Left Hand Golf Club Release Drill
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Learning how to release the left hand properly in the downswing is truly one of the key factors that separates the 80s, 90s and 100s shooters from those who can consistently shoot in the 70s. It is such a core fundamental that I make many of the tour pros I work with do nothing but hit balls with their left hand only for several weeks until it is properly trained. Their reward for this effort is flat, penetrating golf shots that can fly through any wind with minimal effort.
- Many golfers release with just the right hand or right side of the body using much more effort, and often not releasing the club at all
- Proper release can turn a weak, high ball flight into a low, penetrating one
- For the drill, get into proper impact alignment and keep the left wrist flat
- You should feel that the left hand stops at the seam in the left pant leg
- Let the club release with its own momentum
- Practice hitting chip shots with a short iron, bringing the right hand back in gradually
Releasing the golf club is the final payoff in all of the hard work we've put into getting ourselves in the right impact position, the right backswing, the right takeaway, The right?
That's where we finally get.
All the effortless speed is that there's a very efficient release mechanism that happens when you swing correctly.
And RST is obviously all about being as efficient as possible and using physics and biomechanics to our advantage.
One of the key drills that I'm going to give you today is what I call the left hand release drill.
And for a lot of golfers because they're right handed, they've learned to just release with their right hand, or particularly the right side of their body.
So what that looks like as you come down into impact is that the right shoulder starts pushing into the ball.
And so now, as you look at the golf club, it actually never, let me grab one that's a little bit easier to see here.
The golf club never releases, the club's still up in the air here and so they tend to have a pretty weak high ball flight.
I'm all for a very low, flat, penetrating ball flight, at least a ball that launches very low.
Because when you compress it properly and you have the right angle of attack and right path, that's exactly how it should fly.
And then the wind and conditions don't affect your ball flight.
So if you struggle with kind of a weak high ball flight, it's pretty likely that you're pushing the right side of your body through.
And so the club never releases.
And you'll see a lot of golfers where the handle of the golf club is in close to their body.
While the club head is still way out away from them and hasn't turned over yet.
This is a very inefficient way to release the golf club.
You're releasing it with your body, and so you're having to put a lot of muscular effort and wear and tear on your body.
Versus letting the golf club release with your hands.
So now I'm going to show you the drill as I come down and get my impact alignments.
And now my hand's going to feel like it basically stops moving.
This is a drill.
My hand feels like it stops moving.
I let the club release.
Now you'll see that the club head and butt of the club are in alignment and the club is released.
And there's no effort for me on my part to do this.
My hands are soft, just letting the club take over and release at this point while keeping my left wrist flat.
And I'll show you face on in just a second.
What I want you to see is there's a very big difference between letting the club release, Keeping my right shoulder back away from the ball as long as I can, and letting my left hand rotate versus driving my right shoulder to the ball.
You can see how much more muscular, physical effort it's taking to release the golf club.
I'm having to do a lot of rotation through my spine.
It's very hard on your body.
It's completely unnecessary.
When we look at it face on, I'm going to do this very slow at first.
I'm coming down.
I'm getting my impact alignments from the impact alignments face on video.
My left wrist is flat.
Notice I've got the shaft leaning and then my hand, the back of my left hand is basically on the inside of my pant seam.
So the seam that your dry cleaner puts on your pants about the middle of your thigh.
That's about where your hand is going to feel like it stops and then it's going to rotate.
Now notice that my hand is still moving a little bit, but in my feeling, the hand feels like it stops and just rotates.
To let the club release.
Now a lot of you might be thinking, well that's a flip.
It's not a flip.
A flip would involve typically taking the right hand and flipping and breaking the left wrist down.
Or the club face coming in wide open and trying to slam it shut.
It's not what you're trying to do here.
We've already worked on squaring the club face early, coming down, so there's actually very little rotation that's happening through the downswing, with the club face into impact.
The club face is coming in pretty quiet.
So as we get here now we're just letting physics take over and letting the club release.
If I keep my hands soft and let the club release on its own you can see that I'm moving very little.
I'm putting no effort in here but the club right at impact is accelerating a great deal.
I'm putting nothing into it.
I'm letting physics take over.
And if I just do this, keep my hand feeling like it gets to the inside of my pant seam and let the club release.
Keep my left wrist flat and it's rotating through letting the club release, letting the toe pass.
Now I've got the feel of a proper release.
It's a very different feel than taking my right shoulder and driving it through the ball.
This is taking a lot of work and this hurts my back and there's no fun and this is easy.
The other benefit is, I mentioned earlier, when guys drive their right shoulder through the ball, they tend to have a very weak high ball flight.
Because you're never letting the club face de-loft their impact.
You're kind of basically hitting the equivalent of a check swing in baseball, rather than releasing and rotating the club down.
When you do the left arm only release drill, that club face is coming into impact and as it rotates through, it's de-lofting.
Basically, like the forehand in tennis or a forehand in ping pong, table tennis.
Now it's not quite.
It's not a dramatic flip like that, but you are letting it release and keeping your hand feeling like it's no longer moving.
If you keep pulling your arm this way again the club's not releasing this is very inefficient.
Let the club get to your impact position, get your impact alignments, and then let it release and you can hit balls like this.
In fact, you should, and you should start out very, very small, hitting very short chip shots.
Because if you're used to pushing your body through, or pulling your left arm too much.
And not letting the club release.
By feeling like your hand stops at your pant seam, then this is going to be hard for you to hit balls with.
But But just start out really small, left hand only, and get into your impact alignments and just let the club release on its own.
And you should be able to hit nice, flat, little pitch shots and slowly work into hitting longer shots.
And I recommend doing it just with your left hand only, which is with a short iron, just to get the feeling.
And then as you start bringing your right hand back in there to apply speed, try and hit balls at first with your right hand.
Just barely being on there.
Because this is a this is not a speed drill, this is not a power drill.
This is getting the impact, alignments and the rotation, the release of the golf club in there.
So, hit short little chip shots like this.
Get the release of the left hand going and watch your ball flight come down dramatically and start really compressing the golf ball.
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