2 Finger Release Drill

Hi, guys. Be honest out there. How many of you are still struggling to get this nice, proper tour quality extension and release in your golf swing? If you're struggling with your release still, you're still using too much body and too much right arm. How do you get rid of that stuff, to get rid of that stupid slice, or the blocks, or the smother hooks? All of that's caused from too much right side dominance, in 99% of the cases. How do you get rid of it?

                I have my favorite drill that's going to force you to release the club like a pro every single time. If you do this drill correctly, it will literally be virtually impossible for you to get into this stuff, or this, where you're smothering it. It's going to teach you the feeling of a proper release. It's a drill you can do both indoors and out. You can do it in the winter. You can do it in the summer. You can do it hitting balls. You can do it while on a conference call, like I do. This drill will make releasing the club a no-brainer. Let's take a look at how we do this.

                The simplest way to force you to start releasing the club is two fingers only. I call it my two-finger release drill. You're going to do it with both hands to train your brain to get the feeling of this. You take your right hand at first, because this is your dominant hand. You make left-handed swings, and you'll find this drill very, very easy. Then you take your left hand, last two fingers on your left hand, and do the same thing.

                What happens here when you have just your two fingers on it, you're going to be like, "This is really hard to control the club." No kidding. That's the point. It's called a release for a reason. What does it mean to release something? It means to let go. If you're death-gripping this thing and steering it through with your hands, you're doing the exact opposite of releasing it. You must release the club for power, consistency, and control. Those three things are kind of important in golf. In fact, it's the most important thing. The release is what provides those three keys to the swing.

                If you're not releasing it, you're always steering it. You're holding off control or holding off power. You're just hitting the equivalent of a checked swing in baseball down the first base line. That's not going to go very well. You're never going to let the club face square up, which is going to allow you to put controlled draw spin on the ball, and stop slicing it, and so on.

                Practice two fingers only, and get these three fingers out of the way, because they're just impeding you from being a good golfer. Make some swings. Don't worry about being too mechanical with it. Shift your weight and turn, the normal stuff. Then hit a couple little easy shots. You don't have to hit these very hard. Just a normal little practice swing.

                What you'll find is it's going to feel very, at first, very unwieldy to get the ball to go where you want it to, like it did there. You may hit some off the heel. You just need to stand a little bit further away. If you're hitting them off the toe, you're ripping your shoulders open.

                Work on getting just these two fingers to release the club, and you'll find that the club naturally turns over. It naturally gets into a squared up release position, and it naturally gets on plane. How would the club ever go up here, and how would it ever go here, unless I'm steering it with my body? The club is always going to naturally release when I use just these last two fingers. Again, it's going to be difficult to control at first. That's normal. I'm trying to teach you to give up control to gain control.

                When you go to put both hands back on the club, the feeling is the same. You're trying to replicate the same thing. Start out really small at first, but still focus on these last two fingers. Make sure the rest of your fingers are holding onto the club very, very lightly. Just make a nice little easy swing, and let go with the right hand, and see if you got the club released. Here you can see that I did. The club is turned over. As long as I did that, and the ball didn't go right, I know that I released the club.

                Then I can start adding a little bit more speed. I can keep the right hand on there a little bit longer and start making normal swings, making full speed releases. And you'll never struggle with a release again.