The Bent Trailing Elbow Drill, Part 8

Finally! This is the final post in this collection. Everything I've written about within the previous posts are basics that you can use in quite a lot any swing, however nowadays we're going to put all of it together into an instance swing you can virtually use.

In addition, I'll be talking about one more fundamental that I call the trigger move . I think this will help you make your change of direction more easily and consistently. But first I'll outline one way you can integrate all of these fundamentals into a usable swing.

For lack of a better name, I'll call this the Compact Full Body Swing:

• Compact, because it assumes you can't make a full 90° shoulder turn. If you can, that's great, but this swing is designed to give you some serious clubhead speed even if you can't.
• Full body, because most swing methods focus on either leg drive or arm swing. In this swing, I've tried to balance the two, in order to give you the most swing speed possible with the reduced shoulder turn.

Here's how you put the Compact Full Body Swing together:

• You start with a one-piece takeaway, to make sure you get a wide arc that will be on plane when you reach the top of your backswing. If you don't know how to do a OPT, here's the link to the post where I explain it. It's part of the Dexter's Coming Over-the-Top series, to which you can find links on the Some Useful Post Series page.
• Wrist cock during your backswing can take three forms:

• early wrist cock, where your wrists are fully cocked before you reach the top of your backswing;
• late wrist cock, where they don't cock until the last moment at the top; and
• no wrist cock, where (DUH!) you don't cock them at all during the backswing.

This swing will work best with either early wrist cock (Cristie Kerr is a good example) or no wrist cock (J.B. Holmes is one example). The late wrist cock needs to be timed in a slightly different way -- I know because I use a late wrist cock -- and that just complicates this swing.

At the change of course you use the cause circulate I'll discuss in a few moments. It's an easier way to alternate path than trying to sense a pause or some thing comparable.

The downswing and end is the pass that I taught you with the drills in the sooner posts. It tries to recreate the sidearm throwing experience that the long force champions use to get distance. The key 'function' that you swing through is the "bent elbow at your aspect" role you spot inside the Ha Na Jang image that I've utilized in maximum of those posts. (And whilst I do not know how she'll finish, as I'm scripting this publish Ha Na is main the LPGA occasion this week after 3 rounds. How handy on account that I've used her as a version!)

That should be a fairly straightforward swing once I explain the trigger move, which is what the rest of this post is about.

I spent a honest quantity of time on wrist cock within the previous posts. I divided wrist cock into elements:

• The first was sidecock , the wrist movement you use if you make a karate chop with the side of your hand.
• The other I dubbed backcock , where the back of your hand hinges toward your forearm.

I also talked a bit about Downcock, a term most instructors use to describe wrist cock that happens during the downswing, after the change of direction. We tend to think of it only in terms of sidecock, but backcock is actually a very important part of the action. Downcock helps create more clubhead speed, but it's a bit difficult for most weekend players to get a handle on.

Enter the trigger move , a way of creating Downcock by focusing more on backcocking than sidecocking. While Downcock tends to be created by 'letting' gravity and momentum flex your relaxed wrist and forearm muscles -- in other words, it's something that 'just happens' rather than something you 'do' -- the trigger move gives you something to consciously 'do' that creates the Downcock. It's always easier to 'do' something than to 'not do' something!

If you are burdened, do not worry. It'll be clean in a moment.

We finally had a decent day of weather this past week, which means I had a nice sunny day to take photos. Since I had to do them by myself, I only have one hand on the club -- my trailing hand, which happens to be my right hand. Your trailing hand is the one that you primarily feel the trigger move with.

The first pair of pics here indicates the start and finish of the cause circulate. The left photograph suggests my trailing hand at the pinnacle of my backswing, simply as I begin to alternate path. The proper image shows the finish of the trigger pass, after my hand has moved down barely.

Please recognize that there are TWO things occurring right here, and neither of them is a huge move:

• My hand has moved downward. (And away from me -- see how my hand looks a bit smaller in the second photo?) The move down is only an inch or so.
• The tricky part is the apparent rotation of my hand. See how my fingers and the heel of my hand below my thumb are clearly visible in the left photo but are both pretty well covered by my thumb in the right photo? If you look closely, you can also see (because of the shadows on my thumb) that my thumb has rotated forward a bit. The shaft is a bit more vertical in the second photo but that's because I was trying to maneuver the camera with my other hand; if I was making a real swing with both hands, the shaft would actually be on the same plane or slightly flatter.

Why do I say that the rotation is 'apparent' and that it's the tricky part? That's due to the fact you don't feel the pass as a rotation, but alternatively as a push.

And sure, I'm going to educate you what that seems like. It's surely a completely easy element... And I have greater photographs to show it.

These have been taken within the house, in a room where the sun might forged shadows (for depth notion, for the reason that there may be movement TOWARD the camera) as I did this little drill. Again, the photograph at the left is the begin of the flow, the one on the right is the end. Because doorjambs don't flow, we have to do this drill through tilting our trailing hand backward. But as soon as you have carried out it a few instances, it is easy to translate it to a push flow. The rationalization is underneath the pictures.

As you may see, on the left I've placed my hand on the doorjamb as if the ridge became the membership shaft. The pad at the base of my thumb is in opposition to the flat facet of the doorjamb that faces the digital camera. Nothing tricky there.

In the right photo I've used my thumb pad as a pivot point and bent my hand backward -- creating backcock, as it were. When I do, my thumb and fingers move back away from the doorframe. The move creates the same angles as the apparent rotation in the outdoor photos above. It's not a rotation so much as seeing the back of your hand at a different angle.

If you try this backcocking move a few times, it may not take long earlier than you may start feeling it as a pushing move. The simplest manner to get the hang of it's miles to location your hand better on the doorframe; I determined 'forehead excessive' was a great area. If you drop your elbow a piece so your thumb pad 'rolls' slightly downward to create the backcock, it is quite easy to sense as if you're pushing your hand away even as it movements down.

Remember, while you in reality use a membership to try this, the momentum of the clubhead at the trade of course will help create the backcocking motion. And with both palms holding the club cope with, this move will truely motive your lead wrist to bow barely, a function many gamers try unsuccessfully to create in different ways.

When you first insert this trigger flow into your swing, make the swing more slowly. This isn't always a sloppy pass, so the club should not wiggle round all over the area! Make shorter swings, then steadily extend them as you get used to the move. This trigger pass need to make it a good deal easier to create that sidearm throwing experience with the drills in the earlier posts.

And that wraps up this publish collection. Hopefully this information -- and in case you want it, the Compact Full Body Swing I created to illustrate it -- will assist your game. As usual, when you have questions you could simply positioned them inside the feedback section underneath the relevant put up. I've got the blog installation to alert me on every occasion a new comment appears, so I must be able to answer it inside an afternoon or so.