Perform Better Golf Blog

I have come to the conclusion that the wrists play a critical role in power golf, increasing clubhead speed, and distance. It’s not a very glamorous bodypart, but I do feel this is one of the KEYS to hitting longer golf drives.

Earlier we discussed power golf wrist hinge, and the correct way to do it, and now I want to give you a SIMPLE golf exercise to quickly strengthen your wrists for a powerful impact into that poor golf ball.

Stand erect with your arm at your side hanging long. Hold an 8 iron (I use my weighted golf club) in your hand with the clubhead on the ground. This puts your wrist in the uncocked (unhinged) position. Now, without moving your arm at all, raise the clubhead upward as high as you can, using only your wrist and forearm.

Slowly lower it back down and repeat 15 times. Switch arms and sides, and do 15 with the other arm. If you’re feeling spunky, do a couple of sets each arm. You’ll get a good burn in your forearm muscles.

This movement is identical to the movement of your wrist cock in your golf swing. Doing this simple golf exercise 2-3 times a week, will make a huge difference in your power, with strong wrists through impact.

Long golf drive secrets! Hmmmm???? Is there such a thing? I have learned that if you didn’t already know something, then it in fact is a secret to you. Now I’m not going to say I’m going to tell you anything you haven’t already heard to hit long drives in golf, but I am going to reiterate the key tips you MUST do to maximize your distance with y our golf driver swing.

Lets dispel a huge myth. You don’t have to be like those beasts that enter and win long drive contests. Some of those guys are animals! I mean…6′8″ and weigh 260 pounds, but it’s ALL MUSCLE!

This is not realistic for most of us mere mortals, so given you’re not already the above height and weight, what can you do to maximize YOUR driving distance?

There are a couple of critical things and I want to discuss them right now.

Clubhead Speed

Most of us know that the faster we can swing our driver, the farther the ball will go right? Well, not necessarily if you can’t find the middle of the clubface for solid ball contact. You can swing at 150 mph, but if you hit it off the heel or toe, you’re not going to hit it very far (or find the fairway).

Clubhead speed with solide swing fundamentals is what you want. As you slowly increase your swing speed, you must also maintain or improve your swing technique. Make sense?

How do you increase clubhead speed?

There are several choices you have to increase your swing speed. You can embark on a strength and flexibility program like my power training system; you can swing a weighted golf club at higher speeds, but again under control; or, work on your golf swing mechanics to enhance solid ball/clubface contact, then introduce speed to this new swing.

Work On Your Lag!

One way to quickly increase your swing speed at impact is to work on maintaining your wrist cock late into your swing. It is nearly impossible to do, but training like this will engrain in you to hold that wrist hinge and not release it too early.

Just think of Sergio Garcia or even Camillo Villegas. They both have tremendous wrist cock just before impact. This imparts a tremendous amount of speed through the ball, as the club and head act like a whip this late in the downswing. You want that WHIP through the ball!

Stay Behind The Ball

This is something I work on all the time. When you see some of the longest hitters of the golf ball just beyond impact, they have FULL extension with BOTH arms. The ONLY way to achieve this is to rotate on your downswing, while staying back. This is very hard to do, as the feeling of moving laterally into the ball feels more powerful but it’s NOT!

That’s why it’s so important to move the ball WAY FORWARD in your stance when you want to hit it long. You will achieve this amazing full extension and be pounding the ball.

To achieve maximum power in your golf game, you must be able to fully hinge, unhinge and rehinge your wrists. A lot of clubhead speed comes from this wrist action, especially through impact. Hingeing (or wrist cock) your wrists, creates lag. Lag enhances power. Power means LONGER drives!

When I think of lag from the wrists, I think of Sergio Garcia. He has the most impressive, nearly impossible wrist lag (delayed wrist cock) on tour. It’s absolutely amazing to see him with his hands near impact, and his wrists still fully cocked.

One of the LONGEST hitters on the PGA Tour is JB Holmes. He is another perfect example of gaining maximum power through your wrists.

Hinging and unhinging (rehingeing) the wrists is ONE motion. This is where golfers get it wrong!

I took a quick picture(s) to show you the very SIMPLE motion of the proper wrist hinge.

I’m hinging, the second picture is unhingeing, and the third is rehingeing. That’s it!

Another common term for wrist hinge is wrist cock. Look how my wrist is bending only ONE way! This is SO important. It doesn’t break side-to-side, only up and down. Combine the turning of the shoulders, dropping of the arms, and this hinge, unhing and rehinge of the wrists at the right time, and you’ve got a TON of POWER!

This is bittersweet!

If you haven’t been following along, I have been blessed to have worked with Morrie Puzzi. A very frustrated golfer who was willing to do whatever it took to see results and get more enjoyment out of his game.

We began a 10 week journey to transform his golf swing and add as many yards to his drives as we could. Along the way we had sickness, holidays and other events, but the journey continued on and Morrie did not let any of these bumps in the road deter him from his goal.

I’m happy to say, Morrie succeeded in many ways!

Morrie my friend, you were a true pleasure to work with, and as I said on the video, we’re not done yet.

If you are interested in doing the very same simple golf swing exercises, stretches and programs Morrie did, I encourage you to check out our Effortless Golf Training System.