Do you intentionally roll your hands?

[MCDavis]

bames, if you ever saw me play, you'd know I am cognizant of NOTHING about my swing and there is NOTHING intentional about my game!

Great question, btw.

[Adam Pettman]

If I did intentionally roll my hands I can only imagine the ball would go WAY left.

[goatster]

a couple yrs ago that used to be one of my swing thoughts.when i was fighting a huge slice.now the only time i think about it is when i am slicing the ball all day.

[figjam]

Originally Posted by eli_yates

a guy by the name of aj bonar actually says that the best way to hit the ball and get more distance is to roll your wrists. but you have to time it perfectly... he says lay the club face open until you find the position that works best for you and rotate your wrists as soon as you get to impact... hes pointed out numerous pros that do this without even knowing they do it... but they are pros... i tried it and had some good results but the timing thing throws me off... its basically just a draw shot but you could theoritically add 15 mph of clubhead speed. some teaching pros say its a bad idea but aj bonar actually seems like a pretty credible source... he used to coach at wake forest and worked at a taylor made technology place of some sort... he has his own school and is apparently pretty successful they did an article on him in a recent golf digest or golf magazine i forget which one specifically... but either way... i recommend just trying it... the guy that wrote the article actually pointed out that the first few shots will be ian baker finchian style hooks but once you work the timing out... you should be blasting the ball fairly far at least further than you were... but its definitely a theory... maybe a good one maybe a bad one... seems legit to me..

The biggest problem with this method is actually pointed out by the propnent: You have to tme it perfectly. And it can just as easily miss either way with the same swing, i.e. push/block or pull/hook depending on whether you were too late or too early with the hands. It makes it pretty hard to manage your game if you have no idea which way your misses are going to go. Sergio swings like that (at least used to, not sure if he's changed as you don't see much of him on Sundays these days) and relies on perfect timing to get the clubface square, and went through a horror patch a few years ago when he was hitting push blocks and pull hooks during the same round. If someone like him can't get it right, I don't think it's a good thing for us mortals to try. I'm sure if timed right it will produce extra yards, but at the cost of accuracy.

[dave.]

Everyone rolls the forearms, the confusion here seems to be identfying the wrists as rolling on their own, they don't, the forearms do. Some such as the serious one planers advocate maintaining the face as closed as possible going back, this illiminates the risk of bad timing with the forearms, to a certain degree, but you will find it difficult cherry picking some aspects of the one plane swing at the expense of others.

Fact is some small amount of rotation of the forearms going back and then through is perfectly natural and some pros like Faldo even used it as a swing thought, rotate and set going back. Easiest test is to see where the toe is pointing when the club is horizontal to the ground going back, it should be pointing to the sky, then you know you have rotated the forearms correctly.

[bames]

Thank you for the input. The intellectual aspect of golf - especially what we all think about during a swing - or what we all imagine happens versus what really happens - is very fascinating.

[JasonMacIsaac]

I have over active hands and I battle snap hooks. I don't even try to turn my hands over and they are naturally that fast. I have had an instructor spend an entire lesson trying to slow my hands down. Maybe next year

[JasonMacIsaac]

Originally Posted by dave.

Everyone rolls the forearms, the confusion here seems to be identfying the wrists as rolling on their own, they don't, the forearms do. Some such as the serious one planers advocate maintaining the face as closed as possible going back, this illiminates the risk of bad timing with the forearms, to a certain degree, but you will find it difficult cherry picking some aspects of the one plane swing at the expense of others.

Fact is some small amount of rotation of the forearms going back and then through is perfectly natural and some pros like Faldo even used it as a swing thought, rotate and set going back. Easiest test is to see where the toe is pointing when the club is horizontal to the ground going back, it should be pointing to the sky, then you know you have rotated the forearms correctly.

Actually when the club is horizontal on the way back, the club isn't suppost to be pointing straight up, that would mean the face is wide open. The club face is suppost to be on the same angle as your spine angle..so it looks slightly closed.

[dave.]

Nope, thats classic one planerism, that face would be shut fine for some, not for me. Pointing up is not wide open, its square. Its ok for higher handicapper, and those that follow the full one plane Hardy thing, but for those that don't need to close the face it be hook city. So if you are fighting a hook stop looking at the hands and look at how closed the face is, that may be where your problem is. Its highly unlikely your hands are to fast, its more likely something else is to slow, and/or you have a closed face as you describe.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by dave.

Nope, thats classic one planerism, that face would be shut fine for some, not for me. Pointing up is not wide open, its square. Its ok for higher handicapper, and those that follow the full one plane Hardy thing, but for those that don't need to close the face it be hook city. So if you are fighting a hook stop looking at the hands and look at how closed the face is, that may be where your problem is. Its highly unlikely your hands are to fast, its more likely something else is to slow, and/or you have a closed face as you describe.

I have never really heard this concept in relation to a one or two plane swing, although from most of what I have heard through instruction, when the shaft is parallel to the ground on the back swing, the club face should be slightly closed. I never heard this in relation to being equal to the angle of your spine. Which in the case of a one-plane swing would make the club even more closed likely because the nature of a one plane swing would require more spine angle.

I do recall many of the instructional shows that I have seen specifically drawing reference to this issue. The one that comes most is the playing lessons from the pros, where many directly reference this as being a checkpoint in their swing. It seemed as though Chris Dimarco spent half his show on this concept. Although I am not sure if he uses one or two planes.

[Pa Jayhawk]

Thought I had remembered this from Golf My Way by Nicklaus.

Originally Posted by Jack Nicklaus - Golf My Way

Page 109
"By the time my hands have reached Hip Height....."
Next paragraph
"I have not consciously manipulated the club in any way, but the turning of my hips and shoulders will have caused a slight clockwise rotation of my left wrist and forearm, so that the back of my left hand now faces outward, paralleling the target line. Thus the clubface also "Looks" outward-is between a one- and two-o'clock position as one looks down at it."

... again though, I believe I have read and seen this on countless instructional selections.

[JasonMacIsaac]

Originally Posted by dave.

Nope, thats classic one planerism, that face would be shut fine for some, not for me. Pointing up is not wide open, its square. Its ok for higher handicapper, and those that follow the full one plane Hardy thing, but for those that don't need to close the face it be hook city. So if you are fighting a hook stop looking at the hands and look at how closed the face is, that may be where your problem is. Its highly unlikely your hands are to fast, its more likely something else is to slow, and/or you have a closed face as you describe.

Its not actually closed though, read jack's book or byron nelsons....both have the clubface matching their spine on the way up and it most certainly does not cause a hook. It takes overactive wrists out of it and if anything causes a fade.

[jambalaya]

I've tried to roll the wrists and it just doesn't work for me. I suppose some people could consciously roll the wrist and be successful. For me, thinking much past the set up and initiating the backswing is disaster.

[ol-crank]

The pro got me to roll my hands because I was finishing up with the dreaded chicken wing.(left elbow sticking out) One drill was putting a tee into the butt end of the club and pointing it at the ball on the back swing and after swinging through, pointing the tee at the ball from the front. ( restricting the swing to waist high both ways.) Another thought was to have my watch facing the ground on my follow through.
At the driving range I was very aware of rolling the hands and was pleased with the distance when I was swinging real easy. I am getting the roll as part of my swing without thinking about it but it isn't perfect.

[dave.]

Originally Posted by JasonMacIsaac

Its not actually closed though, read jack's book or byron nelsons....both have the clubface matching their spine on the way up and it most certainly does not cause a hook. It takes overactive wrists out of it and if anything causes a fade.

Yet in Hogan's book it isn't.......................Nicklaus and Hogan played a fade from totally opposing swings, one classid one plane, one classic two plane, you aren't exactly comparing ike for like.