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By Dave Smallwood

Greater Club Head Lag Means Greater Distance

It is likely that 98 % of all golfers have no idea what the title to this article means. Regardless all are very aware that they would like greater distance.

Venturing forward from my last articles we will move along our progression to achieving the distance increases we are all longing for. In previous articles we have covered grip, posture, wrist cock produced by passive hand and we will now continue on with the loading elements to the golf swing.

In my instruction sessions one of my first questions is always what is your dominant hand? This question usually never requires an answer because after watching a player swing the answer is always clear to the trained eye. Everyone knows the answer to this question, but I am amazed that most don’t know what dominant side is there during the golf swing. I am further amazed that a lot of students who still can’t figure it out even after the make a swing and try to determine it out for themselves.

Truthfully there are only four options.

1) A player can initiate the backswing from the right side and return the club to impact from the right side.

2) They can also initiate the backswing with the left side and return it with the left.

3) and 4) The last two are left side, right side and right side, left side!

Knowing this, as an instructor I try to eliminate bad options. Unfortunately most players, regardless of which side initiates the backswing, tend to initiate the downswing with the side farthest from the target.

This is usually the case because this also tends to be their dominant hand and their brain sends the signal to create power from their dominant hand. WELL YOUR BRAIN IS WRONG!

What the brain is unaware of is that being passive and allowing the mass of the head of the club to create its own power will allow more power for the player than trying to force the club to move faster by swinging faster.

With passive hands we can create club head lag. I have now officially lost all the readers who want to hit the ball instead of swinging the club, but lag is translates into the power for which they are striving.

The golf swing is a big muscle rotation around a fixed point on a tilted flex angle with a desired alignment. No where in that in that description would someone read into it that it was a manipulated fast pace movement of the hands.

There are plenty of instructors that teach a right side dominant swing and plenty who believe in a neutral even-balanced swing from front side to back side.

I am a strong advocate of a left side dominant swing and for the

following reasons. With the front side initiating the backswing, the player has a greater ability to create a rotation from the big muscles, namely the shoulder and hips. This will create the desired passive hand that in turn creates a natural wrist cock. This wrist cock is vital in the club staying on plane and on achieving the proper club head lag. Take a look at the photo of Victor Ciesielski (right) and you’ll get a great sense of how this is supposed to look.

This lag is then maintained by the front side initiating the downswing that allows for a shallower angle to the return plane and will result in the club returning from the inside with a descending blow to create a square and solid impact position. This impact position is at maximum club head speed generated from the mass of the club reaching its highest speed through its downward thrust. The mass is then allowed to passively accelerate at a greater speed than the hands which allows the passive power and the club to square at impact.