Tip Tuesday: Power and the Release

“Let the forearms cross to show the ball who’s the boss.” In this installment of our video instruction series, Classic Swing Golf School’s Ted Frick shows you how and why this phrase is key to generating more power as you execute the proper release.

Today I’ve got a power tip on release. I’ve got some alignment sticks. I want you to listen to this sound. I’m going to do this right-handed. I’m creating a whoosh, or a whip. Then I’m doing it left-handed. Alright, you’ve got to train both hands and arms. It’s actually good to do it with these alignment sticks because you get the feedback with the sound. Now, let’s talk about release with a golf club.

Release is a transfer of energy. In the downswing, with the club head trailing the hand, you have this stored energy, but somewhere along the line you have to get rid of it. When you’re thinking about the right hand, and it’s a forearm rotation, they talk about pronation. When you’re talking about the left, and it’s still forearm rotation, it’s more of a supination. High-tech terminology.

I’m going to just do a drill here while I hit a shot right-handed, and then left-handed. In both of those, you’re going to notice how I have to also release my body, and then I’ll finish up with a driver. This is a big power source. Alright, forearm rotation. This is release. And y’all, it’s like throwing a punch. I’ll never forget when I had really quick boxing lessons. It was also for training. My first punch, I’m throwing, I’m just going like this with my punch, and the guy’s saying “Ted, you have to rotate the transfer of the energy.” The same time I was sitting here just with my arm, he’s saying “Well, you have to go ahead and get that hip out of the way.”

So, it was kind of a forearm rotation with the hip action. Very, very similar to the golf swing. Watch how I do this with the left. You have to train them both. This is for the golfers who really have a tendency to slice the golf ball, they have no idea how to release the club.

So this is going to be the supination plus, the rotation of the body. Then when you put both hands on it, it would work like this. I’m going to go ahead and do that with the driver right now. Let’s go ahead and rotate over here, I’m going to bust a little drive and show you this release action. This is pure power.

So taking this to the driver, a major club that everybody looks to for power, you have to go ahead and take the energy, the stored energy in the club, and you have to release it. So, you’ll see some tour players do some practice motions where you actually see … We use this expression at Classic Swing: “Let the forearms cross to show the ball who’s the boss.” At the same time, I’m going to be turning through it. The release of the body and the release of the arms. Here we go with the driver. I’m telling you, I am definitely just like throwing that punch, I am trying to get that left hip out of the way, as I really fire the arms to the hitting area.

Yeah, I left nothing in that punch right there. There was a lot of pop this way, and a tremendous amount of pop that way. So, release is a forearm action through the golf ball, couple it out with that hip action. Hope you enjoy that.