trail side and then work in the lead side because, as I mentioned, when this topic was released, I would say, whew, 90% of players are like, can you just elaborate a little bit further or show me or just, I want to understand a little bit more before I make my final decision.

So to kind of get that cat we're going to talk about the side we dare not speak of.

And for those of you that are new, as I walk up to this, what I'm doing is I'm walking up to the screen because I can't see the comments from where I am.

So if you see me walking back and forth, don't worry, nothing's broken down.

How do I break off?

No haircut, no shape.

I, I, my neck shape.

It's, it's not, it's not very thick.

It's about on a guard, three guard for the face.

The hair can't do anything about that.

As it's Samson.

All right.

That should be self-explanatory.

So without further ado, because I got a lot to talk about, we're going to go ahead and get started.

Hopefully people sneaking in late will still know what I'm talking about.

So tonight's topic and what we're going to keep focused on is the release.

All right.

And we have lots of videos on the site.

And when it comes to the webinars, I try to not necessarily just give you new information, but try to say things in a different way or provide it to in a different way than what we just have on videos.

So the release is the payoff.

All right.

There's no other way to say that you can have a beautiful, fantastic golf swing.

And if you don't release the club means diddly squad.

Okay.

I always tell a lot of my swing review students that I've got a father son duo that I teach and the father's swing is nearly perfect, but his release is terrible.

And the son's swing is all over the place, but his release is perfect.

And he always gets mad at me because he's like, I don't understand why my son hits it further.

I'm like, well, I'm not going to mention any names, but it's because he releases the club because he put a lot of time and a lot of work into making that release perfect.

So he can kind of get away with because physics is kind of his ally in correcting what that club is doing during the strike.

So when you're working on your swing and you're working on your game, understand that you have to release the club.

I don't care which side, but you have to.

You get the benefit.

Now, when it comes to hitting it straight, our goal is for you to be able to release it as hard as you want to and never have to worry about left.

Better players tend to worry about left because, you know, you got to yell at a hook.

You can talk to a fade, but you got to yell at a hook.

But we want you to be able to be aggressive and have speed, but not have to worry about the direction of the ball.

When you're using a lead release, you're going to be using a little bit more physics.

When you're using a trail release, you're going to be relying a little bit more on yourself.

But at the end of the day, both of them have the goal of hitting it straight, of you allowing the club to kind of do its job through that area.

So let's talk about a little bit of the key differences.

When you think of a lead release, okay, you're going to be thinking of forearm rotation.

That as the club starts to work through the hitting area, you're going to be thinking that the forearms are going to be rotating over and that this club is going to be rotating.

You're going to be taking advantage of its design.

If you look at the club, it's designed for the toe to rotate around the heel and it's swung on an incline point.

This thing wants to rotate.

And if you don't impede that, it'll square up itself for you.

Some of the rules with the lead release.

The shoulders, they must stay square because a lead release works independently of the body.

And for those of you that don't mean independently of the body, it means that when I work down into impact, my body is slamming on the brakes so that the club accelerates on the way through.

You're going to see more of that in a lead release.

At the end of the day, you must remember that a lead release is passive.

Okay.

You're not trying to make this thing happen.

Well, you have to train some risk positions, understanding maybe what impact feels like, understanding maybe what a bow feels like.

Absolutely.

But the goal is to allow the club to rotate.

I don't want you to have any influence in the squaring of this golf club.

It will do it itself.

So if you think about it, the lead release is going to kind of be the passive one.

You're allowing the club to take care of itself.

Now, contrary, when you go take a look and you think about a trail side release, a trail side release isn't necessarily that active, but you are doing a little bit more work.

You're using your trail arm to work the club into the strike.

Now, you get to the point where you can overwork it too much and you can overwork it too soon.

So when we think of the push release or the thrust release or the glide release, it's going to be a little bit more active.

You're going to have a little bit more control over it.

If you're one of those that just don't like to give up control or don't want to train the entire other side of your body because you're already trail side dominant, this is one where you actually are going to be able to inflict your will just slightly.

Just understand with anything, there's a law of diminishing returns.

You can be too passive.

You can be too active, but the lead release is going to tend to be more passive.

Trail side release is going to tend to be a little bit more active.

Now, the difference when you start thinking about a trail side release, you're not going to have as much rotation through the hitting area.

The face is going to stay a lot more stable.

With the lead release, the toe is rotating around the heel.

And when that's rotating, the center of the face is rotating about six to eight miles an hour faster.

You can gain about six to eight miles an hour faster of club head speed just by allowing the face to rotate.

I get the question a lot.

Well, if I switch to a trail side release and I'm not allowing the face to rotate a lot through the shot, where am I getting that speed?

Well, you're using a lot more of your levers.

You're using a little bit more muscle engagement.

So you're getting that added force through other means, through the levers in your arm and a little bit more rotation from your body.

So if you want to play devil's advocate, one isn't better or the other for speed.

Okay.

They're going to give and take.

Lead release, you're going to see a lot more rotation.

Trail side release, you're not.

If you tend to like to grip firm, like you just, it doesn't matter what you do.

You can't get rid of that death grip.

Trail side release may be for you because in a trail side release, You're going to need a little bit of activity with that trail arm.

And having a little bit more of a firmer grip is going to help you stabilize that club face through the hitting area.

In a lead side release, the death grip will kill it because you're going to impede what this club is wanting to do with its natural momentum, with its natural physics.

So when you're going through this and you're kind of thinking about, well, do I want to be lead?

Don't want to be trail.

Let's just get down to brass tacks.

Do you want to be active or passive?

Active is going to be a little bit more trail side, passive, a little bit more lead side.

Does face rotation scare you?

Face rotation scares you, that's going to be a little bit more trail side.

If you're like, hey, just let the club do it at once, I don't care.

Go with a lead side release, okay?

There's going to be pros and cons to both.

Just know either one at the end of the day is what?

It's impact.

It doesn't matter which release I'm choosing.

As I work into this strike, the parameters are going to stay the same.

The only two things that are going to affect what that golf ball does is the club face angle, okay, and the club face law.

That's the only thing that matters is what's going on down here at impact.

And it doesn't matter which release that you're choosing.

This is what you have to achieve.

You need to achieve some semblance of the lead hand being ahead.

You need to achieve some semblance of shaffling, club face being square.

If I showed you the difference, I'm going to go make a nine o'clock swing, and I'm going to go lead release into impact right here, okay?

Now on this one, I'm going to do a trail.

Do you really see that much difference?

There's going to be minor subtle differences.

I just did one with my trail, I just did one with my lead.

But the goal was to be at impact at a square position with the hands ahead to get some compression on the ball to hit it straight.

So it doesn't matter which arm that you choose, the goal is the exact same, and they're going to look roughly the exact same.

You'll see a little bit more from down the line, but they're going to look roughly the same from face off.

Both arms have a job to do.

The lead hand is going to take care of your club face angle and your club face loft.

The trail hand, when you're releasing that, is going to take care of your club face angle.

Now the lead wrist still needs to be out ahead, so you can still control the loft with your lead wrist.

They're both going to be doing something.

So regardless of which side that you pick, just know it's not, it's just one.

Both arms have a job in this one, okay?

One's just going to be dominant, another one's going to be a little less dominant.

So let's talk about the trail side release, all right?

When we think of a trail side release, as Chuck mentioned on the overview to the push release video, think about it like a three-stage rocket.

You're going to be using your right hip, your right shoulder, and your right arm to work into the strike.

Now there's a prerequisite to all of this.

The swing, what you've done with five-step, dead drill, axiom, doesn't matter.

The swing does not change.

You still got to load and rotate and shift and let the arms start to shallow out, but once you start to get down into here, this is going to be where you start to see the difference.

This is where your trail side release is going to start to shine.

So when you're going through your swing and you get up here and you shift and the arms start to shallow, the three things that you have to remember in a trail side release is that you need first a lot of right hip, okay?

So you need to use your right hip to start propelling those hips open to provide space, okay?

You've got to use the right hip because this left hip has to start to get out of the way.

Now that doesn't mean that your left hip's dead.

You're using your right to aid helping getting the left hip out of the way.

But in a trail side release, you need hip rotation.

You have to have hip rotation.

And that's why it's the first primary thing that you have to do.

These hips have to open.

This right hip has to start to drop.

The second thing is the right shoulder.

After you shallow and you start to work down, and now the right hip's driving, now the right shoulder's going to drive.

It's going to feel like the right hip and the shoulder are staying ahead of your club.

And you'll see when I get into this position that I've got a lot of flexion in my right arm right here, okay?

Or my trail arm.

So as I start to work here, you'll see a lot of flexion in my trail arm right here.

And now when I get into this delivery position, I've got two options.

I can take my trail arm and start driving it down the line, okay?

So I'm using this little bit of a pushing motion to start driving my trail arm down the line.

And as I do that, my club face is going to stay a little bit square because I don't want my trail arm, trail wrist, controlling face rotation, okay?

It's going to be a little bit unwieldy.

So as I work from this position, my trail arm is going to be driving down the target line, and it's going to feel like I'm almost holding my face square, okay?

The face will rotate.

As I said earlier, this club is designed to rotate.

You can't stop that.

It's only going to be a little moment in time where this is staying square.

And then it's going to start to rotate.

So you have the option of using the right hip, the right shoulder, and the right arm to work into the strike.

And I'll show you in a second from face off.

Or instead of using a lot of right arm, you can allow for just a little bit more chest rotation coming through if you lack the strength in it.

The problem is, as we've always taught, we are the number one kind of instructors in the business about safety.

The more rotation you add from your chest, your spine doesn't like, okay?

Compression and shear force.

You hear that a lot around the side.

Spine doesn't like that.

So when you work into this position, and you start holding this position, and you start squaring up more with your chest, you're going to see your trail shoulder work down.

You're going to see a lot more side bend.

It is a way to keep the face a little bit more stable.

It's just going to be the kind of last option you want to choose, especially if you have back issues.

I would get here, use the right hip, use the right shoulder, let the trail arm release.

And what you want to do is you want to feel like that face is staying square down the line for just a little window in time.

If you look at it from face on, what you'll notice after I shift, I'm using my right hip to get my left hip out of the way.

I'm using my right shoulder to stay ahead of the golf club.

And now I'm using my right arm to get up the impact position.

You can see the flexion still on my wrist right here.

I'm using this to get up.

And you can hold this face just a little bit square through the target.

But if you'll see, my face is still rotating.

It's just a little bit moment brief in time.

I just want to make sure I see something.

Okay.

I want to make sure nothing was cutting out.

So when you're thinking of a trail side release, you need to think of the stages you're applying this in.

It's right hip, right shoulder, right arm.

You don't get here, hold the face, and keep holding the face on the way through like this.

The club is still going to rotate.

It needs to.

What you're going to see is as you work on this and as you do this, the hands might swing a little bit left.

It's not going to be as rotated as a lead release.

But you don't try to hold it square to the target all the way to the finish up.

Okay.

Now, what I see is two big major errors when people start working on this.

Number one, when they start working on this release, they get down here and they kill their hips way too soon.

And when they kill their hips way too soon, they start to throw their right arm hard.

And when they start to throw their right arm hard, two things are going to tend to happen.

You're going to steepen your angle of attack and hit it fat, or you're going to start to hit it left.

Because when the body stalls out too soon, and this right arm is throwing really hard, the angle is going to come in a little steeper.

This leading edge is going to dig too soon.

But the face is also going to rotate a lot.

You're going to tend to fight a little bit of hooks, or there are some blocks you can hit, but you're going to tend to fight a little bit of hook because you're going to be really driving that right arm hard.

Players tend to forget about the fact that in either release, you have to have the hip rotation.

If the hips stall out too soon, in whatever release you're using, the club is going to flip.

And flip is the enemy.

Okay.

So as you're working through this, and you start thinking about, all right, you know, the trail side release, you've got to think about it in the stages.

After you transition, it's a must.

You still transition the same.

My golf swing, as I go from here and I work to here, everything stays the same.

Okay.

Now, if I'm going to be a trail side releaser, the only thing I'm going to change is I'm going to drive my right hip to get my hips open, my right shoulder, then my right arm and hand.

The stronger the player, the more they can add just a little bit more trail arm.

Just don't want to get too crazy active with it because if you just start arming it, then your ball is going to start going all over the place.

But it's a really great way to keep it stable through the hitting area if you struggle with club face stability.

Okay.

Or you don't want to go to a lead side because it just seems like a lot of training.

The second thing that I see players do is this.

They relate it to throwing a ball.

And so as they start to come down, their arm and hand are here and they go like this.

So they start using their right hip and their right side to drive their hip, but their arm and hand are way back here and it's separated from the chest.

Remember, that's still with my chest, just like a golf swing.

Okay.

It's not separated like this.

Yes, my legs can lead the way, but now I really have to heave my arm and hand.

I'm still rotating, shifting to here.

My arms and hands are still in front of my body.

I'm just feeling my trail hip and my trail shoulder and then my trail arm work up into the strike into this position.

Okay.

And I'll demonstrate with you in a second.

Now on the lead side release, this is going to tend to be the more passive one.

As you've seen a lot of the videos on the site and from a lot of Chris's greatest hits, fix your release, play your best golf in six weeks, video two of six.

You'll really understand that you're allowing your lead arm and hand to work from your lead shoulder like a trebuchet or like a pendulum.

You're just allowing for the momentum in the arm and hand and club to freely swing from here.

Now this gives a lot of players fits because they get scared because they see this face rotating like crazy and they think they're going to hit hooks.

And it's the polar opposite of the hook because I'm not controlling that.

I'm just allowing this club to rotate.

That's it.

Just allowing it to rotate.

I'm getting out of its way.

Okay.

So just feeling the club rotate back and forth, you'll get a sense of rhythm.

You'll get a sense of timing that this club wants to square up when it wants to square up.

If you get out of its way, players struggle with giving up control.

If you want to hit straight shots, you have to give up control.

Always the law of opposites with golf.

Do the opposite of what you think you should do and you're going to be closer to right.

Could be no truer than in the release.

You don't need to try to do anything with a lead side release.

You just allow the club to rotate.

But just as with the trail side release, you still have to shift your weight.

You still need to post up and clear your left hip, because this post up in the clear in the left hip is what's going to trigger this club to go down and out.

Okay.

But you can't have a death grip.

You can't control it.

And you have to get comfortable with seeing the face rotate, toe up, square, back toe up.

Okay.

So the less control you give the lead release, the better it is.

Now, instead of kind of boring you on all the nooks and crannies and details on the lead release, because we have a lot of videos on that, I'm just going to go through with you a little practice plan with kind of each.

And I want you to kind of decide for yourself which one kind of works for you.

Which one do you want to go with?

They're not that different because you still kind of get to the same position.

But one may feel better or not to you.

Okay.

Make sure.

Okay.

When thinking about this webinar and talking to students, I always try to kind of gather my thoughts.

And it was funny because this just kind of slipped out in one review.

And I think he's actually in here right now is he was talking about, Oh, I can't get impact.

I'm still cupping and still doing all these things.

And I said, you may not be a pro, but you have to practice like a pro if you're going to get any better.

The same thing I had to do when I came to rotary, I was a trail side releaser.

Okay.

Now I'm a lead side releaser.

And as Chris will test, we'll be biased on this.

I'm a lead side releaser.

Nothing wrong with a trail side release, but I'm a lead release bias.

I've got a lot of right side issues.

Okay.

So the right side didn't quite work for me because I have to use a lot of stress.

I've got bad shoulders, bad everything.

So the lead release fits my motto a little bit more.

Okay.

When I first started working on this, as non-sexy as it may sound, and Chuck can attest to this, I'd go to the driving range, I'd work with Chuck, and I would sit there and I'd hit the ball 10 yards.

That's it.

And I can't tell you how long I did that because I did it for so long.

I think it probably killed some part of my brain.

Okay.

So regardless of which release you choose, you need to practice like a pro if you're going to get it.

If you want to hit straighter shots, if you want to hit more consistent shots, practice on the problem.

And the problem is you're in a poor impact position.

This is the only thing that affects what the golf ball does.

The only thing I can swing like this and start to come down.

And the only thing that affects what that golf ball does is how I am right here.

So when you're struggling and you're trying to improve upon this, you need to put the focus on it.

If you can't hit a 15 yard straight shot, how am I going to get you to hit a 300 yard straight shot?

Okay.

Just think about that for a second.

Why like with chipping, do you get really good at it?

You're just practicing these little chips over and over again.

Why do players practice four footers, four footers, four footers, and they get really good at it.

And you see the pros they never miss because that's what they're practicing.

Practice what really matters right here with the release.

Practice impact.

Don't go out there, start swinging out your shoes, trying to choose either one.

Focus on the problem.

So here's my suggestion.

If you're going to go with a lead release and you want to start working on a lead release, start at impact.

I want you to take your setup.

I want you to put your weight on your lead side and I want you to clear your hips a little bit.

Now you don't have to get this big old massive powerful post up because we're not working on hitting it very far right now.

We're working on our wrist motions.

So when you get set up into this position with the weight and getting the hip open, just like if you're going to strike a golf ball head behind it, hips open, shoulders square, I want you to just get a feeling for the club to rotate.

Now if you do this and you start to notice that your wrist is cupping, what I want you to do is feel like your knuckles are going to the ground and rotating over.

If for some reason you can't get that and you're still experiencing cupping, then you're going to do what I have a student doing in my unlimited group right now.

I have him stopping at impact until he can stop keeping his hand ahead of the club face.

Okay.

But for now, I want you just to get the feel, just letting it rotate back and forth.

No bigger than this.

Okay.

And then set up, get your hips open, get here and let the club rotate back and forth.

And when you get here, look at it.

Do you see your fingernails?

Do you see that the club is rotated toe up?

Do you see that you didn't rotate your chest, that you didn't push off your right foot any?

Do you see that you maintain this position and you allow the club to rotate?

You should be able to sit there at a little impact and hit small little five, 10 yard shots.

Like it's nothing.

I did that over and over and over again.

Because you start to gain the feel of how much you really don't have to work to square up the golf club.

If you start at impact and you let it rotate nine to three o'clock holding these positions, I don't want you to add your trail hand yet.

I want you to work back to a setup position.

And when you work in this setup position, I want you to build it into a nine to three.

I want you to go nine o'clock, shift post, let it release.

With the whole goal of maintaining that same impact position that we were in.

The hips open, the shoulders square, the club rotated, the foot's still down, the head's still down.

If you can't stop your swing here and see these positions, then you take a step back.

But I implore you, you have to do it this way.

When I used to teach the clinics, day one, I never let them put their trail hand on the club until they could move here to the takeaway, shift, clear their hips, and let the club release and maintain this.

I wouldn't let them add their trail hand.

Because once they started getting the freedom and understanding that all they really need to do is get out of the club's way, everything worked.

So with the lead release, I want you to start at impact.

Let it go back and forth.

Focus on feeling the flattening of the lead wrist and the rotation of the face.

Just allowing for this to happen.

And then work it into a nine to three.

And then you can start to add your trail hand and do the same thing.

Now with the trail side release, it's kind of hard to work it that way.

Because you kind of need a little bit more body.

You can technically start here at impact, all right?

Get your right arm in front, get your hips open.

You're going to tend to have your chest just a little bit more rotated because your right arm and hand have to get over there.

That's why in a trail side release, it's okay for the chest to be open just a little bit.

But I really don't want you kind of getting here and going like that because that just feels really wonky.

Okay?

Because you're not really winding back and you're not really using your hip and shoulder and body drive.

So if you want to set up like this with your right arm and you're going to be a trail side releaser like this, I really wouldn't recommend just getting here and going like that because you kind of need a little body into it.

I would go ahead and kind of skip to the little nine to three motion with it.

I'd go to here, I'd take my trail arm only, and I'd work to nine o'clock.

Now when I work to nine o'clock, I'm not just going like this.

I'm not just moving my arm back.

I'm still allowing for weight and rotation.

I'm still making a motion this way.

Okay?

And then all I'm going to do is focus on hitting small shots where it's my right hip, my right shoulder, and my right arm working through.

So you're going to see I'm here.

Notice how the face is still relatively square.

It's rotated a little bit.

My chest is a little bit more open.

It's the only way I can get my right arm over there.

Okay?

I still have the flexion in my wrist.

My hips are open.

My head is down.

But get the feeling, lost the ball.

I'll take the penalty.

So as I get here, get the feeling of the body, the shoulder, and the arm and hand working ahead.

You're going to see like I'm not allowing for this big old release through.

Because I'm trying to feel how my arm is going to work down the target line and work keeping the face just a little bit more stable.

Okay?

But as I showed you earlier, the impacts and the goal at impact is exactly the same.

I'm trying to get here.

Okay?

We look at it from a down the line view.

I get to here and I'm working with a lead side release.

I'm working into this position.

All right?

My chest is square.

My hips are open.

And I'm allowing this club to release on the way through.

I'm working on a trail side.

I really use a little bit more right side.

Everything gets ahead.

You're going to see my trail shoulders working a little bit more down.

Even my trail foot's a little bit more up.

Because I'm pushing off that toe just a little bit more.

Lead arm and hand.

Still out ahead of the golf club right here.

And then I'm going to feel like I hold it just a little bit square through the hitting area because I still want to maintain that nice, shallow angle of attack.

It's very important.

Now, the trail foot has been a very big topic when it comes to releasing.

In a lead side release, the death of a proper lead side release is pushing off this trail foot too much.

Because if you push off this trail foot too much, what's going to happen is your hip's going to come in, your spine angle's going to come up.

And you're going to start throwing this in the dirt.

And you're going to rely on the squaring up the club face being you.

And that's not a lead side release.

You're relying on Newton.

In a trail side release, well, as I get through this position, I need a lot of hip rotation because if I don't get the hip rotation, the club's just going to flip.

So if you get that, if that right foot or trail foot leave just a little bit, it's okay because you're powering the swing from the hip, the shoulder, and then the arm.

So it's okay for the foot to leave a little bit because you're using that as your power source.

When you think of some of the players that are trail side releasers, you'll see their hips kind of get extremely open.

They have a lot of right foot.

This does put a little bit more wear and tear on you.

But I do understand if you don't want to go train a full lead side.

I get it.

Just know you're going to have more rotation.

You know what the spine hates.

So when you get here, you're allowing this arm to work through and maintain that stable.

Okay?

The key to hitting straighter shots is all about impact.

It's all about having a nice flatter bowed lead wrist and a square club face right here.

And there's two ways of going about it.

You either use your lead or as you start to work down and you shift and post, you allow this face to rotate.

You kind of give in to the golf gods.

And you may have to practice some bowing.

You may have to practice some looking down.

Go take a look at fix your release.

Chris has got a great drill of how to get to this position.

You may need a little bit of that.

But eventually, it'll start to kind of feel like a paintbrush.

Or you're just pulling along on the paintbrush, but then the club face rotates through itself because you don't have a death grip and you're allowing it to.

With this side, as you're working through here, and you start to work and you're a little bit more active and a little bit more driving, you're still working to the same position at impact.

The right arm that is working, keeping the club face a little bit square through the hitting area, not from here to here.

Here to here.

Tiny window.

Okay.

So as it's working through from here, you need the hip rotation, the right arm and hand work to here, getting this square to get to this position.

Okay.

So I know this is going to bring up a ton of questions.

I know I can't cover everything.

It's just the time window that we're in.

I may do a follow-up where I really just kind of go into one or the other and break it even more down.

But hopefully, this helps you kind of understand which release and what it is.

And if you have any questions, throw it up there.

So hope you enjoyed it.

Please stay around for the questions.

I know there's a lot to cover in this topic and I can't get it in in this whole time.

But I hope that creates a little bit of understanding of where it's coming from.

And if you're a little bit on the fence, ask questions right now.

If you can't stay, come find us on the community board.

If you can't find us on the community board and you got a swing review, send us a swing review.

We'll be happy to answer it.

1000 All right.

1001 Let's see.

Good compression and longer 1002 hair.

I'm sold.

1003 Agree.

Okay.

1004 Let's see.

1005 No questions.

Have any questions, Chris?

1006 Anything popping up through there?

1007 I answered a lot.

See?

Partner in crime.

1008 Thank you.

Thank you.

No questions?

1009 Come on.

You got to give me something.

1010 Address the closed window on the right 1011 arm.

You need to talk to the guy above 1012 you on that, James.

1013 Best way to build that trust and lead 1014 release if used to be trail side release.

1015 Okay.

1016 So best way to build trust in it.

You 1017 have to practice it.

And this is what I 1018 mean.

1019 So when I was a trail side releaser, I 1020 trusted my right arm and chest to square 1021 up the club.

All right.

I hit the crap 1022 out of the ball, but had a little issue 1023 with directions and had a little issue 1024 with my body.

1025 So when I first started doing lead side 1026 release, it was very foreign.

I hit it 1027 all over the place until I realized that 1028 if I got here and I'm just holding it 1029 with my hand right now and let it go, 1030 that the club rotates itself.

1031 All right.

Gravity is going to take over 1032 and the momentum of the club is going to 1033 rotate itself.

The only way to get 1034 trusting the lead release, 1035 learn how to hit lead arm only shots.

1036 That's how you have to do it.

Because 1037 what happens is somebody goes out there 1038 and they're like, all right, I'm going to 1039 be a lead releaser today and I'm going to 1040 get this lead release going.

And they get 1041 out there and they start trying to rip 1042 full swings.

And they're like, well, this 1043 doesn't work.

I'm hitting this thing all 1044 over the place.

1045 And then they send me a video and they're 1046 like, what's going on?

I'm like, well, 1047 your chest is spinning.

You're not 1048 shifting your weight.

You're not doing 1049 this.

You're doing nothing close to a 1050 release.

1051 Start small.

1052 As I mentioned right here, start with 1053 little small shots, getting comfortable 1054 with the club rotating and get some 1055 confidence in it.

See that same boring 1056 10, 15, maybe 20 yard shot that goes 1057 straight with a little draw.

1058 If you start to build confidence in the 1059 small ones, it'll start to bleed over 1060 because then you just make the swing a 1061 little longer, a little longer, a little 1062 longer, and you'll feel the difference 1063 when you mess it up.

1064 You'll get that aha moment.

If you just 1065 do it in the small versions first, I 1066 promise you.

1067 All right, let's see.

1068 Daryl, how much does the trail shoulder 1069 stay back with right side release?

It 1070 varies.

1071 Okay.

1072 So if you want to use more right arm, 1073 say, you know, you're, you're pie pie, 1074 you're big and strong, and you want to 1075 work into the strike, you can use more 1076 right arm through the shot because if you 1077 have the strength, you can use it.

If you 1078 lack the strength, then as you start to 1079 work down in with the trail side release, 1080 you're going to allow for a little bit 1081 more chest rotation.

Okay.

1082 Not a bunch.

And as we know, that's going 1083 to put more, the more you do the chest 1084 rotation version, the more it's going to 1085 put pressure on the spine.

Okay.

1086 But the trail shoulder is going to be 1087 square or roughly just slightly open like 1088 this right here.

You can see like, that's 1089 not, that's not that big a difference for 1090 me to get my right arm and hand up here.

1091 So it only needs to be a few degrees, but 1092 it varies.

If you're going to use a 1093 little bit more of your body to get, keep 1094 that club face stable through, you're 1095 going to have more chest rotation.

If you 1096 really want to use this right arm thrust, 1097 so to speak, you really won't have to 1098 have that right shoulder open that much.

1099 It won't require it.

Think about like 1100 throwing a ball.

You're here or you're 1101 here like this because you just don't 1102 have the pace here.

1103 So still having a problem coming down 1104 from the inside, difficulty keeping my 1105 right shoulder from firing too soon.

1106 Well, that's why, 1107 Howard, for the release, the key is 1108 you have to have the prerequisites.

1109 You have to still shallow out the club.

1110 Now, if you're struggling with the right 1111 shoulder or firing from the top, my 1112 question to you is, are you using your 1113 lower half?

1114 And this is what I mean.

1115 So if you're up here at the top of your 1116 backswing, are you starting your 1117 downswing with weight shift?

1118 Truly starting it with weight shift?

1119 Or if you say, hey, Craig, you know what?

1120 I am.

I look at it on film.

I can see.

I 1121 go from this position.

I shift the 1122 weight.

And when I shift the weight, my 1123 shoulders go like this.

1124 So the first thing I'd say is, are you 1125 shifting your weight?

The second thing 1126 1127 get in front of a mirror and watch 1128 yourself.

1129 Shift.

Put a club across your chest.

Keep 1130 your shoulders back.

Watch how if you 1131 shift and post, your shoulders have no 1132 chance but to not get to impact.

1133 But you need to feel how the legs pull 1134 it.

You need to watch yourself.

Okay?

1135 So at first say, hey, are you shifting 1136 your weight?

Are you just trying to hit 1137 it from the top?

But get in front of a 1138 mirror and watch yourself.

Do it with 1139 your body.

Do it with your arm and then 1140 do it with a club.

1141 Watch yourself.

Start to shift.

Can I 1142 shift keeping this back?

1143 You just have to realize that with the 1144 shoulders, they're going to get there.

1145 And if anything, you need to feel your 1146 back to the target as long as possible.

1147 Because they're going to move.

1148 All right.

1149 Jose, great info.

Which is the best trick 1150 to stop cupping the lead wrist at impact?

1151 All right.

And that's what I mean, Jose.

1152 It's tough to kind of cover everything.

1153 So when you're cupping it at impact, what 1154 is more than likely happening?

1155 When you're cupping it at impact, it's 1156 more than likely your trail hand is 1157 firing too soon, which is leading to the 1158 cupped position.

1159 Okay?

1160 So A, you've got to get off the trail 1161 hand.

1162 Kill the beast first.

1163 But B, I have a student in my unlimited 1164 group right now that struggles with a 1165 cupped wrist at impact.

1166 Okay?

1167 And he's had sent in two or three reviews 1168 and still really struggling with it.

And 1169 I told him, I want you to go to the 1170 hitting it low shot day two on the site.

1171 And I said, the only thing I want to see 1172 you do is come back.

I don't care if your 1173 swing only gets this far.

I want to see 1174 you come back with your hand this far 1175 ahead.

I had it so far ahead, the club 1176 couldn't even bottom out.

I don't even 1177 care.

1178 I want to see this.

1179 I want to see you, 1180 however length swing that you want to 1181 use, go to here and hold it, keeping that 1182 hand ahead.

1183 Because you have to get the feel of what 1184 it is to get over it.

And most players, 1185 when they have the cupping, their trail 1186 hand's taken over too much, they get into 1187 this position.

You need to feel 1188 the opposite.

1189 Practice the little low lead arm only 1190 shots in day two.

1191 Because as soon as you start cupping 1192 again, and you start seeing that 1193 ballooning ball flight, you'll be like, 1194 nope, I know that feeling of this.

That's 1195 not it.

1196 Isolate, isolate, isolate.

1197 Could you please address hitting both 1198 draws and fades with lead side release?

1199 Draws and fades with lead side release.

1200 Parameters don't change that much 1201 regardless of which release that you're 1202 using.

1203 If I'm going to hit a draw with a lead 1204 side release, as I start to come down, 1205 I'm still going to shift.

I'm still going 1206 to post.

I'm still going to let the club 1207 release itself.

1208 What's going to cause the club face to 1209 rotate a little bit sooner and square up?

1210 How would I get the club face to do that?

1211 I mean, I don't want to manually do it.

1212 I mean, I've done enough golf in my time.

1213 I can manually make the ball curve.

1214 But if I want to make it kind of free 1215 -flowing, not a whole lot of work, what is 1216 one thing I could do?

1217 Now, I told you all earlier that if you 1218 kill your hips, the club's going to flip.

1219 I don't want you to flip.

1220 But as I start to work down in a lead 1221 side release, all I'm going to do is I'm 1222 going to keep my chest closed a little 1223 bit more, about five degrees more closed.

1224 Because if my chest stays five degrees 1225 more closed and I post up, that club's 1226 going to come in a little bit sooner and 1227 rotate, that's going to give me a little 1228 draw.

1229 Now, we don't have to be a rocket 1230 surgeon, diagnose the fade portion.

1231 If I want to hit a lead release fade, as 1232 I start to work through here and I start 1233 to work into impact, I'm just going to 1234 allow my chest to open up a little bit.

1235 Because if in a lead side release, 1236 the more I open up the chest, the more 1237 it's going to delay that face from 1238 rotating over.

Because as soon as I stop 1239 the chest, this club's rotating over.

1240 Just like when a draw, if it stays here, 1241 this club's rotating over.

So all I'm 1242 going to do is as I start to post, I'm 1243 going to allow my chest to open up a 1244 little bit, which is going to delay the 1245 rotation in the face.

And then I'm still 1246 going to allow for it to release and hit 1247 a little release to cut.

1248 All right.

1249 David, we have that on the dock in the 1250 near future.

Is lead side release more 1251 advantageous for 1252 senior players?

Yes.

1253 I mean, I don't want to, like I said, 1254 Chris and myself are going to be a little 1255 bit biased.

1256 It is and it isn't.

Now, Arnold, as in 1257 Schwarzenegger, he may be more of a trail 1258 side player in his senior age.

But if you 1259 think about the older you get, what are 1260 you going to lose?

You start to lose a 1261 little bit of strength.

You start to lose 1262 a little bit of flexibility.

1263 So with the trail side release, it's 1264 going to be much more active, relying on 1265 a little bit more strength and a little 1266 bit more rotation.

The lead side release 1267 is going to allow you to take advantage 1268 of the physics and the whipping on its 1269 own with very minimal rotation.

1270 So not only for safety, you'll be able to 1271 get a little bit more free speed.

1272 All right, Tom.

1273 In Chris's earlier video, he seemed to 1274 show that you want to snap your right arm 1275 out to the ball while clearing your left 1276 hip until your arms are straight.

1277 I agree with Chris.

Okay.

1278 Wow.

1279 That's.

Tom, are you talking about a 1280 video crew?

I'll let Chris handle that 1281 one for right now.

1282 Okay.

Which one of my question?

1283 I see what your question is.

Go back and 1284 watch it.

That was a lead side release.

1285 Okay.

1286 All right.

1287 Let me scroll up here.

1288 Did I miss anything, Chris?

Is there 1289 anything up there that you saw that I 1290 need to get to?

1291 If not, fire away.

1292 I've got a couple more minutes and then 1293 I'm going to kick you all out the door.

1294 I've got to eat some dinner.

1295 6 something here.

6.

50 here.

1296 Mountain time.

1297 If you want to know a little bit more of 1298 me or my story 1299 to kind of help you out with release.

1300 So my body is basically made of duct tape 1301 and spare parts.

1302 So for me, I have to be a lead side 1303 releaser because I'm too damaged on this 1304 side.

It's just not going to work.

Next 1305 time I try to release with my trail arm, 1306 my arm's probably going to fall out of 1307 socket.

1308 Anchored to hell and clavicle ribs, you 1309 name it.

1310 But so in my playing career, I used to 1311 come down like this at impact.

1312 So my right foot would be way up off the 1313 ground.

My chest would be really open.

My 1314 hip's super open.

I could hit it very 1315 far.

1316 But I had a problem with direction.

I 1317 never had to worry about left.

I had a 1318 problem with right.

I'd hit a whole lot 1319 of blocks because somebody told me to 1320 keep ripping my body through.

1321 Okay.

Now, as I said earlier, the body's 1322 going to square, you can square it up a 1323 little bit with your body, but there's a 1324 lot of diminishing returns.

1325 So I had to switch to a lead side 1326 release.

1327 Now, Switching to a lead side release was 1328 probably the toughest change I've ever 1329 made in my golfing career.

Because I was 1330 so used to driving my body hard 1331 that now it was, oh, okay, now shift 1332 post, be done with your swing.

Let the 1333 club rotate independently.

I was always 1334 taught that was a hook.

1335 Craig, don't let the face rotate.

You're 1336 going to start hooking the ball and then 1337 you're going to really struggle.

1338 Well, come to find out slow motion 1339 cameras and track man and data, everybody 1340 lets the club face rotate.

And once I 1341 started letting it rotate and I started 1342 to kind of see behind the scenes of what 1343 I was missing.

And that the club is truly 1344 designed to square up itself, made golf a 1345 hell of a lot of fun for me.

So 1346 I do miss a little bit of trail side 1347 because it's kind of fun to give it 1348 something.

1349 But at the end of the day, I don't have 1350 that kind of practice time.

I don't have 1351 that kind of body.

So switching to a lead 1352 side release gave me the consistency that 1353 I wanted with the same amount of 1354 distance.

1355 It just made it a lot more effortless for 1356 me.

I didn't have to rely on so much, 1357 but boy, it wasn't fun to change.

I can 1358 tell you that.

1359 All right.

Let's see, David.

1360 Can you talk more about trail foot and 1361 the axiom for a lead side release?

It's 1362 the same thing, David.

1363 So if you're using the trail foot in the 1364 axiom, if you're going to be a lead side 1365 releaser, as you're pushing off this 1366 trail's foot right here, I'm pushing off 1367 the toe.

All right.

So I can push off my 1368 toe and clear my hip and you can see my 1369 heels up just the tiniest bit, but not a 1370 lot.

You got to remember when you're a 1371 lead side releaser, that trail foot, 1372 okay, 1373 is going to kind of be a little bit of a 1374 governor.

You want to hit better quality 1375 golf shots.

The less that trail foot 1376 does, the less chance you have of 1377 breaking something.

Okay.

And I'm meaning 1378 like kicking the hip and early extension 1379 and tush line and stuff.

So if you're 1380 doing axiom and I'll do axiom right here.

1381 So I'm going to exaggerate a little bit.

1382 So if I'm going axiom from here to here, 1383 like my heel comes up a little bit more, 1384 but the motion isn't different.

1385 Okay.

1386 It isn't different.

I'm still shifting.

1387 I'm still trying to clear my hips.

It's 1388 just when I get into the hitting area, 1389 I'm now letting this club work 1390 independently.

And my forearms rotate 1391 over versus continuing to kind of drive 1392 my right hip and shoulder and extend my 1393 trail arm down the line.

It's not really 1394 going to differ that much.

1395 Okay.

1396 Which grip is recommended for lead side 1397 release?

1398 Strong, neutral, or weak?

1399 Doesn't really matter, David.

1400 I don't tend to change anybody's grip 1401 unless it is super strong or super, super 1402 weak.

1403 You can be this person right here.

It's 1404 kind of the one knuckler, one and a half.

1405 You can be the two knuckler where you're 1406 just a little bit more slightly strong.

1407 It's kind of like mine.

You can be a 1408 little bit stronger here, but I would 1409 tend to say, okay, don't quote me.

I 1410 would tend to say that the slightly 1411 strong group is going to be the best for 1412 the lead release.

Because it's kind of 1413 the best blend of having the lag and 1414 allowing the club to release itself.

If 1415 you tend to get a lot stronger, 1416 you can, using the trail hand is going to 1417 be a little bit easier because you're not 1418 really doing a ton with it.

1419 1420 but also when you're trying to flatten 1421 your lead wrist and you're trying to 1422 control ball flight and trajectory, you 1423 don't want to be on one side or the 1424 other.

You don't want to be too weak.

You 1425 don't want to be too strong.

1426 Shooting for an even ground.

If you're 1427 just a touch on the weaker side or just a 1428 touch on the stronger side, you can do 1429 whichever one you want.

1430 All right, Craig and Chris, thank you.

1431 All right.

Thank you, Charles.

1432 James.

Do both release look similar down 1433 the line?

James.

Let me show you the 1434 difference.

1435 So that is a good question.

1436 I thought I covered it, but I probably 1437 didn't put enough emphasis on it.

1438 When you're a lead side releaser, as you 1439 start to work into position, chest, 1440 square, 1441 square, tip to be square.

1442 Okay.

1443 Trail side release.

1444 As I start to drive the right hip, the 1445 right shoulder is going to tend to work 1446 down more and the trail arm is going to 1447 tend to work a little bit more down the 1448 line.

So you're going to tend to see this 1449 be just a little bit more open.

I'm not 1450 saying like this, but to get your trail 1451 arm and hand over there, you're going to 1452 have to have that right shoulder work 1453 down the line and work down just a little 1454 bit more.

Okay.

1455 All right.

Thank you, Anthony.

1456 No more questions.

1457 All right.

Thank you, Howard.

All right.

1458 With that being said, we will catch you 1459 on the flip side.

Don't forget, we have a 1460 webinar next week with Chris Tyler.

1461 I don't know what it's about.

What is it?

1462 Is it the trust line, Chris?

1463 Not sure, but be sure to check it out 1464 because if you are missing any of Chris's 1465 videos, webinars, what have you, then 1466 you're missing out on improving your golf 1467 swing.

1468 You're doing yourself a disservice.

1469 Okay.

1470 So check out Chris's webinar next week.

1471 Not sure what it's on.

He might post it 1472 there, but you will always learn 1473 something great from Chris.

So you need 1474 to check it out.

Okay.

1475 Thank you guys for the time and gals.

1476 Hope you enjoyed it.

If you want further 1477 information on this, let me know.

Okay.

1478 Come find me.

Or if you just want a whole 1479 webinar dedicated to just the tiniest 1480 piece in it, let us know.

Okay.

It's been 1481 a pleasure.

Talk to you soon.