Okay, so today I decided it was time to really get down to it with the wrist hinge. Been putting it off, you know how it is, always something else that seems more important, or just easier to mess with.
Got out to the range, grabbed my trusty 7-iron. First few swings, just trying to get loose, felt… well, like usual. Not much hinge going on, felt like I was just lifting the club with my arms. You know, all stiff and wooden. Didn’t feel powerful at all.
So, I stopped just whacking balls and really tried to focus. I started with half swings. Just takeaway to waist high, then try to feel that hinge happening naturally. Felt super awkward. Like I was forcing my wrists into some weird angle they didn’t want to go into.
Trying to Figure it Out
I remembered seeing something somewhere, or maybe someone told me, can’t recall exactly, about feeling the weight of the club head help set the wrists. So I tried that. Loosened my grip a bit, maybe too much at first ’cause the club felt wobbly. But I kept trying to just let the momentum of the club moving back do the work.
Here’s what I did for a bit:
- Take the club back slow, real slow.
- Feel the weight shift in my hands as the club head went up.
- Tried to let my wrists kinda just… fold? Set? Hinge? Whatever you call it.
- Didn’t swing through, just focused on that top-of-the-backswing feeling.
It was hit and miss. Sometimes I felt a little something, like a ‘click’ where it felt right. Other times, felt like I was just manually bending my wrists again, which I know isn’t it. Got a bit frustrating, honestly. Hit a few thin shots when I actually tried to complete the swing like that, probably ’cause I was thinking too much about the wrists and forgetting everything else.
Making Some Progress?
After maybe twenty minutes of these drills, I started trying full swings again, but still thinking about that ‘letting it happen’ feeling rather than forcing it. Tried to feel the hinge happen later in the backswing, not right at the start.
It started to feel a little better. Not perfect, definitely not perfect. But there were a few shots where the contact felt crisper. Felt like maybe, just maybe, I was getting a bit more lag, storing up a bit more energy. Didn’t feel like I was swinging harder, but the ball seemed to go a bit further on those good ones.
Spent about an hour in total, mostly on that one feeling. Wrists feel a bit tired now, actually. Guess it’s using muscles in a way they’re not used to.
So yeah, that was the session. Not a magic fix, still got a long way to go. But I think I made a tiny bit of headway. Need to keep working on letting it happen naturally rather than trying to manufacture the position. Maybe try it with a different club next time, see if it feels any different. We’ll see.