Wrist Hinge & Wrist Cock in Golf Swing – How Much and When?

One of the most common questions asked about the golf backswing is how much wrist set/cock should you have during each phase of the swing. Well, that is what we are going to be answering today. You’ll be surprised just how simple the answer is.

Short and simple answer…

If you are 50% done with your backswing, then you should be at 50% wrist set (50% of the full range of motion for cocking of the wrist). If you are 25% complete with the swing, you should roughly have 25% of your full range of motion of wrist set.

Pretty simple right? Well, there is more to it! So let’s get into that now by watching this video:

More Detailed Answer…

There is a natural way of creating the proper amount of wrist set in the golf swing. By developing some feel for how to respond to the weight of the clubhead, you will see that you wrist will start to support the club properly throughout the swing. Easier said than done right?

The problem is, most amateur golfers tend to get overly active with the hands and arms in the golf swing and tend to carry way too much tension in the wrists, which makes it nearly impossible  to develop any sort of feel for the golf club.

Let’s start to fix it with these Golf Instruction Videos! 

If you didn’t already know, tension in the hands and arms can be your worst enemy. Even though it feels powerful to grip the club really tight and to try and bash the golf ball as hard as you can, you are more than likes costing yourself a ton of speed and control in the golf swing.

A good way to develop the feel for the weight of the golf club, like I have mentioned a couple times already, is to get the club moving by shifting your weight and turning your body. If you are hanging onto the club, in a relaxed way of course, then your hands and arms will move when you begin to rotate. Trust me, they will.

By moving the club with your body and keeping the wrists supple, you will see that as you get to a completed takeaway, your wrists will begin to set on their own. This is the brains way of telling you to start to support something that is starting to feel a bit heavy. Try it out, grab a club and keep your wrists extremely relaxed and just turn your shoulders 45 degrees. You will notice that if your wrists didn’t set, the club would feel awkwardly heavy and you wouldn’t want to stay in that position for a long time.

Simple checkpoints:

• Make sure your hands, wrists and arms are relaxed at your address position.
• Shift your weight to your trail leg
• Turn your body.
• Keep the wrists supple and you will see that the wrists will naturally want to support the golf club.
• At the completion of the takeaway, look for the club to be parallel to the ground.
• When your lead arm is parallel to the ground, look for the club head to be vertical to the sky or at 90 degrees to the arm.
• Allow for the wrists to get fully set when you start your shift back to the lead side. This will create some downcock in the club and give you a bigger angle for lag.

The key to creating a perfect backswing with just the amount of wrist set, is to keep the wrists relaxed and focus primarily on loading up your trunk and turning your body. Of course, there are some small movements of the arms in the backswing. We elevate the arms slightly and we flex the trail arm as we work to finish the backswing.

If you have been struggling with you backswing, then you must see a great video called “5 minutes to a perfect backswing” by clicking HERE now. This video will show you how to create a perfect looking backswing just like the pros you see on T.V.

I know we all want that prefect looking swing that is on plane at the top and you will be very surprised how easy you the club on plane every single time you swing to the top. Let’s get to work on building the swing of your dreams. Good Luck!