How do you cock your wrists?

[Carolina Golfer]

How do you cock your wrists? I am sure some will say it just happens. I notice a difference, a better turn when I cock with my left wrist, I am a rightie.

 

[Stryker]

I am working on more today of a flattening(best way I can describe it) at the top then what I would call a cocking of the wrists. It is not easy at all and feels like the club face is wide open but it is not. Basically trying to get more shallow kinda of like DJ in this photo but I don’t have quite as much flexion as he does:

 

[McLovin]

I am working on more today of a flattening(best way I can describe it) at the top then what I would call a cocking of the wrists. It is not easy at all and feels like the club face is wide open but it is not. Basically trying to get more shallow kinda of like DJ in this photo but I don’t have quite as much flexion as he does:

View attachment 9002125

that's the exact opposite of wide open. it's dead shut. and it requires a lot of athleticism and flexibility to get through the ball with a zero-zero impact. for most of us, if we were in such a shut position at the top, we wouldn't be able to rotate fast enough to square the face to path, likely the face would be shut, and we'd hit low spin low hooks. it's a fantastic position to be in for people with quick hips and good flexibility. i just don't think that's a position the majority of golfers can succeed with. curious to hear what @TrueMotionMatt thinks.

 

[WLG1952]

My wrist cock is just a byproduct of my one piece take away. Nothing special about it. It is what it is.

I do try to keep my left wrist level as much as possible at the top. If I see some different ball flights than what Im use to, I will check it..

 

[tahoebum]

that's the exact opposite of wide open. It's dead shut. And it requires a lot of athleticism and flexibility to get through the ball with a zero-zero impact. For most of us, if we were in such a shut position at the top, we wouldn't be able to rotate fast enough to square the face to path, likely the face would be shut, and we'd hit low spin low hooks. it's a fantastic position to be in for people with quick hips and good flexibility. I just don't think that's a position the majority of golfers can succeed with. curious to hear what @TrueMotionMatt thinks.

Agree that most golfers do not have the build and are not flexible/talented/fit enough to emulate DJ's super shut face position at the top or other parts of his swing . I've always played with a neutral wrist/square face at the top as it what came naturally for me.

 

[~QQ~]

I don't think about my left wrist. I think about my right wrist. Holding a tray at the top, palm facing back on the downswing and then facing down as I go through the ball. All with a loose right grip. Changed my game.

 

[Stryker]

that's the exact opposite of wide open. it's dead shut. and it requires a lot of athleticism and flexibility to get through the ball with a zero-zero impact. for most of us, if we were in such a shut position at the top, we wouldn't be able to rotate fast enough to square the face to path, likely the face would be shut, and we'd hit low spin low hooks. it's a fantastic position to be in for people with quick hips and good flexibility. i just don't think that's a position the majority of golfers can succeed with. curious to hear what @TrueMotionMatt thinks.

Oh you are correct it is shut but for some reason it doesn’t feel that way to me. Probably just because it is new. I can get pretty close to that position and for a big guy I am fast in the hips. My struggle right now with it is getting it dropped in the slot to come from the inside. I am typically delivering a bit more square so starting straight at the flag and drawing left of the green

 

[BigMac]

Oh you are correct it is shut but for some reason it doesn’t feel that way to me. Probably just because it is new. I can get pretty close to that position and for a big guy I am fast in the hips. My struggle right now with it is getting it dropped in the slot to come from the inside. I am typically delivering a bit more square so starting straight at the flag and drawing left of the green

I've experimented with that DJ-type move, it just makes me hit pulls, nasty hooks and/or worm burners. I don't even think about my wrists when I swing, I just try to get my grip right, get my swing right and let them do what they do.

 

[SunnyWalker]

I work having enough freedom in my wrists to allow them to cock or set somewhere in the transition from back swing to down swing.

I think of the club head as an ax and i'm going to chop(yes chop) into a tree trunk. Some golfers like to think of a cracking the whip type action.

Anyway, is more of an allowing to cock type thing than actually forcing it

 

[Stryker]

I've experimented with that DJ-type move, it just makes me hit pulls, nasty hooks and/or worm burners. I don't even think about my wrists when I swing, I just try to get my grip right, get my swing right and let them do what they do.

It also helps shallow out the club which is a large reason I am working on it. I am not typically hitting hooks and never worm burners. At least not with irons. I am just really transitioning to a similar approach with driver in the last couple days and I tend to hit pulls right now but again I am sure that is coming from not getting down in the slot well.

 

[blugold]

Wrist cock is best felt by standing holding a club and lifting to the toe of the club to your nose. That's wrist cock.

 

[RecGolfer]

I don't really think about it. The hinging comes naturally. The important thing is that the left wrist hinges vertically and the right wrist hinges horizontally.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

that's the exact opposite of wide open. it's dead shut. and it requires a lot of athleticism and flexibility to get through the ball with a zero-zero impact. for most of us, if we were in such a shut position at the top, we wouldn't be able to rotate fast enough to square the face to path, likely the face would be shut, and we'd hit low spin low hooks. it's a fantastic position to be in for people with quick hips and good flexibility. i just don't think that's a position the majority of golfers can succeed with. curious to hear what @TrueMotionMatt thinks.

Quick hips isn’t how I’d explain it. Nor is how fast you move them.

I can get depth, have a face shut like DJ (I have a very shut face) and go slow and hit it later straight. Don’t need to move fast to hit it straight.

If you can use the ground and pivot properly with separation, there is no batter way to play than with a shut face. Issues come up when the face doesn’t match speed or depth.

Being shut at the top like DJ aides rotation or you’ll pull the ball. I’d much rather have someone who has a shut face than the opposite because all I gotta do is get their pivot down working, teach them how to shallow and they just turn. Simple.

What we don’t want to copy from DJ is to be on our toes at setup because that starts a chain of problems that most people can’t recover from.

Or shut face is not ideal for juniors or folks with little speed where we don’t want that shut face because if they get impact where we want them they won’t get the ball above their ankles.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

It also helps shallow out the club which is a large reason I am working on it. I am not typically hitting hooks and never worm burners. At least not with irons. I am just really transitioning to a similar approach with driver in the last couple days and I tend to hit pulls right now but again I am sure that is coming from not getting down in the slot well.

There are two ways to shallow it out and they are typically learned in order...once the goes off when you learn #1 then you can move to shallowing version #2

1st is Manually (many versions) And the 2nd way is a Natural shallowing with very little effort.

 

[Templet0n]

I honestly don’t even think about it. I just let it happen..

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

I honestly don’t even think about it. I just let it happen..

Me either...

 

[WMac19]

I honestly don’t even think about it. I just let it happen..

I thought that was me too. Until a few years back when a regular playing partner mentioned that I'll often cock my wrists from takeaway.

He said that it was most of the time but not always and he swore that I played better when it wasn't as soon.

I still forget yet every time (not often) that I can delay my wrist hinge from beyond takeaway, I strike the ball really, really well that day.

 

[razaar]

I take it back with the left palm up and right palm down and try to emulate left palm up and right palm square through impact. There is less than 90 degrees of clubface rotation in between and minimal clubface rotation through impact.
I marry this to a pivot and turn body action which powers the swing. Some swing gurus refer to this as a shut to open method of using the wrists others refer to it as a square to square method. Regardless of what they call it, it's objective is to limit clubface rotation to 90* and under.

 

[Scorp]

I have no idea. When I try to think about it and figure out what my wrists are doing my golf swing goes pretty badly until I stop thinking about it again.

 

[DataDude]

At the top when the club head weight pulls down into my right hand (not a great descriptor but that's how it feels) I try to start the down swing after there. It's more a product of the swing than something I am trying to do. My effort in it involves not starting the transition too early which causes me to come over the top and early release. Kind of a let it load feeling.

 

[WILDTHING]

I am working on more today of a flattening(best way I can describe it) at the top then what I would call a cocking of the wrists. It is not easy at all and feels like the club face is wide open but it is not. Basically trying to get more shallow kinda of like DJ in this photo but I don’t have quite as much flexion as he does:

View attachment 9002125

You are actually correct when you say it feels that the clubface is open, but that happens only near impact .

When you flex (not cock) your lead wrist like DJ while it's in radial deviation (ie. 90 degree angle between clubshaft and lead arm), it rotates the clubface anti-clockwise from our view of DJ as seen in the above image.

People say that's a closed clubface but my question is 'relative to what'? Is it closed relative to the club path? But that doesn't make sense because the shaft is actually more aligned with the club path like the DJ image below (see yellow line). Flexing the wrist at this point doesn't mean the clubface will be closed to clubhead path because the 'heal-toe' is in a different alignment compared to when the shaft is orientated perpendicular to the clubhead path approaching impact.




If you retain that flexed lead wrist while it moves from radial deviation to ulnar deviation a few feet from impact, the clubshaft gets angled back (ie. your hands are ahead of the clubhead and you've developed forward shaft lean) but the clubface also starts approaching the ball from a more inside path (especially if you have a strong left hand grip) which 'opens' the clubface relative to the ball-target line.

Hope this makes sense because its really difficult to explain in words.