Proper follow through explained

As I have said before, I believe that most players’ faults are created by conceptual faults or misunderstandings about what is right and wrong.  I cannot tell you how often I have looked down the range to see players with talent making themselves worse, not better, working on extreme concepts or concepts which have been proven incorrect.

 

The Wide Follow Through!

I have seen many players of all levels standing on a range, working on making their follow through as wide and as long as possible. What I mean by this is they are trying not to let their wrists re-cock in the follow through, keeping their arms as straight as possible.  This is a good conceptual fault to have if you want to hit the ball shorter with less spin, and like hitting heavy shots!

Why it is wrong.

The correct way to create energy and speed is via the downswing sequence.

1. The hips move first.  They then decelerate to transfer the speed to the shoulders.
2. The shoulders then start moving at speed, which then decelerates to transfer the speed to the arms.
3. The arms then accelerate at speed, with the wrist still fully cocked; finally, the arms will decelerate just before impact to transfer the speed into the club head by un-cocking the wrists quickly in a very short space. 

“Think about cracking a whip.  You accelerate your hand, then decelerate quickly to transfer the energy and speed into the cord”

      4. The speed of the club head is transferred into the ball, achieving maximum distance.

Stage 3 is what I need you to understand,  so I can prove to you that a wide follow through with no re-cocking is a conceptual fault.

“Because the arms have decelerated, the club is travelling much faster than the arms at impact and into the follow through.  This will cause the wrists to re cock after impact” 

“The club must be moving faster than your arms”

What you might be thinking is it does not matter.  It occurs after impact, and the ball has already gone, right?  Well it does not work this way.  If you spend many hours trying to get into a position in the follow through, without knowing it, you will create movements (faults) earlier in the swing to make your desired position possible. Us humans are very clever!

When players have a wide follow through, or practicing trying to create one, the clubhead cannot be travelling faster than the arms.  This is nearly impossible if you have maintained your wrist cocking late into the downswing, and your hips, shoulders and arms are decelerating at the right time.  Common faults with players that are trying not to re-cock the club would be:

1. Early loss of wrist cocking in the downswing.
2. No deceleration of hips and shoulders.

These players always look like they are moving their body very fast, and hitting the ball very hard, but cannot generate any club head speed at impact.  Because the body keeps moving at speed, the energy is never transferred into the club head.

If you are someone who has now realized the error of your ways, and need a corrective exercise, try this:

Exercise – L follow through

Make practice swings and hit shots making a short follow through.  Focus on making an L shape with your right arm and club shaft.  If you do this, you will be decelerating at the right time and re-cocking your wrists.