“The Straight String”

In the golf swing, clubhead speed is generated through the law of centrifugal force. Your first science teacher tied a string around a rock and spun the rock in his or her fingers. The string formed the radius of a circle and the teacher showed you te radius had to remain constant to maintain the rock’s orbit.

Make the clubhead your “rock”, the shaft and your left arm are the “string.” To achieve maximum centrifugal force (clubhead speed) you must keep the shaft and left arm and wrists STRAIGHT, meaning that all of the teaching encouraging you to bend, “break”, cock, or hinge your wrists in the backswing might just lead you to more swing problems, or even wrist injuries. Yes, you can allow the pull of the club to stretch and flex the muscles of the arm at the joints, but DON’T bend the elbow and wrist. 

If you bend or “break” any part of your arm or wrist, you’ll come under the “Number One Domino Principle” that states when the first domino falls, the rest fall. Thus, if the left wrist breaks, the entire swing begins to break down. You MUST do everything possible to keep the left wrist flat and relatively straight throughout the swing. This keeps the clubhead in a wide and constant arc which will return it squarely to the ball. You’ll feel like you have shortened your backswing. That’s good. At the top of your backswing you thumbs will be perpendicular (90-degrees) to the ground and you’ll only doing a three-quarter turn. Follow that “three-quarter, thumbs-up rule” and you’ll achieve maximum clubhead speed, consistency in your ball striking and accuracy.