Do you occasionally hit wild, unpredictable golf shots? Or struggle with a flippy impact position?
If so, this video will help you develop the perfect impact position you have always wanted for hitting powerful, consistent golf shots.
Most golfers flip the club in a desperate attempt to square the club face. They sense the face is open during the downswing and know they need to do something to try and send the ball toward the target.
Of course, this is impossible to time consistently and leads to extremely erratic golf shots. The cure for this problem is to learn how to square the club face early in the downswing.
Does your club face look like this in the downswing? Here is what you need to do...
As you can see in the picture above, I am demonstrating what most golfers do in the downswing.
In an effort to produce lag, they leave the lead wrist in a "cupped" position which leaves the club face wide open unless they have an overly strong grip. At this point, the golfer is forced to flip to keep from hitting it 90 yards to the trail side!
In RST, we want to start squaring the club face very early in the downswing, even during the transition.
This way, the club face is gradually rotating back to square throughout the downswing at a much slower rate. This is measured in degrees of rotation per second.
Research has shown that tour professionals such as Tiger Woods rotate the club face closed through impact as much as 1,000 degrees per second slower than the average high handicapper — once again demonstrating why he is so much more consistent than virtually everyone else.
If Tiger had to rotate the club face closed at the last second as most amateurs do, he would struggle hitting the ball straight just like everyone else. But he does not, and in this video you will learn the secret of the pros and one of the core fundamentals of RST — to square the club face early in the downswing. To see how your own club face control and impact position compare to elite standards, try a free AI swing analysis.
Video Transcription: Squaring the Face Early
Many golfers do not understand what should be happening during the downswing and during the transition, specifically what is occurring with the golf club as you bring it down into impact.
In this video, we are going to discuss, from the down-the-line view, what I refer to as squaring the face early, and what that is going to do for your golf swing — especially if you are accustomed to coming in with a very open face. So many golfers struggle with this, then have to try and time a flip at the bottom to get the club face back to square at impact.
First, let us look at what that looks like. As I come down into impact, if I am in a decent position at the top, when I start coming down many golfers I observe have the club face in this position. This is very open, versus this would be very shut, and this is where we are working toward.
As they start pulling down, they just rip the handle of the golf club down, typically in an effort to produce lag, which is entirely the wrong approach. They leave the club face wide open, so as they get into a position where they are almost at impact with the club shaft parallel to the ground, the face is still essentially looking at the sky.
As they come down, the club face is still very open. Then at the very last second, they try to flip it and stop everything. That is why so many golfers end up with a really flippy impact position.
It is because they are doing it in an effort to square the club face. You cannot blame them. If they do not do something to get that face square, the ball is going to go a mile to the trail side — a very weak, slappy slice.
The cure — as always in RST, we do not put Band-Aids on swings — is to do things correctly. You start working to square the club face early in the downswing so that as you come down, there is very little rotation going through impact. Let me explain what that means.
If you imagine the club face sitting here — I open it so you can see the face, then shut it really fast — that is going to be measured in degrees of rotation per second. You can imagine, if I take this club and spin it as fast as possible, let us say it is rotating at approximately 1,000 degrees per second. That is extremely rapid rotation.
In a well-executed golf swing, we want very little rotation, or very slow rotation, through impact. We want to square the face early in the downswing, so that degrees of rotation per second might drop down to 250-300 degrees.
Instead of having a flash flip coming into impact and hoping you manage to time it consistently — which you never will — the club face is already nearly square and rotating only a few hundred degrees per second. That is the ideal, so that you are not trying to flip it. For real-time coaching on your club face control and release, try a free AI golf lesson.
The only way to accomplish that is, obviously, to be in a good position at the top with a proper grip. We spend all this time working on those fundamentals. Now, as you start coming down, one of the first keys is that you begin flattening the lead wrist. That is actually going to happen slightly at the top.
You are rotating your hand in this direction. I am going to exaggerate this. You do not want to start aggressively flipping it over, but this is the move — versus just pulling the handle down and keeping the back of your glove facing the sky. Imagine that you are taking the back of your glove and turning it downward.
That is all I am doing. I am taking my hand and just rotating it. Let us see what happens to the club — versus if I just pull down, the club face is going to be wide open.
Now I am going to take it and perform that same rotation. I am starting to rotate it down. Now the club face is starting to look at the ball. My degrees of rotation per second has been reduced dramatically.
That is a critical piece of the downswing. If you do not do that, you are going to have to rely on some kind of flash speed at the bottom and hope that you save it with your hands — and you will always struggle with inconsistency.
As you have mastered the backswing and are now working on the transition, you want to start very gradually adding some rotation — flattening that lead wrist so that as you come down into impact, you feel that the back of your hand is pointing down at the ground at impact. Versus coming in very open where the logo of your glove is pointing away from you, then flipping it at the last second.
Start rotating it down, get the logo of your glove facing the ground, and then go through the Lead Hand Release Drill. You will feel what it is like to have a proper impact position and slow down the release of the club so you are no longer trying to learn to time a flip.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
Club face open (above), shut (center) and neutral (below)
"Flippy" impact position
Left wrist with (right) & without rotation (left)
Back of hand points down (left), versus out (right)
