I dramatically changed my release (Video)

[NikeGolferTX]

I made a change to my release that made a massive and positive impact. It happened by accident and a lightbulb went off. Does anything look off in my swing?

 

I’m not even sure exactly what changed other than my right arm and wrist feels heavily involved from P5 into impact. It feels like I’m moving my right arm counter clockwise and punching it toward the target. I have no idea what actually changed in biomechanically. The increase in control and strike is significant. Even my torso rotation feels different.

 

 

This is my swing before:

 

 

Im not loving my takeaway or lack of depth at P4. Any tips or suggestions is appreciated!

Edited June 9 by NikeGolferTX

[MK7Golf21]

to me, looks like way too much right tilt/secondary right tilt in the old swing. New one a little hard to tell but seems better in that one.

Edited June 9 by MK7Golf21

[RickyBubbs]

First glance: You’re setting your wrists sooner in the new swing and your p4 position is better. Giving you lower hands but a high club head. Old swing depth and probably height (camera angle changed) had issues. The relationship between your hands and clubface are better in the downswing and often that makes the body work correctly so you don’t need excessive side bend to assist in getting the shaft and club head on the same plane through impact. Your old shot looked fat vs the new one which was hit cleanly. Too many golfers think their hands need to be high and far behind them and that’s just absolutely wrong. 

[NikeGolferTX]

2 hours ago, MK7Golf21 said:

to me, looks like way too much right tilt/secondary right tilt in the old swing. New one a little hard to tell but seems better in that one.

Yep I’ve always struggled with excessive side bend, especially from the L spine. Shoulders feel much flatter now.

[NikeGolferTX]

1 hour ago, RickyBubbs said:

First glance: You’re setting your wrists sooner in the new swing and your p4 position is better. Giving you lower hands but a high club head. Old swing depth and probably height (camera angle changed) had issues. The relationship between your hands and clubface are better in the downswing and often that makes the body work correctly so you don’t need excessive side bend to assist in getting the shaft and club head on the same plane through impact. Your old shot looked fat vs the new one which was hit cleanly. Too many golfers think their hands need to be high and far behind them and that’s just absolutely wrong. 

Thanks, in my old swing I felt like I was dragging the club with my lead arm. The new one feels I’m pushing my right arm through really hard. The clubhead is driving downward with more force and faster. I can feel the lead side of my torso almost moving behind me post impact much more quickly. 
 

I do worry that I’m not moving my lower and upper body correctly because I’m so square to the target line at impact. I would love to be able to see my backside and chest more open at impact. I do appear to have a lack of hip flexion.

Edited June 9 by NikeGolferTX

[MK7Golf21]

41 minutes ago, NikeGolferTX said:

Yep I’ve always struggled with excessive side bend, especially from the L spine. Shoulders feel much flatter now.

 

that's good, it's the reason other poster said it looked like you hit it fat. You had so much secondary tilt that it's too shallow AoA. On face on look for lead shoulder, hip, knee and angle to all line up. I'd bet your lead shoulder/upper body was hanging back in old swing.

[MK7Golf21]

example, it will really help your swing

 

Rory with driver even does it

 

 

With iron he is even a little more forward with his lead shoulder which is even better

 

[NikeGolferTX]

7 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

example, it will really help your swing

 

Rory with driver even does it

 

 

With iron he is even a little more forward with his lead shoulder which is even better

 

Makes sense. I’m betting I’m not rotating into my lead side enough because I’ve been hanging back. I probably need to feel like my torso is moving laterally and stacking up over my lead leg.

Here’s my old swing with driver face on. I have a ridiculous amount of shaft lean and side bend:

 

Edited June 9 by NikeGolferTX

[MK7Golf21]

1 minute ago, NikeGolferTX said:

Makes sense. I’m betting I’m not rotating into my lead side enough because I’ve been hanging back.

Here’s my old swing with driver face on. I have a ridiculous amount of shaft lean and side bend:

 

 

 

lol, uh yea dude. I'd work on that.....

 

 

[NikeGolferTX]

3 minutes ago, MK7Golf21 said:

 

 

lol, uh yea dude. I'd work on that.....

 

 

Haha yeah…

 

I’ll troubleshoot it and report back. I appreciate the advice 

[slytown]

Pretty good swing in both. You have a OTT FTI type pattern, which is fine. The difference to me is more cover on the ball in the second video. Yes, you have less side bend because you are rotating earlier, which means you can exit left better instead of dropping the right shoulder.

[NikeGolferTX]

3 hours ago, slytown said:

Pretty good swing in both. You have a OTT FTI type pattern, which is fine. The difference to me is more cover on the ball in the second video. Yes, you have less side bend because you are rotating earlier, which means you can exit left better instead of dropping the right shoulder.

Yep I like to keep the arms in front of my body which produces more of a OTT FTI pattern. Im not a fan of trying to lower the arms or shoot them down and come from the inside: it doesn’t feel athletic.

 

I think I need to dramatically change how my torso and T Spine moves and get it forward and instead of letting it hang back. Kind of like this:

 

 

[RickyBubbs]

3 hours ago, NikeGolferTX said:

 

I think I need to dramatically change how my torso and T Spine moves and get it forward and instead of letting it hang back

Why are you hanging back so much?

[NikeGolferTX]

21 minutes ago, RickyBubbs said:

Why are you hanging back so much?

In order to move my hands more toward the left side of my body.
 

Its a matchup, but it’s not optimal.

Edited June 10 by NikeGolferTX

[iacas]

25 minutes ago, NikeGolferTX said:

In order to move my hands more toward the left side of my body.

 

Why? You don't hit the ball when your hands are on the left side of your body (if you're a righty).

 

Maybe slightly so with a putter. Not non-putter on a full swing.

[NikeGolferTX]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

 

Why? You don't hit the ball when your hands are on the left side of your body (if you're a righty).

 

Maybe slightly so with a putter. Not non-putter on a full swing.

Yes they stay on the right side of the body, 100%. I misspoke. The arms are basically supposed to lower.

 

The side bend is like a shallowing move that helps get the club on plane. If rotate my shoulders more level then I’m going to come severely out to in if my hands are getting too far out.

 

I’m technically probably lowering my arms earlier and faster in my new swing and that’s why I have a little less side bend. But I’m also not used to this pattern and have a tendency to still want to bend too much, so I need to get my torso more lateral or on the lead side as a feel. I probably also need to get my hands down faster.

 

This is my goal. I don’t want square shoulders and hips at impact:

Edited June 10 by NikeGolferTX

[slytown]

14 hours ago, NikeGolferTX said:

Yes they stay on the right side of the body, 100%. I misspoke. The arms are basically supposed to lower.

 

The side bend is like a shallowing move that helps get the club on plane. If rotate my shoulders more level then I’m going to come severely out to in if my hands are getting too far out.

 

I’m technically probably lowering my arms earlier and faster in my new swing and that’s why I have a little less side bend. But I’m also not used to this pattern and have a tendency to still want to bend too much, so I need to get my torso more lateral or on the lead side as a feel. I probably also need to get my hands down faster.

 

This is my goal. I don’t want square shoulders and hips at impact:

 

That's an illusion though. No good player just pins the arms to the side nor drops the arms to their side in the downswing. They move the arms out in front of their body and then the body moves into the arms at impact.

 

If you are sliding too much, then the elite golf schools video could help, but you NEVER want to stay on your trail side. You may want to feel that with driver because the upper body needs to tilt to get the ball to launch more.

 

Dropping the arms and extending up through the ball can work. Lots of pros do it. But I prefer your second swing which covers the ball more and requires less face manipulation near impact. As an example, Tiger swung worse when he worked with Hank Haney trying to drop his hands.

 

 

[RickyBubbs]

Chasing a position from a picture of someone else's swing is the fastest way to wreck a golf swing that I know of. You can find pictures of Snead where he doesn't look so "open" at impact. We have a bad camera angle and zero idea of what he was trying to do with that shot so judging position isn't wise. Side bend happens because the lower body moves correctly, and the wrists are rotating properly in transition. It's not a forced position. Lateral shift is more diagonal (down and left into the lead leg) than just lateral (left leg flexs more).

Video footage is just one piece of the toolkit. Ball flight, student expectations, time for practice, force plates, more high stuff (hack motion), etc. all contributes to an understanding of what needs to be "fixed" and how. 

[NikeGolferTX]

2 hours ago, slytown said:

 

That's an illusion though. No good player just pins the arms to the side nor drops the arms to their side in the downswing. They move the arms out in front of their body and then the body moves into the arms at impact.

 

If you are sliding too much, then the elite golf schools video could help, but you NEVER want to stay on your trail side. You may want to feel that with driver because the upper body needs to tilt to get the ball to launch more.

 

Dropping the arms and extending up through the ball can work. Lots of pros do it. But I prefer your second swing which covers the ball more and requires less face manipulation near impact. As an example, Tiger swung worse when he worked with Hank Haney trying to drop his hands.

 

 

Yep I try to keep my hands/arms in front of the area of my trail shoulder and right pectoral and never adduct the lead arm across the chest. I was taught early on to just raise my arms up and rotate the torso to complete the backswing instead of trying to get the hands to the right side of my shoulder.
 

I try to max out pressure on the trail side by P2 and then already have the pressure moving to the lead side coming into P4.

 

I don’t want to drop my hands lower, I just want to get them lower faster. That way I can pivot without having to manipulate the shaft with excessive side bend to get them low enough later in the downswing. It might be the case that my rotation is getting locked up from side bend.

Edited June 11 by NikeGolferTX

[NikeGolferTX]

2 hours ago, RickyBubbs said:

Chasing a position from a picture of someone else's swing is the fastest way to wreck a golf swing that I know of. You can find pictures of Snead where he doesn't look so "open" at impact. We have a bad camera angle and zero idea of what he was trying to do with that shot so judging position isn't wise. Side bend happens because the lower body moves correctly, and the wrists are rotating properly in transition. It's not a forced position. Lateral shift is more diagonal (down and left into the lead leg) than just lateral (left leg flexs more).

Video footage is just one piece of the toolkit. Ball flight, student expectations, time for practice, force plates, more high stuff (hack motion), etc. all contributes to an understanding of what needs to be "fixed" and how. 

True and body types also play a role in how a swing pattern works and looks. I’m 6 feet with short legs and a long torso and long arms.

[Mono]

19 hours ago, NikeGolferTX said:

Yes they stay on the right side of the body, 100%. I misspoke. The arms are basically supposed to lower.

 

The side bend is like a shallowing move that helps get the club on plane. If rotate my shoulders more level then I’m going to come severely out to in if my hands are getting too far out.

 

I’m technically probably lowering my arms earlier and faster in my new swing and that’s why I have a little less side bend. But I’m also not used to this pattern and have a tendency to still want to bend too much, so I need to get my torso more lateral or on the lead side as a feel. I probably also need to get my hands down faster.

 

This is my goal. I don’t want square shoulders and hips at impact:

 

 

i think the shoulders here are probably pretty close to square - even if the chest is more open - you can still see the left arm over the right

 

[BladesOShanter]

On 6/11/2025 at 8:44 AM, slytown said:

They move the arms out in front of their body and then the body moves into the arms at impact.

Bingo. I can't do it, after 45 years of trying, but this is one great description for what needs to be happening....

[slytown]

 

On 6/11/2025 at 11:24 AM, NikeGolferTX said:

Yep I try to keep my hands/arms in front of the area of my trail shoulder and right pectoral and never adduct the lead arm across the chest. I was taught early on to just raise my arms up and rotate the torso to complete the backswing instead of trying to get the hands to the right side of my shoulder.
 

I try to max out pressure on the trail side by P2 and then already have the pressure moving to the lead side coming into P4.

 

I don’t want to drop my hands lower, I just want to get them lower faster. That way I can pivot without having to manipulate the shaft with excessive side bend to get them low enough later in the downswing. It might be the case that my rotation is getting locked up from side bend.

 

 

You can try dropping the hands. I did it for a long time with some success, but I've moved to a more dynamic, body driven swing. I use my pivot and pelvic drop to get the hands down, then just turn. I don't force my arms and hands down anymore.

 

In reality, if you have a compact backswing, you don't need to drop your hands that much. WIth right side bend and extension, the hands actually dont return exactly where they were at set up. The hands should be closer to your right thigh, not near your left thigh like they were at set up.

 

If you want to practice the hands dropping earlier, you can do the Justin Rose drill or the pump drill.