How to Release The Golf Club: Master Fundamentals in 2021

Hi. I’m Chuck Quinton, founder of RotarySwing Golf. In the previous two videos, I talked a lot about the physics of the impact position and release and how it impacts how you get into a great tour-quality impact position. In this video, I’m gonna talk a little bit more about the release and its importance. One of the things that’s critical in the golf swing that we all know about and want … typically most amateurs want more of and better players wanna get rid of is this concept of lag. The lag is, again, to redefine it, just the angle between the forearms and the shaft, whether you define it within the left arm and right arm, it’s not important for our discussion point for now. This angle’s potential energy, as I discussed in the first video, but that potential energy is useless if you don’t release it.

In other words, if you have this great angle and you hold it all the way down to impact and you hit the ball like this, you haven’t released it and it doesn’t give you any more speed. This is critical because the release of this lagging, or the release of the angle from your wrist accounts for over 60% of your club head speed. Over two thirds of your speed comes just from the release of your wrists. To have this lag angle, to have this potential energy, and then properly release it is the essence of the golf swing. It is the most important part of the swing. Most amateurs struggle because they release it incorrectly and start doing it too soon. As they do that, they get into this position because they’re pushing from the right side. If you watch the first two videos you’ll understand what that means. As they’re doing that, the lag angle’s getting thrown away and they get into this scoopy chicken wing impact position.

To understand how to release the club, you’ve gotta understand what the word release really means. Think about that for a second. You hear this term on TV all the time or for golf instructors or other golfers, “Oh. I didn’t release the club.” What does that mean, literally, to release something? Well, it means to let go. If you really release something, that’s when you let it go and that’s when it’s gonna accelerate the most. The trick is how you release the club in the golf swing is everything. So, when we talk about that and we’re talking about getting rid of this angle and letting the forms and club face rotate over, you can see the club can move very fast without my body doing much of anything. That’s giving me a lot of speed just because I’m properly releasing the club without having to do much with my body.

Now, to do that correctly, I want you to think about how you’d swing a hammer. If you were to use a hammer, and we’re gonna use either hand for now, this angle that you create is what gives you the potential energy to get a lot of speed into that nail without a lot of effort. You don’t heave your body into and hack at it with your arm. You get the majority of your speed from the release of your wrist. Think about that. If you’re holding onto a hammer really tight and your wrist is really tight, you can’t get a lot of speed out of it ’cause your wrist can’t move very fast compared to keeping your wrist soft and letting it release with a lot of speed.

I have a great video that’s gonna show you a really cool trick that’s gonna help you pick up at least 20 yards off the tee if you’re not releasing the club properly and don’t have lag. This video, I call it the Vijay Golf Club Release Drill, is gonna show you not only how to properly rotate and release the club, but it’s gonna show you how to pick up a tremendous amount of effortless speed all from doing less in your-